Julia Beffon
food
‘One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor,” was among the graffiti in the toilets of a student hang-out I frequented years ago.
That’s about the effect of this get-smashed-quick favourite, but how many perennially broke students can afford four tequilas these days? The worldwide cost of tequila has almost doubled in the past few months as the effects of a shortage of blue agave, the plant it’s made from, trickle through the distribution system.
The retail price of a bottle of Olmeca, which used to be the biggest- selling brand in South Africa, has risen from about R60 six months ago to R115. Even that of Jose Cuervo Gold, now the country’s biggest seller, has gone up from less than R50 a bottle to about R85.
The blue agave (a member of the lily family, not a cactus) takes nearly 10 years to mature, and production in Mexico’s Jalisco state the hub of the world’s tequila industry has been hit a double blow by a lack of planting foresight a decade ago when tequila sales were in the doldrums, and combination of a fungus (fusarium exispo rum) and bacteria (erwinia caratavora) that are destroying plants, reports the Guardian. Adding to the industry’s woes are bandits hijacking trucks of the increasingly valuable raw material on the way to distilleries, and “rustlers” stealing plants. Last year only half as many plants 107- million were harvested as in 1997. The margarita is the most popular cocktail in the United States, with the North American market soaking up 80% of Mexico’s tequila production. Neat shots (with salt before and lemon after) are the way most South Africans take their poison.
There has been a 300% rise in the production of pure agave tequila in Mexico in the past five years, whereas exports have risen 600%. Producers are turning to mixtures tequila blended with cane spirits, such as the Aguila brand locally, that require only half the agave to deal with the crisis. There must be at least 51% agave for the product to be called tequila. “The South African tequila market as a whole has seen a decline of about 6% in the past year,” says Gareth Haarhoff, consumer promotions manager at Guiness-United Distillers and Vintners (Guiness-UDV), which imports Jose Cuervo. However, he believes the shortage is not the sole reason behind the decline: the introduction of new shooters, such as sours, has hit the traditional tequila market.
His company is trying to contain price increases for fear of destroying tequila’s place as a favourite in bars. For bars and clubs, the company is trying to keep the increase down to about R20 a bottle, or about 70c a shot. In bottle stores, however, prices have increased more sharply. Eric Guignard, manager of upmarket Norman Goodfellows in Illovo, Johannesburg, is not too worried. “A tequila drinker is a tequila drinker,” he says. “He might change his brand [to a less-expensive one], but he won’t stop drinking tequila.”
The “silver” or “blanco” brands are being phased out. There is more premium spirit in the “gold” brand, and it sells for about R10 a bottle more than the “blanco”, so get ready to shell out even more for your margarita sundowners during summer. l The worm in the bottle does not signify genuine Mexican tequila; quite the opposite. It’s a marketing gimmick the Mexicans thought up to confuse the gringos.