The Kitchen Activist Podcast Episode #96 - Don Adolfo of Alquimia Tequila

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Don Adolfo shares the remarkable journey of Alquimia Tequila, from inheriting his grandfather's ranch in Mexico to pioneering organic agave farming in a region where everyone said it couldn't grow.

• Preserving family legacy by converting conventional farmland to organic agave cultivation despite local skepticism
• Creating an "organic agave protocol" that combines traditional methods with modern organic soil science
• Achieving higher sugar content (brix) in agave through organic methods compared to conventional farms
• Witnessing climate change effects as agave maturation time has decreased from 7-10 years to just 5 years
• Developing sustainable solutions for processing waste products instead of dumping them in rivers
• Addressing industry issues including chemical additives that aren't disclosed on tequila labels
• Aging tequila naturally in oak barrels for extended periods (up to 14 years) for exceptional flavor
• Winning over 75 gold medals and multiple platinum awards in international competitions
• Teaching neighboring farmers organic methods for free with the agreement they'll share knowledge with others
• Demonstrating how to make a "slim margarita" using fresh citrus and organic agave nectar

Find Alquimia Tequila at alquimiatequila.com or ask for it at your local liquor store – it's one of only a handful of certified organic tequilas available.

Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! Click Here to get started.

Join us inside the Kitchen Activist Collective. Learn more here.

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Reach me at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (02:57):
in Digital World using food additives to give it
that multiple coming naturallyfrom the tutorial and the
digital information.
So we're going to go into all ofthat.
You're going to love thisepisode.
You're not going to see D'Hilaand Margarita didn't say more

(03:20):
after this episode.
I hope you'll look forward totequila.
It's called Archemia Tequila.
But let's let's dig in, grabyour cup of coffee, organic
coffee, I hope, and let us learnand grow and dig deeper roots
and together.

(03:57):
Let's go ahead and do thisagain.
All right.
So I'm actually when I startedthinking about this conversation
that we were going to have, Irealized it's been nearly a
decade since we've had theconversation with so many years
have gone by so far.
I know.
And you really opened my eyes toso much behind or what's behind

(04:20):
the bottle of tequila, right?
Like conventional tequilagrowing and the pressures that
they place on rivers in Mexico,on soil health and groundwater
levels.
And that was 10 years ago.
So what I was hopeful is thatduring this conversation we can

(04:42):
revisit some of those issuesthat you brought up and find out
what is going on these days inMexico and within the large
tequila makers.
And also what's happening withorganic tequila overall because
I know back then and it's it'sin the book that you were

(05:03):
amongst one of four.
So I wondered if that's changedtoo.
But before we dive in to all ofthat, I just wanted to give a
little sense of where we I wantto head in this conversation.
But I want to just get so peoplecan hear your voice about why
tequila?
Why is your passion tequila?

SPEAKER_02 (05:26):
Well I'm an optometrist and someone may ask
why what is an optometrist doingmaking tequila but if you think
about it it really makes a lotof sense because it does
absolutely because Mondaythrough Friday I help people to
see better.
And on the weekends I help themto see twice as good.

SPEAKER_00 (05:44):
Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 (05:47):
No the real story is that back in 1993 everything was
going beautifully we were livingwhat we felt was the American
dream.
I had my private practice set upand it was starting to do well
and that was my dream.
My wife Lupe was teaching at thelocal high school we had our two
beautiful little girls they hadjust purchased our dream home

(06:10):
which is the one we're sittingwhich is where we are sitting
today.
Yeah and then we got some newsthat changed our lives
completely we got the news thatbecause my grandparents had
passed away that the ranch wasgoing to be put up for sale in
Mexico our state of Jalisco andthis was the ranch that he and
my grandfather he and my the mygrandfather and grandmother had

(06:32):
purchased in 1941 and theirdream was to work their land
raise their family do good fortheir family and do good things
for the community and they didthat for many years.
But when they passed away nobodywas down there anymore.
So the ranch was actually up forsale and there was a buyer and I
told Lupa about it and she saidno don't sell the ranch.

(06:54):
If you sell the ranch you'regoing to be selling your family
history your place of originyou'll have nothing left.

SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
So tell me what were your grandparents growing on
that land?

SPEAKER_02 (07:03):
So at that time they were growing mainly corn and
raising cattle.
This is a part of the state ofHalis that's on the fringes so
not very conducive to growingother types of crops like row
crops or fruits and otherthings.
Mainly they grew crops thatwould grow with just a natural
rainwater because they reallydidn't have access to

(07:23):
irrigation.
And that was what they did.
They raised they grew corn andthey raised cattle and my
grandmother made cheese and shewas very famous for her cheese
actually.
And interesting thing here whenthey first purchased the ranch
my grandfather took mygrandmother to tour the ranch
and they came upon this naturalspring which was part of the
main reason why my grandfatherwanted to purchase this

(07:45):
particular property.
And he told her as long as thisspring gives us water nobody in
this community will ever lackwater.
And because of the generosity ofyour grandfather to share his
water and that's exactly asaying that goes way back if you
have water and if you share itit'll always you'll always have
water but at certain times ofthe year during the dry season a

(08:06):
lot of wells local wells andsprings would go dry and my
grandfather's spring always gavewater and he always shared it.

SPEAKER_00 (08:14):
So the water is coming from underground right as
the groundwater source.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (08:20):
Because this is desert this area yes semi-arid
and in our particular part ofthe state we have almost our own
microclimate where we haveactually much less rainfall and
more extremes in weatherpatterns.
So whatever whenever you haveaccess to water that is very
valuable.

SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
So he had so your grandparents purchased that land
back in 1941 1941.

SPEAKER_02 (08:46):
And they worked it that did very well with it among
the things that they did for thecommunity my grandfather taught
a lot of the area propertyowners how to make the most out
of their land how to take careof their soil and how to make
their land more productive anduh he also gave a lot of jobs to
the local community and this wasa community where there were no

(09:08):
no jobs no no sources ofemployment so a lot of the
people there at the time wouldcan would emigrate up to the
U.S.
usually most of them in Chicago.

SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
In fact even today there's more people from our
little community living inChicago than there are in our
community which is called Idon't think people realize
either that Chicago has such ahuge Mexican population unless
you live in Chicago.
Yeah unless you've been thereyou go but I that surprised me
when I lived in Chicago that itwas the third largest population

(09:38):
in the US of Mexicans.

SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
Yeah I didn't know that statistic but it definitely
makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 (09:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (09:44):
So a lot of there were a lot of families without a
dad fee a father figure or aprovider also there were no jobs
for the women there they it's avery conservative traditional
society and women normally didnot go out and work unless they
absolutely had to but there wereso many families that without a

(10:05):
father and sometimes even thoughthey were in the U.S.
they would send money when theycould but sometimes they
couldn't and there were a lot offamilies that were having hard
times when my grandfather wouldfind out that a family was
having a hard time he wouldassign them a cow and their duty
then was to milk their cow everyday and that way they would have

(10:26):
fresh milk for their childrenevery day.

SPEAKER_00 (10:29):
And that was just one of the things that he so
what were their names?

SPEAKER_02 (10:34):
My grandfather we call him Papa Avelino and my
grandmother Mammachita andwonderful people I had the great
fortune to be able to spend twoor three summers while I was
growing up with them and justlearned a whole lot and my
grandfather had so much to teachbut he didn't vocalize it.

(10:55):
He taught by example.
Yeah and I used to lovefollowing him around his ranch
and I could barely keep up withhim because he walked so fast
but just watching how he didthings and how he interacted
with people and just as I beganto grow older was finding out
all the things that he did forthe local community and people
still talk about him to thisday.

SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
Wow so he's got quite a legacy but the legacy is
also has is within the work thatyou're doing.

SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
So take us now to night back to 1993 the land goes
for sale is on is for sale andwhat happens so again figured
none of us live down thereanymore it's going to be
inevitable that it's you livewhere where we live in the same
community of Oxnard Californiabut you grew up in Ohio in Ohio
here in Turk County and most ofthe family my dad's siblings

(11:44):
were also in the U.S.
in different parts of the U.S.
And so none of our immediatefamily was down there anymore.
And then Lupa said don't sellthe ranch you're going to be
left without your family legacyyour family history your place
of origin I said what are wegoing to do with it but she
convinced me to convince my dadnot to sell it and he finally

(12:06):
agreed on the condition that wewould do something with it that
we would take over running theranch and do something
productive with it.
And then I came home and toldLupe that he had agreed and I
said what are we going to dowith it now and she says you're
smart you'll figure it out whatam I going to do so I started
flying down there veryfrequently to study what we
could do and I wasn't tooexcited about growing corn.

(12:29):
Cattle was okay but I wasn'texcited about growing corn.
But each time I flew down thereI would fly into Alalajara and
take a ride about a two hourdrive east of there to
Aguanegada a ranch and and eachtime I began to fall in love
with the beautiful rolling hillsof blue green agave and I said
that's what I want on the ranch.

(12:50):
But when I started to tellpeople about it back in
Awanegada everybody told me noit's not going to grow here
because nobody had ever grownagave in this community.
Why not?
We don't have enough rainwaterwhich I mentioned earlier we
have very little topsoilextremes in and weather patterns
extremes and temperatures excuseme and also our soil is not red.

(13:13):
And if you go 20 minutes awaycity of Arandas which is a big
tequila producing their soil isvery deep red and I figure
that's red is probably from ironoxide which is rust.
I said agava may not need thatmuch iron oxide.
So what I did is I took achemistry kit down with me and I
analyzed our soil and comparedit to the soil from Arandas and

(13:36):
I looked at the different uhlevels of the major nutrients
that agave does need and ourswas quite lacking.
So I came up with what we callour organic agave protocol which
is a combination between mygrandfather Papa Bellino's very
natural farming methods and henever allowed artificial toxic

(14:00):
pesticides anything on hisranch.
I followed that as an examplebut I also incorporated the most
modern or the newest in organicsoil science from the US and
from Europe and came up with ourprotocol.
And then when I was ready Iconvinced our foreman who is
still our foreman to this daysince 1993 to work with me and

(14:24):
and he took a big chance becausehe's a very hardworking man in
ways very humble but also veryproud of his work.
And he took a chance by workingwith us because he he took the
risk of being ridiculed bytaking on a project that
everybody expected to fail.

(14:44):
He's actually very loyal to ourfamily because he grew up on our
ranch working for my grandfatherand so that I think is what that
I think is what I convinced himto go ahead and take his chance.
Once we were ready as our trucksof the small plants came in that
we could set out our fields andthen do our planting everybody
told us that we were crazy.

SPEAKER_00 (15:06):
That you were going to fail.

SPEAKER_02 (15:07):
That this wasn't going to work but by then we
were ready to institute ourorganic agave protocol.
And after the first year lo andbehold it was the plants were
thriving they were growing theywere healthy and and year after
year as we increased the uh theorganic activity in the soil we
began to see even better andbetter results with our agave.

SPEAKER_00 (15:29):
So in 1993 is when the idea presented itself of
really a non-idea at that pointjust the idea of keeping the
land of keeping the land andthen it then led to the next
idea which was let's grow agaveand so what year are we at now
when you actually got them inthe ground?

SPEAKER_02 (15:50):
We actually did our first planting in 1993.
Oh so this is happening prettyquickly very quickly and agave
at that time was taking seven toten years to mature.
Seven years later we were readyfor our first harvest in the
year 2000.
And this was an area where agavewas not supposed to grow but we

(16:10):
looked at the results of theharvest and we were not a not
only able to grow agave but weactually equaled the output of a
really good agave farm inArandas and and that was just
the beginning.
As we continued our organicprotocol and continued to
nurture the soil all themicroorganism all the biological

(16:32):
activity in the soil it justbecame more and more able to
sustain agave and this is howmany acres of land the entire
ranch is 125 acres it's a it'snot all devoted to agave most of
it is but we do have a smallsection dedicated to pasture
land for cows kind of an homageto my grandfather.

SPEAKER_00 (16:54):
Yeah yeah and I I want to talk about the cows in a
moment but I that's amazing.
I love that story so much.
I don't think I remember all Ithink you gave me more
information this time than wedid than you did 10 years ago
around the background of thelegacy of the land and also that

(17:14):
timeline.

SPEAKER_02 (17:16):
I hadn't remembered either of how people were
telling you don't do this butyou but you did we did it partly
because I don't know maybe wehad no other choice or we didn't
have many other options that waswhat I wanted to do.
Our first harvest was in theyear 2000 and at that time just
by luck there was a shortage ofagave.

(17:37):
So as the agave as our firstcrop was growing Luis our
foreman and I would askourselves when it comes time to
sell it who are we going to sellit to who's going to come all
the way out here to harvest ouragave to take in to to produce
tequila and we figure we don'tknow but we'll cross that bridge
when we get into it.
Again luckily when the year 2000came around and our crop was

(17:59):
ready to harvest the agaveshortage had hit us probably the
year before which caused theprice of agave to go up but also
became very scarce.
So all of the big tequilaproducers were scrambling to
find agava to keep up with theirproduction prior to that we
weren't even sure if we'd beable to sell it but when this

(18:20):
came around people started tofind out and we were having
people come in from all overArandas all the way also from
the tequila region which isabout three hours away from us
and and bidding on our weactually had a bidding war for
our comment in the first for thefirst harvest harvest and that
very first one we sold toCasadores Tequila Casadores

(18:43):
which at the time was stillowned by the Banuelos family
from this very wonderful family.
But in that bidding war whereDon Julio were some of the other
local distilleries the secondharvest a year later because we
did plant agave every year so wecould have a harvest
subsequently every year.
The second harvest was purchasedby Don Julio.
They jumped ahead of the ballgame and gave us a good bid and

(19:05):
we sold to Don Julio which atthe time was still owned by Don
Julio Gonzalez.
And our third harvest was soldto Herradura tequila which at
the time also was still familyowned by the Romo family.
Yes now so your agave is organicand it has been since the very

(19:29):
beginning but these labels arenot so how did that work so our
organic agave protocol wentcontrary to probably the way
99.99% of other growers orproducers how they grow their
agave and we wanted to again getrid of any use of chemical

(19:50):
fertilizers which are not goodfor the soil eventually they
leave excuse me they leave heavymetals and salt and with
continued use eventually thatland will not produce anymore.
We didn't want to use toxicpesticides because again that's
bad the workers are out thereapplying these toxic pesticides
with practically no noprotection and they're absorbing

(20:13):
they're breathing in all of thisthey spray it on the plants
absorbed by the agave plantitself a lot of that actually
goes in all the way through tothe final product which then is
bad for the consumer with thewith what little rain that we
have all of that gets washeddown into the through the soil
and ends up in the water table.
So it contaminates the waterthat many times is used by the

(20:34):
local population for drinkingfor cooking for washing and that
water is completelycontaminated.
We didn't want to use weedkillers because again that's bad
for the soil it's bad for theplants bad for the environment
and we actually like weeds weedsare our friends.
Rather than killing the weedsbetween the rows of our agaves

(20:55):
we uh we mow the weeds downleaving a stubble which helps us
to conserve any rainwater sothat it doesn't wash away
because it has those rootsystems.
Yeah that helps to absorb thewater and keep it from running
off so what about when farmerssay that the weeds are competing
for minerals and water for fromthe plant that you want to

(21:19):
preserve.
But all of that green materialeventually we incorporate back
into the soil.
And the more of that greenmaterial goes into the soil the
more the organic content of thesoil increases.
And that is what helps the soilto also absorb and preserve the

(21:43):
water.

SPEAKER_00 (21:44):
Because you don't get a lot of rainfall in this
area so you need to conserveevery single drop.

SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
Water is precious every drop we want to make use
of it we want to hold onto it asmuch as we can and another very
interesting thing is that Imentioned earlier that in our
area there's very littletopsoil.
Fortunately for us and thisisn't everywhere in that little
area but on our particular ranchyou a few inches down and you
hit rock but very fortunatelythat rock is a sandstone and

(22:12):
sandstone helps to absorb wateralso and holds it there.
So whatever scant rainfall weget whatever is not immediately
absorbed by the soil itself ifit goes down into the into the
rock layer that rock thatsandstone preserves that
moisture for us so it actuallyextends our growing season
longer than a lot of other areasthat had more of a volcanic type

(22:36):
of rock that does not absorbwater.

SPEAKER_00 (22:38):
Ah so maybe you could talk to us about the the
cattle that you have because Iknow they're also very much part
of this operation.

SPEAKER_02 (22:49):
They are and in fact the cattle actually help us we
call them our organic weedcontrol program.
And whenever we do have a lot ofweeds we do let our cattle go
through and they help us cleanup those fields and in return
for us feeding them thesedelicious weeds they help to
fertilize the soil building asthey're moving around so it's
like this this relationshipright relationship between us

(23:12):
and the cows in the same waythat the agave plants have a
symbiotic relationship with themicroorganisms in the soil.
One helps the other andeverybody benefits.
So back to our harvests by thetime our fourth harvest was
coming around and we could seethe results each year our yields
were increasing in terms of sizeand weight and more importantly

(23:35):
sugar content which is a directprecursor to the quality of your
final product the higher thesugar content usually the more
flavorful and more complex yourflavor profiles the bricks the
bricks we measured in the R I X.
Yeah we measure it in bricksunits just like you do with the
sugar in wine grapes.
So each year our bricks levelwas increasing.

(23:58):
Just to give you an example in areally good harvest in Arandas
if they have a bricksmeasurement of 20 to 25 bricks
units they're really happy withtheir we're averaging the
mid-40s.
And not necessarily just sugarbut the fact that this agave has
created so much sugar it also isan indicator that it has is

(24:21):
brought up a lot of minerals andsubstances from deep within the
soil which also adds to thecomplexity of the final mineral
then are you saying that yourtequila is healthy for you again
we've eliminated all toxicsubstances in the tequila and in

(24:41):
that regard if you have a choiceI would definitely recommend an
organic organically growntequila.
Also in the final product wedon't add any artificial
sweeteners artificial flavorswhat's is that a common piece is
that a common practice verycommon unfortunately is it is
allowed by the tequilaregulatory council.

(25:02):
They allow one percent additivesis what they're called but one
percent doesn't sound like a lotbut when you have a very
concentrated artificialsweetener 1% goes a very long
way so what kinds of foodadditives are added?
Artificial coloring anddifferent types of artificial
sweeteners aspartame andwhatever else they can avail

(25:25):
themselves of I know I I don'tknow what's going on with the
Zoom account.

SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
This is a Zoom account I've always used I don't
know after so this actuallyworks out because nobody else is
on so we don't have to worryabout migrating people over but
I so in four minutes when thisgoes out then I can just we
could just hop on to anotherZoom link.
We'll just take a break and thendo that and then we can just put

(25:54):
them together.
So it actually worked out thatnobody joined us live because I
have no idea why that'shappening.
Yeah no that's good.
So let's go from where you'retalking about the additives
because I didn't realize thatthat they it doesn't surprise
me.

(26:14):
But at the same time and rightnow I'm staring at a bottle like
for the anejole right and lookat that beautiful color that
that gorgeous color so you'resaying when we pick up
oftentimes when we're picking upa bottle of tequila we're
observing the color we want thatcolor it's actually food color
or it's an additive sometimes itis an additive a lot of times it

(26:36):
is and that's why you see such adifference if you compare an
añejo or even an extra añijofrom one particular brand to
another one brand may have or anextra añejo that's much much
darker.

SPEAKER_02 (26:48):
And that could be the result of it either being
aged longer because it doesderive its color from the wood
in the oak barrels but it alsocould be due to additives.
And even though most of ourbottles or most of the bottles
that you see on the shelvesthat's not that are not some of
the more budget friendlytequilas, they will say 100%

(27:12):
they will say 100% again whichours definitely is but it
doesn't take into account thefact that the tequila regulatory
council allows us that 1% ofadditives and I really don't
understand I don't agree withthat or if it is allowed that it
should say something on there.
Exactly it should be disclosedto the consumer the consumer can

(27:35):
then decide I don't care aboutadditives although I'll buy it
anyway or somebody else mightsay no I want my product to be
as pure as possible.

SPEAKER_00 (27:43):
So want to grab the extra anejo so this has been
aged longer.
So the so between these two lookat the color you see that on the
screen I don't know if you cannotice if you could really see
that as much as I can when I'meyeing it but I could see that
the extra aneho is slightlyricher in color.

(28:06):
So this so the anejo was aged inbarrels for how long?

SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
So to be an ajo it has to age for a minimum of one
year up to three years.
And from our very firstproduction we put it away in oak
barrels and every once in awhile we'd open one and taste it
and see how it was doing andthen we'd wait a little bit
longer and each time we liked iteven more and more until finally
we realized it's almost this isalmost three years old.

(28:32):
We better bottle it now or we'renot going to have an añujo
because one month more it wouldhave been extra añako.
So we went ahead and bottled itthis our añu we normally age it
for 35 months in white oakbarrels American white oak
barrels after three years itbecomes extra añeco so we
couldn't bottle our extra añusoon after the three years

(28:57):
because it would have been toosimilar to our añeco and so we
did the same thing we let it golonger and longer and longer and
we kept liking it more and moreuntil it actually aged for six
years.

SPEAKER_00 (29:09):
So twice as long as required to be an extra wow and
the color is coming from the oakbarrels not from the time it's
growing.

SPEAKER_02 (29:19):
Exactly when tequila is first produced it's very
clear like this which is likewater.
Like water as clear as water andthen once we put it into oak
barrels the longer it stays inthe oak the more color it
absorbs from the wood itself butalso the flavor profile becomes
more complex as that interactionwith the oak brings out certain

(29:43):
subtleties in the tequila itselfsuch as it ages you start to
pick up notes of caramel andvanilla and then eventually some
cinnamon and then eventuallysome dark spices and that's
again nothing is added that isall because of the interaction
With the wood, and thatinteraction brings out those
subtleties that are actually inthe tequila itself already.

(30:06):
And that's a result I mentionedearlier about bringing up
minerals and substances fromdeep within the earth.
Those that is what makes up thatcomplexity.

SPEAKER_00 (30:16):
Oh, so there's like this it's like this conversation
that's being had between thesedifferent elements, right?
Good, and then the soil thatcomes through with the liquid,
and they're just like it's justthis magical alchemy that's
happening.

SPEAKER_02 (30:35):
It is uh absolutely it's alchemy, which
interestingly is the name ofArtequila.
And we chose the name alchemiabecause uh for a few reasons.
One is my favorite book in thewhole world is The Alchemist by
Paulo Coelho.
Yeah, and that there is analchemist in his book, but to me
the main theme is follow yourdreams, and alchemia has been

(30:59):
our dream.
Also, ancient alchemists trieddedicated entire lifetimes to
create gold and they nevercould.
And we like to say that wecreated liquid gold.

SPEAKER_00 (31:09):
Yeah, The Alchemist is a book I love too, and I
reread it every so many, everycouple years.
I re reread it this year.
But he talks about your it's notthe follow your dreams.
What is it that he talks aboutin the book with the shepherd?
Where you oh, you have yourperson, your personal, is it

(31:30):
your personal legend?
That's what that's how he framesit, right?
It's your personal legend, andit's not easy, right?
It's not an easy path, and youthere's so many things that test
you along the way before youactually complete this personal
legend.
And do you feel like that's whatthis has been for you?

SPEAKER_02 (31:52):
Absolutely, because just like the main character in
the book, he set out in terms inin search of a treasure, a
treasure, and he went throughthis whole ordeal for years,
probably.
I don't know what the time framewas, and then he went through
all of this just to find outthat his actual treasure was way
back where he began.

(32:13):
Yes, and I I identify with thatvery much because I was actually
born on the ranch that we'refarming today.
Oh, the Gabe.
Came to the US again.
We're we were living what wefelt at the time was the
American dream.
I had the opportunity to go toschool, I had my practice, and

(32:34):
then without planning, thisopportunity came up for us to go
back.
And I went back to my place oforigin, the place that I was
born, and there was my treasure.

SPEAKER_00 (32:46):
Yeah.
Oh, I love that.
But within that, you're still onyour personal legend, it's still
shifting and growing anddeepening.
Do you feel like you've alreadycompleted the legend, or do you
think that it's there's stillmore to reap?

SPEAKER_02 (33:05):
I'm not sure if what we're doing is my personal
legend.
I see it as a continuation ofPapa Benino's dream.
My dad continued it.
And I see ourselves, my familyand I, as the custodians of that
dream.
And it's our duty then to keepcarrying that dream on and keep

(33:26):
doing things according to whathow my grandparents would have
done things.
And granted, we changed thewhole thing by growing agave and
making tequila rather than whathe did.
But I think that that's justpart of that's how we came upon
this way to be able to continuethat dream.
And uh, and hopefully that dreamwill continue.

(33:47):
I'm hoping my daughters willcarry that on and they may take
this whole thing in a completelydifferent path, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 (33:53):
Yeah.
So you stopped selling youragave to other labels and then
made the decision to have yourown label.
That was a big move.

SPEAKER_02 (34:03):
That was a huge move.
When our fourth harvest wascoming around, we realized this
agave is getting too good tosell to other producers because
they may or may not appreciatewhat we do to and how we grow
our agave.

SPEAKER_00 (34:16):
But they're mixing it with other crops.

SPEAKER_02 (34:18):
It would have gotten to this huge production, yeah,
and what we have done with ouragave would have been lost.
So we decided maybe it's timefor us to create our own brand
of tequila and using only ourown agave, and then have a
product that we can use tofurther broadcast the need to

(34:39):
return to more natural farmingmethods.
Because all of this time thatwe've been doing this, that
we've been growing our agave, wewere also teaching other growers
how to do the same and how tomake their own land more
productive, not just in agave inour region, but we also, Luis,
my foreman and I also traveledthroughout several states of
Mexico, including Michoacán, andwe converted a lot of avocado

(35:02):
growers to our methods inGuanajuato, strawberry and
citrus growers, in Sinaloa,tomato growers, and uh we did it
all for free on theunderstanding that once they see
the results in their own crop ontheir own land, that they then
turn around and teach others howto do the same.

SPEAKER_00 (35:20):
To pay it forward.

SPEAKER_02 (35:22):
Exactly, because we can't do a whole lot by
ourselves.
But if we recruit others in thisway, and they recruit others,
then eventually we will reach apoint where we'll really begin
to make a difference as ournumbers grow and as more and
more people commit to do things,which I feel is the right way.

SPEAKER_00 (35:41):
Do you feel like your tequila or the way that
using your organic protocols andbuilding soil health has made
you more climate resilient?
As far as like with more extremeweather that we I would imagine
that thing, or has it hasweather become more extreme

(36:04):
since we've had thisconversation 10 years ago?

SPEAKER_02 (36:07):
It absolutely has because excuse me, when we had
this conversation 10 years ago,agave at that time was taking
seven to ten years to mature.

SPEAKER_01 (36:16):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 (36:16):
And during that time, from that time to now, we
have noticed that agave isbeginning to ripen sooner.
And there's a lot of agavas nowthat are ripening at five years,
which is a huge change in thatshort amount of time.
And I attribute it directly toclimate change because we used
to have very predictable weatherpatterns.

(36:37):
The rains start in May or June.
Uh, they stop in usuallySeptember.
Things start to dry out, then itgets cold, and then it becomes
drier still, and then eventuallythe rains come back again.
Now the rain sometimes will belate by one to two months.
Then sometimes they start andthen they stop, and then it gets

(36:59):
cold, and then they start upagain, and and then sometimes
they last longer into the fallor excuse me.
And then and then it might gethot again, and then it'll get
cold.
It's just totally uh differentweather patterns.
And so agavas are very sensitiveto their surroundings, and when
they experience what they thinkis maybe four or five different

(37:24):
uh seasons, they think thatthey're older than they are.

SPEAKER_00 (37:27):
Because I wonder if that's happening to humans, too.

SPEAKER_02 (37:30):
It could be.
So then they reach a point wherethey think it's time to ripen,
and the the ripening processbegins, and and we have seen
that change, and it's a verypronounced change.

SPEAKER_00 (37:43):
So tequila makers, wouldn't you like that?

SPEAKER_02 (37:47):
Most tequila, let's start with the growers of agave,
they would like that becausethey have they would have more
frequent harvests.
However, in that short amount oftime, agave doesn't grow as much
as it normally would before itbegins the ripening process.
So you actually get a smalleryield.
Uh more frequent yield, butsmaller yield.

SPEAKER_00 (38:08):
So, in some ways, then overall, if you're talking
about, say, a 30-year period,you have less.

SPEAKER_02 (38:17):
At some point you you end up with yes, a smaller
yield.
And again, I believe that ifyou're growing agave for that
shorter amount of time, andagain, based on these chemical
protocols that they use, thequality is not going to be as
good, I feel that it's not goingto be as good.
In our case, uh, we're down toabout six years, and we monitor

(38:40):
very carefully our sugar contentand everything else that is
available to us, and we have notseen a drop-off in either our
sugar production or the healthof our plants, any other factor
that might affect the quality ofour tequila.
We attributed that we attributethat directly to our organic
protocol.

SPEAKER_00 (39:00):
Wow.
So that's a big change.
It's a big change in the 10years.
Yeah.
I wondered if there has been achange when I when we spoke
before, you opened me up to whatwas happening to Mexican rivers
as a result of the distilleriesthat are lined up on the banks

(39:23):
of the river and the illegaldumping of a byproduct, the
vinasa of is how you say avinasa, in directly into the
river.
So I don't if you could talk tous about what that is, what is
the vinasa and what ishappening?
Is if things have improved orhave gotten worse.

SPEAKER_02 (39:45):
So the vinasa, that's one of the byproducts of
tequila production.
And it's a liquid form.
It's what's left over after youdistill the tequila, and it's
and it's a liquid form again,but it contains a lot of a lot
of waste products.
It's actually quite toxicbecause it contains all the
parts of the distillationprocess that we would not bottle

(40:06):
in tequila.
When you distill, you youeliminate the first part of the
distillation and the last partof the distillation because the
first part has too muchmethanol, and the last part has
a lot of waste products that youthat would alter the quality and
the flavor of the tequila.
So we normally just bottle whatwe call the sweet spot in
between.

(40:27):
Now, if you uh want as muchvolume as possible, then you
stretch your limits a bit.
But then I feel that the qualityis not going to be as good
because you're incorporatingparts of the distillation
spectrum that are not as good.

SPEAKER_00 (40:40):
I would imagine the big dogs are doing that, right?

SPEAKER_02 (40:43):
Probably.

SPEAKER_00 (40:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (40:45):
But but that liquid that's left over, first of all,
it's very hot, but also itcontains a lot of waste products
and it's also very high innitrogen.
So that those vinassas or thatliquid should be treated in such
a way that that you eliminatethe toxic the toxicity.
And you ideally you would dosomething productive with what

(41:07):
is left.
But that's an extra cost.
And a lot of the big producers,rather than absorbing that extra
cost and setting up apurification system, they find
it much easier to send a tankertruck out to the local river and
dump it into the river, whichthen kills off all of the life
in that river itself.

(41:27):
And that's illegal.

SPEAKER_00 (41:29):
And that's illegal to get absolutely illegal.

SPEAKER_02 (41:32):
Sometimes they get caught and they're fined,
they're fined and they're putout of business for maybe a week
or so.
But the big distilleries takethat as just another business,
another cost of doing business,rather than as a warning to,
hey, we better do something withthis.
But it's yeah, it contaminatesthe rivers, eventually adds more
to the contamination of thewater table.

(41:53):
And uh or sometimes they dump itout into uh farmland, which
again completely kills any anybiological.

SPEAKER_00 (42:00):
In that form, because it's just so intense
with nitrogen.
And yours would have night thehigh levels of nitrogen too,
your v NASA, but it wouldn'thave the heavy metals that come
from five to seven years ofchemicals, exactly.
Of chemical fertile orfertilizers and also of

(42:22):
pesticides.

SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
Uh so another byproduct of the process is uh
the fibers.
The center core of the agaveplant is very fibrous, and that
sometimes is just dumped out inthe out in the fields.
And if it's that much together,that influences the productivity
of the soil.
So what we what we like to do iswe set out an area where we set

(42:45):
up rows of of the fiber, andthen over that we pour the
venussas and leave it open air.
Uh, usually there's a membraneunderneath to keep it from
flowing down into the water,into the soil.
Eventually, ambient bacteria andthe some of those chemicals,
especially the nitrogen and soforth, that feed the bacteria,

(43:07):
all of that together breaks downthe fibers.
And eventually, this is thislong mountain of fibers with
vinassas poured over them,actually becomes a compost.
And if we have grown our agaveorganically, then there's no
harmful chemicals in there, andthat compost can go directly
back into our fields and not addanything that we don't want any

(43:30):
there any in there because it'sall organic.

SPEAKER_00 (43:33):
So 10 years ago, you were the only one doing that
because it was it's a processthat you invented.
Has anybody has it caught on?

SPEAKER_02 (43:44):
It has caught on somewhat.
It's hard to gauge exactly uhwho is how many are doing it and
to what degree.
Some people do to some producersdo like to uh tell if they're
they're being environmentallyfriendly, but they're the same
ones that sometimes get caughtdoing the opposite.
It's a matter of are you reallycommitted to doing this or is

(44:04):
this just for show?

SPEAKER_00 (44:06):
And how many producers are organic now?

SPEAKER_02 (44:10):
When we spoke 10 years ago, I think there were
four of us.
Of those four, of those originalfour, we're the only ones still
left.
And there's a few others thathave come about recent, more
recently.
Hopefully, they're doing a verycomprehensive organic protocol.
That is our hope.
Now, around our area, we haveconverted a lot of agava growers

(44:34):
to our organic protocols, and alot of them are small
landowners, and we taught themhow to do everything the way we
do.
Sometimes our crew goes out anddoes the work for them, and and
they too took a risk in uh infollowing our lead, but there
was a payoff for them becausewhen it came time to sell their
their crop, the buyers couldtell this crop was a of higher

(44:56):
quality, and so that gave them ahigher price for their crops.
They're very happy about that.
Then after that, the theirneighbor might find out, hey,
how why did this guy get such agood price?
And I don't.
That's because of organics.
And so that kind of gets theball rolling again as we convert
more and more.

SPEAKER_00 (45:15):
How much land do you think you've converted?

SPEAKER_02 (45:18):
Oh, that's that's really hard to say.
I couldn't even begin toestimate.
But uh, I like to think thatwe're making a big dent, big
enough so that it's going to atsome point get really big.

SPEAKER_00 (45:30):
I wonder if that is your personal legend.

SPEAKER_02 (45:34):
That could be.
What's interesting about that isthat we don't always know what
our mission is or what ourlegacy is going to be, except to
do what you do and do it well.
And then somewhere along theline it's gonna it's gonna
become more apparent.

SPEAKER_00 (45:49):
Because going against what is the mainstream
is certainly hard.

SPEAKER_01 (45:55):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (45:55):
It is hard, and you're doing it, and you said
you're the only one who hassurvived of those four, which
makes me sad too, but alsospeaks to your commitment
because it's not that it hasn'tbeen hard.

SPEAKER_02 (46:11):
It hasn't been, first of all, all the criticism
we got originally for doingsomething that wasn't supposed
to be done in that area.
Now, if you look aroundAguanegra, and all the fields
are covered with blue agave, asthe big producers found out that
you can grow agave here.
And uh Forman Luis has actuallygone out to several of them,
introduced himself, and offeredto share what we have learned

(46:34):
with them so that they can alsoproduce good agave in that area.
And he's been shunned by theiragricultural engineers because
they feel that they have been inthe business much longer.
We're newer, what are we goingto teach them?
But eventually they find outthat maybe they should have
listened to us whenever theyharvest their crops and they're

(46:55):
not getting the results thatwe're getting.
And things like that that thathelp us to convince people.
And usually people have to seefor the or experience for
themselves, and then our hope isthat they will learn from that
and make those changesnecessary.

SPEAKER_00 (47:10):
And taste for themselves, because your tequila
continues to win prizes and is ablind test, taste test, right,
around the world.
How many are you at now?
Do you know?

SPEAKER_02 (47:23):
When we first started, we wanted to enter our
art tequila in very well-knowncompetitions.
And there are two the twobiggest and most prestigious
competitions are the SanFrancisco World Spirits
Competition and the ChicagoBeverage Testing Institute.
And right from the get-go, forexample, our first importation
of art tequila was in Decemberof 2007.

(47:47):
By that spring, we had won ourfirst gold medal.

SPEAKER_01 (47:50):
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (47:50):
And then that fall, we uh at the San Francisco World
Spirits Competition.
That fall we won another goldmedal at the Chicago Beverage
Testing Institute.
Ever since then, we have wonmultiple gold medals, sometimes
double gold, sometimes best inclass.
We have won, I think, fourplatinum medals, and uh and I
think we're up to about 75 goldand above medals.

(48:13):
We actually don't count here andthere we'll get a silver medal.
We receive them quite gladly,but we don't add those to our
total.

SPEAKER_00 (48:21):
We're over you're only interested in gold because
this is alchemy, this isalchemia, right?

SPEAKER_02 (48:28):
We want to do we created gold, so that's what and
oh, I mentioned platinum metals.
So our very first production ofArtequila was in 2004, and uh,
we didn't bottle it right awaybecause we wanted to have an
añejo once we started to importour tequila.
After three years, during thattime, we got all the licenses,

(48:50):
all the permits in Mexico andthe U.S., our labels approved in
Mexico and the U.S., everythingthat we needed to do in both
countries.
And finally at three years iswhen we started bottling, which
was 2007.
And then eventually we broughtalong our extra nyco when that
turned six years old.
And and then we just got verybusy doing all of this and

(49:13):
promoting our tequila andeverything else.
And then one day I was down atthe uh at the warehouse at the
distillery, and I remember wehave a number of barrels that we
set aside that aren't openedyet.
And at that time they had beensealed for 14 years.

SPEAKER_00 (49:28):
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (49:30):
And I climbed up and or I had one of the guys climb
up and take a sample for me fromone of the barrels.

SPEAKER_00 (49:35):
Because you didn't know if it was still going to be
good.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 (49:38):
That's a very long time.
Yeah, and normally what happenswith tequila because of the
influence of the oak, after acertain amount of time, we can
what we call over-oak thetequila, where it begins to lose
its agave character and beginsto taste more like a whiskey,
which is very oaky compared tomost tequila's.
And so that was my fear is thatit's not going to be even taste

(50:01):
like tequila anymore.
So we brought down a sample fromone of the barrels and I tasted
it straight out of the barrel,and it was at higher proof.
Uh, we we barrel our tequila ata higher proof or higher alcohol
content than what we when weactually bottle it.
So I tasted it right out of thebarrel, and I was just amazed.

(50:22):
I said, this is spectacular.
And I said, I let's bottle thisjust the way it comes out of the
barrel.
We're not going to bring thisdown to 80 proof.
And it was about it was at 100proof in the barrel.
So let's bottle it right out ofthe barrel, do minimal
filtration.
I want all of this flavor tostay in there and not be diluted
by bringing it down to 80 proof.

(50:44):
And so that was our 14-year-oldextra.

SPEAKER_00 (50:48):
It's like molasses color.

SPEAKER_02 (50:51):
It's immediately it began to win platinum metals.
So in its first four years, itwon four platinum metals.

SPEAKER_00 (50:58):
But how many bottles are do you have of that?
That's probably very so it's uhvery limited.

SPEAKER_02 (51:04):
It's a limited production, it's not our highest
seller because obviously it'sit's at a higher uh higher price
because of the investment of allthe time in the barrels.
Also, during that time we lost alot of product to evaporation,
and usually each year that welose about 10% to evaporation
after 14 years.

(51:25):
That's a lot of tequila thatwe've lost.
What evaporates, we call thatthe angel share.
And we have very happy angels inthat unbessably store.

SPEAKER_00 (51:35):
Is that something that everybody says in the
tequila world, or is thatsomething specific to you?

SPEAKER_02 (51:40):
I can't take credit for making that up.
I only made up the happy angelspart of it, but it is known as
the angel share in general.

SPEAKER_00 (51:50):
Oh, I like that very much.
So I wonder if we should turnthis over to a tequila
margarita, a margaritademonstration.

SPEAKER_02 (51:59):
I think we should do that.
Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 (52:02):
I'm here with Don Adolfo, who is a tequila, he's a
farmer or organic farmer ofagave, and is a tequila maker of
one of only how many tequilasthat are organic?

SPEAKER_02 (52:18):
At this point, there's probably five or six
that are that's all.
That's all but that's actuallyfour or five more than there
were 10 years ago because threeof those, three of those four
are no longer organic.

SPEAKER_00 (52:33):
But you persist, you're an organic agave maker
grower, and also a tequila makerof tequila alquimia, and he's
going to teach us how to make adelicious margarita, delicious
margarita.
But one of the things thatreally surprised me, and not in
a good way, is because I'mlooking at the tequila right now

(52:55):
and I could see all the color,and I hope it comes through.
I don't know if you can seethat, the color of the anejo,
and then this is the extraanejo, and then there's the
extra, super duper, the superduper, which is like molasses.
Can you see that?
The color.
And it turns out that much ofthe color when you buy a

(53:18):
purchase a bottle of tequila isactually food coloring.
When it's because they allow 1%.

SPEAKER_02 (53:25):
1%.
Even though a tequila on thelabel might say 100% agave or
100% puro de agave, the tequilaregulatory council allows us one
percent of additives.
And that might not sound like alot, but when you add in one
percent highly concentratedartificial sweetener, that goes

(53:48):
a very long way.
And they add to that artificialcoloring, artificial flavoring,
artificial vanilla, glycerin,all those things are actually
allowed.
And which, if that's what thelaw states, I guess that's fine.
But we would like we would likeit to be a normal thing for us
to include that on theinformation.

SPEAKER_00 (54:09):
It should be, it absolutely should be on the
label, not something that we asconsumers can ask for.
So we can make a decision.
It's do I want this tequila withall these food additives?
Because at this point there's notransparency, right?
You're giving the it you it'sthe impression that I'm picking
up this bottle and I'm spendingmore for this color, and I'm
actually getting more foodadditives essentially with to

(54:32):
get that color.

SPEAKER_02 (54:32):
Exactly.
And some people it doesn't makea difference for them because
that's what they want to drink,and that's fine, but that's
their decision.
And somebody else might want thepurest product possible, and
then they're going to look forthe one with no additives.

SPEAKER_00 (54:46):
And the reason we're having this conversation right
now is because one, it's EarthWeek, and the what you've been
doing to foster well-being onthe planet is just tremendous,
both for in Mexico with theconversion of many, mentoring
many farmers so that they canconvert without even charging

(55:08):
them, and he's mentoring thesefarmers to convert from their
conventional practices toorganic practices.
So this is a fabulous way for usto toast to the earth with this
margarita that he's going tomake for us today, but also
because we're approaching thebiggest tequila day of the year,

(55:32):
which is cinco de mayo.
So I want you to have enoughtime on so that when you make
the decision of what bottle topull off the shelf or which
margarita to ask for, or tostart asking for organic tequila
in your margaritas when you goto bars.

(55:53):
Because that's what I doactually every time.
I ask for what is your whatorganic do you have?
And oftentimes there's none.
But if they hear us asking forus as consumers, if they hear us
like then those bartenderseventually start telling the
owners, hey, people keep askingfor organic tequila, or people

(56:14):
keep asking for tequilaalquimia, because I'll ask
specifically for yours too.
So those things matter becausewe can merge our influence,
absolutely merge our influenceand make a difference from the
consumer point of view, likefrom that consumer power that we
hold.

SPEAKER_02 (56:31):
Absolutely.
And many people think, what canI as a person do to promote, in
this case, organic farming ormore natural ways of producing
our food?
But actually, each one of us hasa tremendous amount of power,
and that lies in the power ofour wallet.
Yes, because the bigcorporations, their business is
to sell a product to you.

(56:52):
And if you're demanding acertain type of product,
eventually, like you said,they're going to catch on and
they're going to know that thereis a demand for organic
products.
And we would hope then that theywould start either producing or
carrying those products.

SPEAKER_00 (57:06):
So the food additive, so this has no food
additives.
It has no chemicals from theproduction or from the growth of
the agave plant, which can takeanywhere between five to seven
years.
So that's a lot of that's a lotof chemical layer on that plant
if you're purchasing aconventional bottle.

(57:28):
And then plus, I know thatthere's also the heavy metals
that are involved with duringthe distillation process for the
conventional, the big dogs, whoare most of the tequila that
we're purchasing, is that theywant to supercharge the time or
really shrink the time that ittakes to distill tequila because

(57:52):
time is money from that profitcapitalist point of view, right?
So you instead of taking howlong does it take normally to
distill tequila?

SPEAKER_02 (58:02):
To the fermentation.
Normally, if you do it allnaturally, normally takes up to
a week, up to seven days.
Now, if you supercharge it, likeyou said, they actually add
chemical fertilizers, urea orammonia-based chemical
fertilizers, to the fermentationtanks.
What that does is itsupercharges the yeast to break

(58:23):
down the sugars and convert intoalcohol.
But another byproduct of that isheat.
And if you put your hand on thefermentation tank for regular
natural fermentation, it doesfeel warm or sometimes even hot.
But when you supercharge theyeast with these chemicals, it
becomes so violently hot andactive that they actually have

(58:47):
to wrap these tanks in coolingjackets so that to keep them
from exploding.

SPEAKER_01 (58:52):
Oh.

SPEAKER_02 (58:53):
And whatever they do add in this urea, these chemical
fertilizers actually carries onand through the distillation
process and ends up in yourfinal product.

SPEAKER_00 (59:03):
And it's petroleum-based, too, right?
These chemical, yeah.
So there's it's fossil fuels.
It's fossil fuels in yourtequila or your nigrita.

SPEAKER_02 (59:15):
It's only solar power to grow our agavin.

SPEAKER_00 (59:17):
Yeah, the whole story.
And I hope you listen to thewhole story if you're if you
become a member of the KitchenActivist Collective.
And also I talk, I write aboutit in the book, Eat Less Water.
Yes.
In the tequila and waterchapter, I highly recommend you
read that.
And the recipe for thismargarita is in there as well.

(59:39):
What I love about your recipefor margaritas is that it also
it the margarita mix that wehave all grown up with and that
they often use when you go to abar, right, or Mexican
restaurant has a lot of highcorn fructose syrup.
And then a lot of otheradditives and a lot of to give

(01:00:00):
it that color that I don't knowwhy that's a good color, that
margarita mix like neon, yeah,neon, like a highlighter color.
So it you don't have to, youcould bypass all of that.
You can make some fresh,everything is fresh, right?
It's all fresh.
I see what are these tangerines?

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:22):
That's a surprise.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:24):
Oh, so tangerines, lime, and then of course tequila
that is organic agave completecompletely pure.
Oh, and then an organic fairtrade agave as well.
So I'll let you do your thing.
Show us, show us how to do this.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:40):
Absolutely.
Thank you very much.
And you mentioned that in thebook there is you did include
our margarita recipe and we'revery appreciative that you
dedicated a whole chapter to ourtequila project in your book,
which is if you haven't read it,highly recommend it.
Pick one up you'll love you'lllove eat less water.
This makes you think aboutthings that many of us are not

(01:01:03):
even aware of and the thingsthat we can do in our kitchen
preparing our food for ourfamilies that will make a
difference.
So please do.
And so today I'm making for youour margarita and I have a
special surprise for you.
I'm going to tweak that therecipe a little bit but let's
see let's see how it turns out.
So we always like to start outwith fresh squeezed limes.

(01:01:29):
If you can these are organiclimes so in keeping with our
whole concept here.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:34):
Right from start to finish absolutely from plant to
glass as Lupa says fromcultivation to distillation yes
Lupa is his is his wife theother the co-partner in all of
this actually she's the beautyand the brains behind the whole
project and I just do the work Ithink it's important to I I know

(01:02:01):
that for some people I know fora long time I didn't do this the
right way.
You have because it'scounterintuitive is what when
you cut it in half you actuallyput it reverse of what you think
it is to squeeze it out.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:13):
Anyway that's just a little tip that's a good point
we squeeze out these lines onlynatural because I hate using
artificial ingredients in mymargarita.
And you know what that lime thatyou buy in the plastic bottle it
just it doesn't have the sameflavor at all as something

(01:02:37):
that's it doesn't a naturalsqueeze part of it is the fact
that it has preservativeschemical preservatives to keep
it from going bad and thatdoesn't make it taste of good
plus the yeah the leaching alsoof plastic in the yeah all of
that together.
And are those artificialsweeteners and similar mixes

(01:02:57):
mixes that adds to the reasonwhy you get headaches because if
you're using a pure a purelymade tequila if you drink only
that tequila you should not havea headache or a hangover the
next day within moderation.
Now if you go and mix it I'vetested that if you go and mix
this with a store bought bottlethat margarita mix and you're

(01:03:20):
using artificial you've gotartificial sweeteners in there
and flavorings and who knowswhat else you're taking away
from the natural qualities ofthe tequila and that is why you
end up with those bad headaches.
Okay so let's just let this willtake this will make how much so
we're making enough for abouttwo small size margaritas and

(01:03:42):
you put so how much ice did youput you put one okay about a
scoopful of this okay so I putin two ounces of lime juice my
surprise today we normally usewe normally use uh orange orange
juice to take the edge off ofthe lime today I have a special
surprise we're growing we'reusing tangerines and these are

(01:04:05):
100% organic and I know thatbecause we just picked this from
our in the backyard from yourown grocery grocery back there.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:17):
I love that we not only grow our own agavage at the
quina we also grow our own yourown tangerine tangerines and we
actually have a lime tree aswell but and the color is
gorgeous I can see it is yeahthat's also something we get to
do here in Oxnard the weatherallows us to grow all of these

(01:04:42):
wonderful things pretty muchyear round yeah but if you're
not so familiar with Oxnard it'sthe center of the universe at
least I think so so now we'lladd our tangerine juice a little
bit less than the lime.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:03):
Okay so this is a shot glass a little bit less
than a shot of tangerine juice ashot glass of lime lime and then
we're going to add as asweetener we don't want to use
sugars or high fructose cornsyrup or anything we like to use
organic agave sweetener and wehave here organic fair trade

(01:05:25):
agave so we add we've cut back alittle bit on this Florencia
from the original recipe.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:32):
That's in eat less water yes so what did we say in
that recipe I think in that onewe had a full shot we'd cut that
back to about half a shot but ifyou did the full shot because
I've tried that recipe manytimes and it's still it's
delicious.
Yeah it's delicious and then alittle bit of water but if
you're trying to cut back onsome of the sugar in your diet

(01:05:54):
as we all could tell you so thisisn't necessarily a skinny
mangarita.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:59):
I like to call this a slim mangarita what a skinny
or a slim I don't think I Idon't know if it's sugar skin
skinny would be less sugar stillokay or less sweetener still
okay so we've got all those arethe only three ingredients we
put in here lime juice eitherorange or tangerine juice and
organic agave sweet you couldalso use a grapefruit right you

(01:06:22):
could put a little more topicgrapefruit lumina lemon you can
have fun experimenting withdifferent blends of citrus
juices as long as they're allfreshly squeezed impossible
organic yeah you could have funexperimenting and you really
didn't shake a whole bunch therebecause yeah I'm not that I'm
not that good at shaking a lotof practice.

(01:06:48):
So I'm going to have the honorof serving your mangarita okay
in these beautiful glasses thatyou gifted me this morning.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:59):
And it it I thought it would go perfect because this
is a Moroccan it's also fairtrade and it is uh recycled
glass from their bottles likefrom beer bottles and this we
didn't talk about at all but Iknow that your the glass that
you have for this this is agorgeous bottle is also recycled

(01:07:22):
glass also we use only recycledglass in our bottles it takes a
little bit longer it's a littlebit more expensive process but
this is in keeping with ourentire green thing okay okay
wait so you haven't put did youever put the tequila itself in
there oh my god I told you I wasout of practice that was would

(01:07:43):
have been a really skinnymargarita good thing somebody's
paying attention here I'm gonnapay attention to that for sure
okay so it's a shot at tequilaand you're using the blanco
we're using the blanco becausefor me the flavors the natural

(01:08:06):
flavors in the blanco tequilawhich is floral quality a little
citrusy a little bit of a whitepepper in the flavor profile I
feel that melds very well withthe citrus juices.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:18):
Some people prefer aged tequilas but and then other
people think that the moreexpensive tequila is going to
make you a better margarita andusually because the more you age
the tequila the more expensiveit becomes but that's not
necessarily so because the agedtequilas have a lot of the oak
influence which to me that oakflavor does not go well with the

(01:08:40):
citrus juices.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:41):
Okay because it's like a heavier you want the
lightness you want the lightnessyou want it to really go well
together and also that the extraanejo or the anejo you want that
you just want to sip you justwant to sip in a glass and
really just feel or just tastethat you want to get as much out

(01:09:02):
of that flavor profile and enjoyit as much as possible.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:05):
So the bronzo look like water okay it's a that was
funny have you had breakfast yetyeah so this is our breakfast

(01:09:28):
this morning have you hadmargaritas for breakfast before
during is that getting toopersonal no during the pandemic
oh okay now we're yeah I don'tknow if this is going in a good
direction actually it's not thatmy daughter Elena was contacted
by a company that asked us if wewould do a because they were

(01:09:50):
running out of things to doafter work or something fun for
their um their steps so theyasked us if we would do a
tequila tasting for them and amargarita demonstration.
So we said sure but this companywas based in Amsterdam and they
had offices in London AmsterdamI think Singapore and Paris and
I don't remember what else whatother different time zones.

(01:10:10):
So completely different timezones so we were up at 8 30
doing tequila tastings andmaking margaritas but just so
that we could join them in thetoast we actually cheated and
put we took an empty bottle ofblanco and used water.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:24):
So we actually just put water at least that's what
you were trying to do that mighthave been this is our breakfast.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:32):
All right so salute to all the wonderful work that
you have been doing your amazingbook Eat Less Water and I know
you have a project coming up thekitchen activist and teaching us
how we as consumers as a normaleveryday family people the
things that we can do to makeour world a better place.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:51):
And thank you for the work you're doing going
after your personal legend foodoh like that that is very
dangerous here and Cory it feelslike I especially since it's the
morning and it's breakfast Ifeel like oh I'm just drinking a
juice.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:11):
Yeah a lot of people have mimosas for breakfast all
the time that's true that's truebut a slim alchemia might be it
is phenomenal thank you it isphenomenal and uh the
presentation in these beautifulglasses Michael so Michael come
over here so you can have someMichael's over here over on the

(01:11:33):
side yeah we got the seal ofapproval all right so I think
that's that'll do it.
So just to recap how you makethis margarita what happens if

(01:11:54):
you don't have a shaker peopleare very inventive as far as how
to shake things so okay you canput it in a large container a
larger let's say a pitcher shakeit around swirl it as long as it
doesn't overflow or even stir itwith a wooden spoon you can
think of ways to oh I guess evenin your coffee in a coffee mug.

(01:12:16):
In a coffee mug like a travelmug yeah you can put the lid on
it and shake it yeah just it'llwork in fact it'll keep it nice
and cold for you oh that'sreally good okay so some kind of
shaker no wonder they have thosecup holders and then a shot
glass of a shot glass of freshlime and a scant shot glass of

(01:12:43):
about three quarters of eitherorange juice or we or tangerine
we change it up some othercitrus with tangerines and we
were talking about experimentingwith grapefruit and different
types of citrus yeah anddifferent combinations of blood
orange orange orange would beyeah blood orange and then see
what you like best or justchange it up from one weekend to

(01:13:05):
the next and then one scoop ofthe ice get it nice and cold a
stock glass of blanco oh agavehalf half a shot glass of agave
sweetener or if you like itsweeter still you can or honey
or honey you can use honey usehoney too or what about using
the reposado you can usereposalo that's not too oaky

(01:13:27):
yeah it's not too oaky that's Iwouldn't go any more age than
that uh but the reposado wouldstill go well and the oak
wouldn't overpower anything soreposado is my favorite of all
of the oars yeah no that's beenyour favorite yeah it's been
I've been consistent for thelast 10 years.
Good good and then okay onething I before we go I do notice

(01:13:49):
that you didn't put any saltaround the rim why um because I
know there must be a why I Ipersonally have cut back a lot
on salt but also I think thatthe salt takes away from the
flavors themselves and if youreally want to appreciate what
was in there the the contents ofyour margarita I would recommend
without salt but then if that'syour preference that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:12):
Because I do think as you're saying that like when
you have say a good piece ofbread or a good piece of meat or
anything that is has beencultivated with the care that
you put into like how you putinto the tequila you want to be
able to taste it.
You don't want to have it hiddenby other flavors.

(01:14:34):
But on the other hand if youhave something that has poor
quality right then you want tomask it with a sauce with
flather with butter or in thiscase put the rim with some
people get salt right and somepeople get very inventive with
the salt or the hean seasonedtype of salt.

(01:14:56):
And if you're just eating ifyou're just drinking it with
that margarita mix you do needthat salt because because it's
not otherwise it's really notthat good.
Yeah but this absolutely youneed no salt this is D wine I'm
glad you like it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:15:12):
Yes I'm glad you like my this is the first time
I've actually made it with 10drinks that's a keeper for sure
it's a keeper so we'll keepgrowing thank you for everything
you do thank you it's a toast toyou to Earth Day to Earth Day
and consider success to you.
Oh and how would you find yourhow do you find your tequila
before we you can ask for it atyour local liquor store or

(01:15:35):
restaurant the surest thing isto go on our webpage
alquimiatequila.com and find oneof our local or one of our
online retailers there's aretailer in in San Diego called
Old Town Tequila there's a lotof you can't really see it off
that and they actually ship allover the country interestingly

(01:15:56):
they ship a lot of our productto the east coast apparently we
have quite a following overthere all due to the magic of
social media I can see whypeople know they're good no good
cocktails on the east coast forsure.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:10):
Yeah so you can find it uh alquimiaquila.com and
that's spelt a l q u I m a i atthe end i a alquimia so it's
alchemy in spanish exactly it'salchemy in spanish so you'll
find it easily and thank you somuch for thank you for hearing

(01:16:34):
all of what you do keep doingall the good work that you do
salute to you too