Rattle Snake Tequila
Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:15 am
From the Los Angeles Times
Tequila to Rattle the Innards
By LOUIS SHOGUN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
ENSENADA -- Dropping into Francisco Dario's cantina in a remote canyon
southeast of this tourist resort can be perilous.
As the gray-haired jack-of-all-trades invites visitors into the
establishment built in the shadow of Mt. Pico del Diablo, he warns them not
to tap on a jar containing an angry rattlesnake.
But he doesn't seem too nervous about filling a shot glass with a wooden
ladle full of the crude and fiery spirit tequila con vibora. Rattlesnake
tequila. Dario's hideaway may be the last in northern Baja California to
serve this most elemental form of Mexico's national spirit--a folk remedy to
many natives and a cross-cultural dare for hard-partying college kids.
In a country where much of the tequila industry has turned
sophisticated--with handblown bottles and years of aging in oak casks--Dario
offers a whole coiled rattlesnake soaking in every reclaimed juice jar on
his bar.
There is nothing subtle about this rough elixir he serves up at the Rancho
Agua Caliente, an 800-acre natural hot spring at the end of a dirt road off
Baja's Highway 3, roughly two hours south of San Diego.
Sliding a brimming shot glass across his dark Formica-topped bar, the
46-year-old ranch manager smiles and urges: "Try it. It calms the nerves,
and is a fine remedy for arthritis, kidney problems and cancer."
Laden with pinkish scales and snake pulp, it goes down like liquid fire.
Dario was taught how to make the stuff, which goes for about a buck a shot,
by a previous manager who reportedly learned the process from a Japanese
business partner.
Leaning on the bar, he said, "I catch a snake myself with a special stick.
Then I drop it into a jar [alive] and fill it with a gallon or so of cheap
white tequila."
In its death throes, the snake emits minute amounts of compounds with
certain medicinal properties, Dario contends.
"After it's dead, I gut the snake and put it back in the jar," he said.
"Then I put the jar in the sun for three months, then in the shade for three
months."
"After all that, it's ready to serve," he added. "One snake is good for
three years [of soaking]. I prefer red diamondbacks."
The fact that Dario's customers--who come from across Mexico as well as from
Korea, China, Italy, San Francisco and Los Angeles--don't keel over on the
spot may have to do with the product's exposure to sunlight. Rattlesnake
venom breaks down in high temperatures, according to experts.
In any case, Dario's product is not unique. Alcoholic drinks featuring
poisonous serpents are common "cure-alls" in rural areas throughout the
world, said Russ Smith, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Los
Angeles Zoo.
"In India, they use cobras. In Japan, pit vipers," he said. "These are
relatively safe mixtures because the venom has to be injected into the
bloodstream to be harmful."
Don Boyer, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the San Diego Zoo, is more
concerned with the fate of the snakes.
"I've actually been to Rancho Agua Caliente and talked to the owners," he
said. "I told them, 'I like tequila as much as anyone. But, gee, do you
really have to kill rattlesnakes?' "
Locals, however, say tequila con vibora is disappearing from the cultural
scene in Baja California, where the biggest cities are being rapidly
transformed by new high-tech businesses, seaside developments and waves of
retirees from the United States.
"In years past, every local cantina had a pickle jar full of it stashed
somewhere; not anymore," said John Bragg, who keeps one of the world's
largest collections of tequila, North America's first distilled spirit, at
his Pancho's restaurant in Cabo San Lucas.
Among his more than 500 tequilas is tequila con vibora.
"We sell over 50 gallons a year of it at $4 a shot to mostly American
college kids, who make a big deal out of it," he said. "Sometimes they make
me haul the snake out so they can get a picture holding it."
Added Bragg: "That beat up old snake looks like a ragged piece of inner
tube."
In the Ensenada area, however, rattlesnake elixirs are no laughing matter.
At the Centro Botanicas de Ensenada herbal shop, clerk Martha Saldivar said,
"Some people eat rattlesnake meat to purify their blood. Others use
rattlesnake oil to cure baldness. Some musicians put rattlers inside their
guitars to improve the sound."
Occasionally, she said, her store sells rattlesnake corpses to customers who
make personal batches of tequila con vibora.
Ricardo de Alba, who runs a business in Ensenada selling top-of-the-line
tequilas to tourists, is among hundreds of locals who prefer to leave the
production process up to Dario.
"Much of Mexico still believes in the healing powers of herbs and plants and
other natural products, and Francisco is part of that tradition," he said.
"I see him at least once each summer for a shot or two myself."
