Tag Archives: tequila

Ungava – A Uniquely Canadian Product

Ungava – A Uniquely Canadian Product

My Mom and I were shopping for wine the other week and we were checking out what tequilas the store had in stock (my Mom LOVES tequila and together we toast every full moon with it, in person or by phone). The person in the store asked if we had tried Ungava Canadian Premium Gin (I know – how did we get from wine to tequila to GIN!). I love a gin and tonic when it’s really hot outside and had not yet tried this brand.

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The simple and clean-cut Ungava bottle evokes the purity and chill of Arctic ice

The clerk at the liquor store was obviously very convincing as we ended up walking out with a bottle. We sat down to play a long awaited game or two of dominos that afternoon and poured ourselves a gin and tonic. I have to say that this gin, which I had put in the freezer so was ice cold when we made our drinks, was absolutely delicious. Ungava’s unusual bright yellow color and distinctive aroma are derived from six rare botanicals that are native to the Arctic region: Nordic juniper, wild rose hips, cloudberry, crowberry, Arctic blend and Labrador tea. These botanicals are handpicked and steeped in the traditional Inuit way and the result is a deliciously well-balanced, fragrant and delicious product.

The unique script and characters on the bottle is Inuktitut, the language of the inuit

The unique script and characters on the bottle is Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit

Ungava gin recommends serving with a wedge of grapefruit on ice, but do be careful as it has a surprising alcoholic strength of 43.1%. We tried it with chilled tonic, with and without a squeeze of fresh lime, and preferred it without citrus as the flavours are so unique and balanced. Perfect for an ice-cold martini, this unique handcrafted gin is definitely worth searching out – even if you have to come to Canada to find it!

John Bragg’s Experience of the Late, Great Muhammed Ali

John Bragg’s Experience of the Late, Great Muhammed Ali

John and Mary Bragg

John and Mary Bragg

I’d like to introduce you to John Bragg – my “brother-in-law” who is married to my boyfriend’s amazing sister, Mary (complicated, I know!). John is many things: adventurer, entrepreneur, businessman, tequila expert, great husband, loyal friend, father, scholar, military historian, classical music lover and expert, mountain climber, gardener, kidder, but above and beyond ALL things, he is a great story teller. Just ask anyone who has had the courage to try to keep up with his pours of tequila and enjoy his stories while he holds court behind the bar!

John Bragg behind the bar at Pancho's in Cabo San Lucas

John Bragg behind the bar at Pancho’s in Cabo San Lucas

This is a story that he has written to clarify the details of his experience with the late, great Mohammed Ali – enjoy!

Muhammed Ali - The Greatest!

Muhammed Ali – The Greatest!

“In 1970 I was the Athletes Representative for Adidas Germany. My responsibility was to identify athletes with international and Olympic possibilities, and to introduce them to the top technical advantages of Adidas competitive shoes. The end goal was to have them wear the Adidas label.

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At that time, Adidas was the leading company in the world for highly technical athletic shoes. I worked directly from the headquarters in Hertzogenaurach, Germany. My area of responsibility was Track and Field, Collegiate and NFL Football, Professional Boxing, and Cross Country Skiing. I had nothing to do with sales. It was my responsibility to select those athletes that I thought would have successful athletic careers, as professionals, record champions and Track and Field members of the next Olympic Games. My approach was to become acquainted with the athletes, provide them with competitive athletic shoes and discuss shoe improvements with them.

On December 6, 1970 I had a telephone call at 3 AM. The call was from my boss, Horst Dassler, son of the founder of Adidas, Adi Dassler.  Horst told me that Adidas had an agreement with Cassius Clay (later to become Mohammed Ali), and that Clay had told Adidas that he would no longer be wearing their equipment, including his upcoming fight on December 7 with Oscar Bonavena of Argentina. Horst said that they had their guys from Germany talk to him, including the German heavy weight Gold medalist from the last Olympic Games, without any luck. I was to go immediately to New York and fix the problem.

I had not met Ali at that time, but I knew his trainer/manager Angelo Dundee.  I called Angelo at his boxing gymnasium in Florida and asked him what the problem was. He told me that Bundee Brown, Ali’s spiritual adviser, assistant trainer, corner man, poet and speech writer had said that he shouldn’t wear Adidas shoes any longer because the Germans were those guys who killed all the Jewish people during WWII. Angelo told me they were moving up to New York right away and if I came over he would get me introduced to Ali.

I flew to New York the next day, arriving at the St. Regis Hotel during a taxi strike, and showing up in California clothes during a snow storm. The next morning I met Ali at 5 am in the lobby of his hotel, which was on the other side of Central Park. Angelo told me that Ali and his boxing trainers would be going on a run before breakfast and I could talk to him at that time. In those days I was still running in 10 and 20 K’s and an occasional marathon, so I showed up in Adidas sweat clothes and running shoes. We went out into the Park with his two trainers who were huge black guys, bigger than Ali. I ran along behind them at what I felt was a pretty slow pace. We ran for a while and then went back to the hotel. Sitting in the restaurant with a frown on his face Ali said, “You laughed a few times, what was so funny?”  I told him that before I left California one of my friends who was a native New Yorker said, “whatever you do, don’t ever go through the Park after dark, you’ll probably get beat up.” “I was laughing because I thought it would be pretty funny if someone tried to beat me up when I was running with you three guys.” They got a good laugh out of that and it loosened up our conversation.

During breakfast I explained to him that the reason I was there was because Adidas had always produced the best athletic shoes in the world and it was because we depended upon the best athletes in the world to give us their thoughts about what could help us design better shoes in their sport. We discussed several things about shoe weights, foot support, traction, etc. His trainers left the table and Ali said that last night he had been at one of the famous discotecs with some friends and part of the entertainment was some dancing girls whom he said were very athletic and their footwork reminded him of his style of footwork in the ring. He said that they had short skirts that had ribbons around the bottom that swayed with their movements, much like he did in the ring. I couldn’t quite imagine what he was describing until he said “like the college kids wear on their hats”. He was talking about the tassels on graduation caps. Finally I had something that might bring him back to Adidas.

He wore a  size 11 shoe, so I called Adidas and placed a rush order of 3 pairs of white shoes with the Adidas’ three stripes in three colors and sizes: red, green and black in sizes 10, 11 and 12. They arrived at my hotel the next afternoon. Now, what about the tassels? I asked the doorman at the St. Regis Hotel if he knew where I could find a store that carried tassels; he didn’t know but said if anyone had it, it would be Macy’s. Next, arriving at Macy’s was a weird guy in California clothes coming off the snowy street. Most clerks didn’t have a clue until one of them said “you need to see Mrs. Bluestein on the 3rd floor.” Mrs. Bluestein was the tassel specialist, she had every color, every length, and many different materials. I selected three different lengths, in red, green and black in the same silky material graduation tassels were made of. Now how do we get them put together?

Rushing back to the hotel the doorman then sent me to a shoe repair shop, unlike any I had never seen before; 5 or 6 stations, bright lights, state of the art equipment and several technicians standing around. I told them what I wanted: 7 small holes punched around the top edge of the boxing shoes, the tassels attached through the holes and a strip of soft leather to cover the tassel attachments. All the techs thought this was a great idea, but told me they didn’t do this kind of work. I said “Let me use your tools”; their answer “No, we can’t do that.”

Back to the hotel, the doorman couldn’t help me but he spoke to some of his fellow workers and one of them suggested two Italian brothers who had a shoe shop near Carnegie Hall that specialized in footwear for ballet, operas, and stage events. One more hike through the cold because of the taxi strike. When I got to Carnegie Hall I found their shop on the fourth floor. Inside was a single room about the size of a large bedroom with a very high ceiling. The brothers were small men with big whiskers surrounded by stacks of all different shoe types: ballet toes, boots, shoes and leather pieces with no particular definition between unfinished pieces and those ready to go. I explained what I wanted done and they said it would be no problem, I could come back in a week. I told them I needed the shoes in two days; they said not possible. I told them what and who they were for and immediately they said they could do it in one hour, which they did and asked me to tell Ali who they were.

I put the shoes in a large paper sales bag and headed to Ali’s hotel, where Angelo met me. Their suite was rather unusual. Three rooms: the first one had only tables, couches and chairs. This was the room for newspaper and magazine writers, mostly unknown to me. The room was clouded with cigarette and cigar smoke, the tables had food of different types, beer, hard liquor and soft drinks; my impression was these guys hung out there to leech food and booze. Passing through the second room I saw Bundee watching TV and glaring at me (I must be one of the German guys!). Going into the third room was Ali laying on the bed in undershorts and watching TV. “My Man, what have you got for me?”

I started to open the shoe bag and Ali politely asked Angelo to leave, which surprised me. I brought out the shoes and you could see the surprise in his eyes. He held a shoe up and tipped it back and forth to see the swishing of the tassels, and he looked at the colors. He took the white shoe with red stripes and laced it up, stood on the carpet and shuffled back and forth looking in the door mirror. “This is the one” he said. We discussed it a bit and then I had to go. He said “Don’t tell anyone about this, not even Angelo. I’ll see you tomorrow at the weigh-in”.

The weigh-in was at Madison Square Garden in the room just below the main floor. This room was used for smaller events. For the weigh-in, all the seats and the equipment were taken out so it was an empty room with a cement floor. Up at the front there was a small platform approximately 1 foot high, 10 feet deep, and 15 feet wide. On the platform was a small table with 3 or 4 chairs and microphone and flat platform scale. The only light was above the platform and in front of it was approximately 50-75 men from the media. I was standing clear at the back in the dark.

After the weigh-in came the question and answer period. The reporters didn’t have too many questions for Bonevena, but when Ali took the microphone there were a lot of questions which he pushed aside and said, “See that guy (me) back there? He was sent over here from Germany for me to help design the best boxing shoe in the world, and you will see it for the first time tomorrow night.” This started a lot of questions of which he would answer but never tell them what was special, even when the guys would try to get him off the “secret” he would slide back.

A little side story: when the weigh-in was over, all of us were walking upstairs to the main floor where there was a college basketball game on half time warm-up. This had to be two black schools because there was not a white person on the floor. When Ali walked out everyone went crazy! The players passed a ball to him which he handled very well and began horsing around with the players until the referee told him the second half had to start. He was standing on the mid court line and took a shot that was only about 2 inches short of making basket; the crowds went wild once again. As usual he was loved by all.

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The next night, December 7, 1970, Ali won his fight over Bonavena. Ali held the top of the heavy weight boxers until March 8, 1971, the night of the “Fight of the Century” when he was defeated by Joe Frazier. Joe and Ali did not care for each other, but surprising to me when I called on Frazier’s training gym in Philadelphia, he told me he wanted the same shoe Ali had, but white with green stripes. The cover of Sports Illustrated that showed Ali landing on his back with Frazier leaning forward was probably the best success I had in the great time I had working for Adidas. World champion boxers on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the best sports magazine in the world, and both fighters wearing the shoes with the three signature stripes of Adidas. Ali with red stripes and Joe with green stripes.

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After that both fighters always wore Adidas.”

Money Monster

Earlier this week we drove to East Hampton to see a show. Aside from the movies that we watch on television in Cabo, we don’t get to theatres until we’re either on the road to or from the Hamptons or while we’re here in the Hamptons. The show we decided to see was Money Monster directed by Jodie Foster and starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

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George Clooney has had a house on the corridor (between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo) at a development called El Dorado for several years. The villa is on a compound shared by his best friend, Rande Gerber, and Rande’s beautiful wife, Cindy Crawford, and is known as Casamigos (which is the name of their tequila brand, by the way, and means “house of friends”). Both villas were recently sold in April of this year for $100 million to an unnamed Mexican billionaire (the infamous Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s cell and landline phone businesses, perhaps?). Ron has played tennis on the El Dorado courts next to George and his wife, Amal, and our good friend, Steve, was the head pro at this resort for many years and has played tennis and basketball numerous times with the star. We hope that they build in our area again as they have a reputation for their warmth, generosity and kindness when dealing with the local people and businesses (unlike many other celebrities).

In the movie, George Clooney plays a character named Lee Gates, a Wall Street guru who picks hot stocks as host of the television show Money Monster. Suddenly, during a live broadcast, disgruntled investor Kyle Budwell storms onto the set and takes Gates hostage. He tells Lee that he lost everything because of one of his stock tips. As Gates tries to plead with Kyle, he’s also using an earpiece to communicate with his longtime producer, Patty Fenn (played by Julia Roberts), in the control room. Together, they must figure out a way to defuse the situation and disarm the angry young man.

Hating Wall Street, greedy corporations and their corrupt executives have become popular themes in movies and this film certainly embraces all three. We found this film to be a bit predictable but definitely entertaining. I gave it 3 1/2 stars and Ron gave it 4 (out of 5).

Types of Tequila

There are main three types of tequila: blanco, reposado and anejo, each with its own unique and distinctive flavor and quality.

Blanco, meaning white or silver, is often referred to as the grandfather of all tequilas. Tequila blanco derives its name from its crystal clear color. It is bottled directly from the distillation process and does not undergo any aging. Tequila blanco is a distinctively strong spirit that usually has heavy overtones of smoke from the cooking of the agave hearts in clay pots. This is the tequila that is usually used in margaritas or other blended drinks.

Reposado, meaning rested, is unmistakably flavorful because it enjoys a process of aging in oak barrels, but only for a period of two months. Reposado tequilas are intense spirits with subtle hints of exotic fruits, agave and slight wood aromas. This tequila is recommended straight or with salt and lemon or lime.

Anejo, meaning aged, is truly the finest of the three varieties of tequila. Anejo tequila is taken after the distillation process and rested in small quantities in white oak barrels for a period of at least one year. When the aging process is complete, the tequila is filtered and its alcohol content is brought up to 38 or 40% before bottling.

Just to complicate things further, there are two further distinctions that need to be explained. Tequila can either be labeled as “blended” or as “100% agave”. In blended tequila, a minimum of 51% of the fermentable sugar is derived from agave, with the balance made up by a variety of other sugars, such as molasses. Blended tequila can be blanco (silver) or oro (gold). The gold has certain characteristics of wood aging but these are generally derived from adding colorings and flavorings, such as caramel, and not through authentic aging.

The 100% agave tequila is that in which fermentable sugars are derived entirely from the agave tequilana weber azul or blue agave plant. Tequila 100% agave can be found in all three types: blanco, reposado and anejo and is truly the finest quality available.

How Tequila is Made

Tequila is made from distilled sap from the hearts or “pinas” of the agave or maguey plant. Once harvested, the heart is cut into four or five pieces and then baked or steamed in a huge above-ground oven or autoclave for hours to obtain softness and sweetness.

The cooked agave is transported to the mill (similar to sugar cane mills) where the juice is extracted several times from the agave fibers. The agave juice is then pumped from the mill into special fermentation tanks where yeast is added to react with the juice to produce an alcoholic mixture.

The final product of fermentation then goes to distilling tanks to separate water from the tequila. Tequila is double distilled and a few brands even boast triple distillation. Distilling has a dual purpose: separate water from the alcohol, and separate any toxic substances and impurities from the final product. After this process, tequila is treated in different ways to obtain several varieties.