Lastra finds the cocktail at a folding desk in San Marcos, the place Mariscos German has been working fish tacos out of a meals truck since the household introduced the mariscos (seafood) of coastal Mexico north to San Diego. Eva Abrego runs the window whereas her grandmother Evangelina watches the line behind her; her brother German is the chef whose title is on the truck. The day’s catch arrives plated in paper, the Paloma in a plastic cup, and the first chunk settles each query Lastra got here with. “The Paloma is a staple in Mexico,” he says. “People didn’t drink as many Margaritas, at least where I’m from. We drank tequila with grapefruit soda.” The factor a few drink this pared again is that it has no place to cover a nasty spirit. Whatever’s in the bottle is what you’re tasting, full quantity—which is strictly the room Tequila Ocho is constructed for.
Bill Phelps
Truth in terroir
A couple of miles north of Valley Center, Lastra spent a morning earlier in the week strolling the rows at Serrato Farms with Ricardo Serrato, who’s a co-owner along with his father. The elder Serrato spent a long time searching down uncommon and unique citrus earlier than turning the rows over to his son, and what’s planted there now could be tougher to seek out with every season—heirloom grapefruit chief amongst them. Lastra juiced what he picked at the picnic desk at the edge of the orchard, created a Paloma on the spot, and tasted what contemporary truly means when contemporary is 20 minutes from the tree. Ocho’s logic for agave was already at work in the citrus, rising alongside it the complete time: The area decides the taste, and the individuals who have a tendency the area determine whether or not it will get to precise itself.
Tequila Ocho was the first model to promote a vintage-dated, field-stamped bottle commercially. Each label names the rancho or area of harvest, the altitude, and the 12 months. The mannequin comes from Burgundy, the place a Pinot Noir from one hillside and a Pinot Noir from the subsequent one over are handled as completely different wines as a result of they’re. Ocho grows and sources primarily from Los Altos, the Jalisco highlands, and surrounding states, all inside rising areas designated by the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, Mexico’s tequila regulatory council. The soil known as tierra roja—purple earth that appears precisely prefer it sounds—iron-rich purple clay full of copper and magnesium. Sitting at 5,000 to 7,500 ft above sea stage, altitude takes over from there. From temperature swings and frost occasions to dry spells, the climate runs otherwise from one rancho to the subsequent, and blue Weber agave spends roughly eight years ingesting all of it in. By the time a piña comes out of the floor, it has lived by extra climate than most wine vintages ever see. Ocho solely picks overripe agave, and solely when Carlos Camarena, a third-generation tequilero and co-founder of Tequila Ocho, walks the area himself and calls the vegetation prepared. A piña pulled a 12 months too early tastes like a piña pulled a 12 months too early—no quantity of distilling fixes it.