Drinking in America
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement
First month of the new year and its been a lot of “whole world is wild at heart and weird on top” (Lynch), and that’s putting it generously. I don’t want to contribute to collective high anxiety, and usually my newsletters are meant to be escapism with cultural anecdotes, celebration and criticism, as well as lots of drinking with your eyes and instructions on how to satisfy those cravings with your own two hands. Today’s newsletter is a little more political than what I usually write. That’s because the alarming macro forces in politics we are currently ingesting from the media actually may have an impact on what you will physically drink in your cocktail of the near future.
Its a point of contention in Mexico that people from the United States claim America ends at its northern and southern borders. Everyone else can see that America goes from Alaska to the Patagonia, and that we are all Americans. I recently came across this toilet by Damian Ortega at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) in Mexico City. It was made a few years after NAFTA went into effect and “identidad latinoamericana” was hotly debated in cultural circles. With a Duchampian spirit and obvious irony, Ortega alters this household object to show Latin America reduced to a sort of discharge channel or drain to service the North.
Today we in America are in an even more difficult spot; this time even Canada is being dumped on. I watched Trump, dubbed in Spanish on the Mexican news, harp on about Canada. Here’s my translation of a translation. He said, "With Mexico we are getting along very well. With Canada, no. They are not treating America justly. Its not right we are supporting their deficit. We don’t need them to fabricate our cars. We don’t need their petroleum, we have more than anybody. We don’t need their wood, we have our own forests.”
Maybe the United States doesn’t need Canada, except maybe as a colony, but it appears even Diet Coke slugging Trump realizes they won’t get on very well without tequila. We are all waiting with boozy breath for the new trade policies to come into effect, and no one is sure exactly how the future will look. Who knows, its possible Canada may be dubbed “tremendous” tomorrow…
While this newsletter is about drinking, not political economy, we’re living in a globalized world and about to witness the myriad ways our daily lives can be impacted by foreign policy, or the whims of one very powerful, deranged and self-serving individual. As dictator Porfirio Diaz once said, “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States”. Lets take a look at how the trade wars might effect drinkers in Mexico and Canada differently.
While currently Mexico is urging caution and a clear head in response to trade threats, Canada is ready to retaliate. The beverage industry in Canada is preparing to say goodbye to Bourbon. BC Premier David Iby as well as Ontario Premier Doug Ford have stated that they intend to stop all imports of United State’s alcohol products if Trump follows through on his promise to increase the tax on imports from Canada by 25% on February 1. According to Doug Ford, “they will feel the pain.”
ctv news : threat of a boycott against American alcohol
As many readers may know, my family owns and operates a micro-distillery in Vancouver called Odd Society Spirits. In the above clip from CTV news, my dad Gordon Glanz talks about how the boycott may effect micro-distilleries. Of course, if the BC Liquor Stores pull American products from the shelves, there will be an increased demand for locally made spirits. Odd Society does not export to the United States so we will not be negatively impacted by the export tariffs, but other Canadian micro-distilleries will be. Even if, as we hope, the worst does not come to pass, a change in the mindset about buying local and from small producers would be a good thing out of a bad situation. I have written about my views on the positive impact of buying local produce/products to use in the bar/restaurant industry in previous article on tepache. Hopefully going forward there may be more consideration of what and who we are supporting when we buy things. We should be asking ourselves, who profits from my purchase? This is becoming more important and sometimes the only means we have of responding when our “democracy” is really a plutocracy.
What are we drinking in America? Overall, Canada drinks mostly beer and wine, beer constitutes 36% of alcohol sales, and wine 31.4%. In the spirits category, vodka is number one, and then comes whisky. Canada drinks a lot of wine and whisky from the United States.
The situation is different in Mexico. Mexico is not consuming whisky, first of all, which is the most important United States alcoholic export. In Mexico they drink mostly beer, tequila and mezcal. Whisky is un-important in Mexico, and unavailable. When I worked at Jules Basement in Polanco, a high end cocktail bar, we only stocked one rye whisky which is barely a rye, Canadian Club, and then some red, black, blue Johnnie Walkers (from Scotland). On the other hand, the United States drinks a lot of Mexican alcoholic products. Last year they imported $9 billion worth of Mexican products, making the US the largest destination for Mexican alcoholic beverages.
If the US increased the tariffs on mezcal and tequila, and less people purchased it in the US, it would make mezcal less expensive here in Mexico, right? In the last years mezcal prices in Mexico have gone way up due to increased demand from the North and the limited production capacities of a spirit that requires the slow growth of agaves.
Mexico is the world’s leading beer exporter. It exports more beer than the next highest exporters combined, which are Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In 2022 Mexican beer exports reached an all-time high with monthly sales at US$588M. However, the Mexican beer market is controlled by two foreign parent companies. Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma was purchased by Heineken for 7 billion. They make Indio, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, Tecate, Bohemia, Superior, Cerveza Sol, among others. Grupo Modelo was purchased for 20 billion by Belgian Company Anheuser-Busch InBEv. They produce Corona, Leon, Modelo, Pacifico, Victoria, Barrilito, and more. In this globalized world is often difficult to know what is really local, and what is not.
Recently I wrote an article for Distiller Magazine, a publication of the American Distilling Institute, an incredible resource for distillers and anyone interested in the science, technology, culture and creativity in the operation of craft distilleries. For the magazine, I wrote about how laws which limit distilling practices in British Columbia led to an innovation in the production method of peated and smoked whisky at Odd Society, and the result are totally new, never before tasted whiskies. Read my deep dive into how policy plays out on a small scale here: From Limitation to Innovation
I’d like to leave this article on a hopeful note. We are a resourceful species, and when our freedom is squeezed we do not submit but dig tunnels in response. Look at the art that came out of that horrible, war-torn 20th century.
To enjoy the present while waiting for the future, I’d like to share a recipe for a cocktail that I learned while working at Jules Basement. It was invented at the Cucaracha Cocktail Club, the 1930s Mexico City cocktail haven I have referenced in previous posts.
Meet the MEXICAN FIRING SQUAD, with its seamless mix of craftmanship and irony.
Mexican Firing Squad
2 oz tequila blanco
3/4 oz home-made grenadine (or local creme de cassis if in Canada)
3/4 fresh lime juice
5 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake with ice and dump in a tall glass
Garnish a pineapple wedge, a lime wheel and a brandied cherry on a cocktail pick.
Grenadine
Heat on low, equal parts 100% pomegranate juice and equal volume granulated sugar. Stir to dissolve and remove from heat. Add some salt for good measure (maybe a teaspoon/L syrup)
¡Ánimo!
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