Playing in Playa - de-da-dah-da-dah-de-dah: TEQUILA!

Five nights in Playa del Carmen sounded quite luxuriant when we booked it. But what with completing our Yucatan Road Trip, and swimming with whale sharks, we were left with only two full days to enjoy Playa del Carmen and our very swanky Royal Haciendas Resort.

Analogous to the ones in Cancun, the door sign says "Please do not molest: recuperating from Xel-Ha". Heh. Heheheheheh. We didn't go to Xel Ha, but we didn't want to be molested either, so the door sign came in handy.

So with two days to enjoy ourselves in Playa, where to start? Sean decided a sleep-in was in order, but I consulted the resort activities list (!) and decided some cultural enrichment was in order: I took a Spanish class. This was lots of fun, and made for more eloquent restaurant ordering for the remainder of the trip...

In the afternoon, we caught the shuttle into Playa del Carmen and trawled through the shops on 5th Avenue - a long street closed to traffic. It was very, very hot, and we were being heckled constantly by unrelenting shop owners, so we took refuge in a huge souvenir shop. By happy coincidence, it had a tequila museum at the back.


For the gringos, here are some facts about tequila, thanks to http://www.cocktailtimes.com/distillery/tequila.production.shtml:


Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, which is a member of the lily family. The blue agave has spiny broad leaves called pencas. On harvesting, the pencas are removed from the body of the plant to reveal a large pineapple-shaped heart called a pina. The pinas, weigh upwards of 150 pounds, are then shipped to a distiller. The pinas, which are comprised of pure starch, are steamed in stone ovens for about 24 - 36 hours at temperatures reaching 80 - 95C. A raw pina has a pale yellow colour and is virtually odorless. A cooked pina possesses a brown-orange colour and emits a sweet, candy-like scent. Cooked pinas are then crushed in three pressing mills in order to extract the agave juice.

Here, it looks like the sombrero-wearing donkey is doing the grinding. You can see the model pinas - they look like large pinecones.

The aguamiel (honey water) is combined with select yeasts and placed in a vat to ferment for up to 12 days:

According to Mexican law, distilled tequila must be aged in oak barrels. The youngest blanco (white) tequilas, must be aged for 14 - 21 days, and oro (gold) tequilas are aged up to two months, Reposado (rested) tequilas are aged up to one year and the oldest tequilas, anejos (aged), are aged for at least one year, with the best being aged between 6 and 10 years.


In order to preserve tequila's integrity and protect their national treasure, the Mexican government formulated rules in the 1970s to establish and govern tequila standards of production. By law, tequila must meet the following criteria:

it must be made from 100 percent natural ingredients 

it must be produced with no less than 38% alcohol by volume

it must be made from blue agave grown and harvested only in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit or Tamaulipas (so nowhere in the Yucatan, then)

the fermented agave juice must be distilled twice and the finished product must result from the agave juice processing

the final product must be produced from no less than 51% reduced sugars from the blue agave

it must be labeled with 'hecho en Mexico' (made in Mexico), 'NOM' (Norma Official Mexicana), the producer's four digit registration and identification number and the tequila's age (resposado, anejo, blanco, oro).

Here's Sean amongst the "World Largest Tequila Collection":

And there's plenty of tequila for everyone!

But gringos beware: despite the rules, there are mega-bottles of cheap mock-tequila in cutesey bottles. Make sure you're getting 100% blue agave, amigos.

And its good stuff. No shots or lemon slices or salt here - you sip real tequila as you would a fine spirit. Gary gave us complimentary tequilas back at Calakmul, and they were smooth and delicious, and demanded respect.

Sean with some happy tequila drinking skeletons, patting their skeleton dog.

 

 There are skulls and skeletons all over the gaff in Mexico - indigenous Mexican art celebrates the skeleton and uses it as a regular motif. The worship of death involved worship of life, while the skull – symbol of death – was a promise to resurrection.

That's cool, but I still wasn't tempted to purchase one of the many decorative ceramic skulls on offer in every craft shop.

While I can justify the skeletons, I'm not so sure about the firearm-shaped bottles:

We did some tastings and some tequila shopping before heading back out onto 5th Avenue. Despite the constant soliciting, it's a very attractive place, as far as shopping strips go - and certainly superior to Market 28 in Cancun:

I loved the toucan on this street sign!!

Once you're done with your shopping, you can be spectacularly ripped off for pretty ordinary, tourist-type food, or you can vote with your legs and walk 5 blocks up to El Fogon, one of the best bona fide eateries in town. Corner of 30th Ave Nte and 6th Ave Nte, folks. Cue "Hallelujah" chorus as the ediface manifests before your eyes:

For less than 25 Aussie dollars, two people can eat most of a cow - not to mention the myriad of salsas and corn chips that are the staple complimentary starter at any Mexican eatery. The harbenaro sauce is always nice and spicy!

Meat. Chillis. Cervazas (that's beer). Sean is satisfied.

Back to 5th Avenue for a final wander before catching the shuttle. Did I mention that 5th Avenue is a mere block from the beach?

On 5th Avenue, you can buy everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink - if you like it painted ceramic, that is:

Wall hangings, bags, ottomans.....take your pick!

I opted for the rainbow-coloured fabric headband, a couple of bracelets, and a small bottle of mango-flavoured gringo tequila, which fuelled my blogging for the next couple of evenings:

Yeah baby!