Clase Azul México Announces Ancestral-Inspired Tequila Blanco Ahumado
Speaking of the brand's latest tequila addition as a delight to the senses and a paean to the natural beauty of agave, Master Distiller Viridiana Tinoco at Clase Azul México shares the following: 'Looking to achieve a smokey profile for this tequila, I set out to capture the essence of traditional mezcal-making, reinterpreting each stage of the process to elevate the unique character of the blue agave, but this time through a deliberate act.'
To create this unique, expressive blend of tequila, blue agave cores are cooked in an ancestral oven within the ground. Lit with firewood and volcanic rocks, the agave is later shredded before undergoing a meticulous fermentation process including Clase Azul's proprietary yeast obtained from select agave fields. Aromatic notes of plum, red apple and fresh lemon create a silky, smooth tequila punctuated by a smokey essence.
Well-regarded for its decadent decanters — sculptural statement pieces that elevate personal bar carts and on-trend bars alike — the Tequila Blanco Ahumado is no different in its poetic presentation. It's bottled in a semi-transparent decanter alluding to the smoke and volcanic rocks that heat the agave, with a luxurious copper-toned emblem and cap that capture the richness of the liquid's traditional cooking process. The spirit continues Clase Azul's mission to create memorable tasting rituals distinguished by the stunning landscapes and indigenous regions of Mexico.
Visit Clase Azul México'swebsiteto learn more about the Tequila Blanco Ahumado spirit.
DISCLAIMER:We discourage irresponsible and/or underage drinking. Drink responsibly and legally.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
7 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. has been waiting 2 years for this beloved restaurant to reopen. What happened?
For more than four decades, Mexican restaurant Don Ramon's was a fixture in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, its flavorful enchiladas and authentic dishes from Jalisco, Mexico, and classic margaritas drawing a loyal following of locals and regular appearances by some of the city's leaders. Its sudden closure in the spring of 2023 reverberated throughout the community so much that one of the city's most prominent landlords stepped in. BXP, formerly known as Boston Properties, offered the family-run business a new home within its 3 million-square-foot Embarcadero Center on the city's waterfront. The five-year lease deal at the massive office, retail and hotel complex was brokered with the help of former San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr, and involved unusually favorable terms, including discounted rent. It seemed like a recipe for success. But the restaurant's planned summer 2023 reopening, announced with a decent amount of fanfare, never took place. Now halfway into its lease, Don Ramon's new location at the corner of Drumm and Clay streets sits dark. The windows to the ground floor space, which previously housed seafood restaurant Rubio's, have been papered shut for more than two years with signage reading: 'Coming Soon.' Throughout that time, the trio of sisters at the helm of Don Ramon's — Leonilla, Nati and Lucy Ramirez, all in their 70s — have kept quiet about what derailed the restaurant's reboot, leaving the community guessing and even inspiring a couple of Reddit threads on the issue. Until now. The heavily delayed downtown project is not dead, the sisters confirmed to the Chronicle. But Don Ramon's future remains uncertain, unless the Ramirez family can come up with funds needed to finish the new location's build-out, which is about 60% completed. Inside suite 101 at Embarcadero Center 4, a film of dust covers the booths and seating featuring Don Ramon's signature yellow and red upholstery and traditional Mexican-style wood dining tables — the original furniture from the restaurant's former location at 225 11th St. 'We saved all of the tables and chairs to make it feel like the old Don Ramon's,' Leonilla Ramirez said. They're now banking on the goodwill they forged over decades to see the project through: A fundraising campaign launched this week seeking $75,000 for construction, which is only about half of the needed funding. 'We still need to do electrical and plumbing,' Leonilla Ramirez said. 'We are almost there.' The sisters suffered a number of financial and personal setbacks in recent years that nearly jeopardized their family's legacy. In early 2020, they lost the 11th Street building owned by their family — along with a neighboring building — since the mid-1960s in foreclosure. Leonilla Ramirez blamed it on the pandemic and accused other commercial tenants in the family's leased space of failing to pay rent. She said business at Don Ramon's dropped by about 50% in the early years of the pandemic, forcing the restaurant to stop serving customers during lunch hours. Prior to the foreclosure, Leonilla Ramirez said the family fell victim to predatory lenders in the process of attempting to refinance the loan on their properties, saddling them with $5 million worth of debt and high interest rates. 'She was in the hard money world. Once you get in that world, it's hard to get out of,' said Ben Young, a local attorney who represented Leonilla Ramirez in the past, referring to financing from private-party lenders that often comes with onerous terms. 'It's expensive money, and you end up owing more and more as you go along,' Young said. After losing their building, the Ramirez family managed to negotiate a lease-back deal with their lender that kept them rooted on 11th Street through early 2023. The nail in the coffin came when the lender raised their rent at the end of 2022 from $10,000 to $15,000 per month. 'That's when I said, 'No,'' Leonilla Ramirez said. The restaurant ultimately shuttered in March 2023. Despite the series of unfortunate events, the sisters also had an astonishing number of lucky breaks — largely thanks to Don Ramon's strong political and community ties. Labor union organizer Rudy Gonzalez said he was having a meal at Don Ramon's when he heard about the restaurant's impending closure. 'They still felt like there was demand — but fell victim to lack of foot traffic like a lot of other restaurant and retail outfits during the pandemic,' Gonzalez said. 'They were struggling to think through what their next move would be, so we put our heads together and said, 'Look, there are major development sites that are going to incorporate ground for retail into their builds. Can we help connect you to some options? '' Gonzalez said the sisters toured a number of locations, including the Brady Block, a new mixed-use development that includes the Local 38 Plumbers Union headquarters at 12th and Brady streets. But the family was 'unsure' about taking a vacant retail space in the development, he said. 'It seemed to me like they were really trying to grapple with what a new Don Ramon's would look like and what the capacity would be,' he said. 'They were rightfully hesitant around whether there would be enough demand and enough foot traffic to justify a sizable space.' 'We were taken to locations where we would not fit as a Mexican restaurant — you have to know your demographic,' said Nati Ramirez. Nati Ramirez has stories for days from her decades of working in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. She also has connections. A 'check-in' with Suhr — the former police chief, who is now the director of safety and security for landlord BXP — led to the lease deal at the Embarcadero Center. When the sisters toured the downtown space with Christine Yuen, BXP's senior vice president of leasing, the area was riddled with commercial vacancies — fallout from the pandemic, which caused office workers and tourists to flee the area. But the sisters saw potential. 'Willie Brown said, 'Our city is going to come back in five to 10 years,'' Nati Ramirez said, referring to the former San Francisco mayor, who she said is a longtime Don Ramon's customer. The lease, which requires the Ramirezes to pay a percentage of future revenues and waived payments for some time, was mutually beneficial: BXP was one of a number of property owners exploring partnerships with the city to fill vacant retail spaces at discounted rents in order to help revitalize downtown. 'We support our retail partners' success through various strategies and remain committed to doing so. The positive impact of these collaborations with our partners, properties and clients has been significant,' Yuen told the Chronicle this week. The company announced Thursday that it signed eight new retail leases at the Embarcadero Center complex. Yuen declined to comment on Don Ramon's failure to launch, but Leonilla Ramirez said the landlord has been patient. 'I don't want to let them down — they've been with us through thick and thin.' She said that illness in her family and her own personal health issues got in the way of the restaurant's reopening. The sisters also said they were promised pro bono support from community leaders and city officials that never materialized, but declined to provide details. City officials told the Chronicle they did what they could to help. 'In 2023, we awarded Don Ramon's a $25,000 business training grant through a competitive process. This grant helps cover startup and operating costs like inventory, hiring, equipment, rent and utilities,' said Kate Patterson of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. 'Our staff are well-trained professionals who communicate with interested businesses, nonprofits, about availability of grants and the standard RFP (request for proposals) process.' Regardless of whether broken promises or a series of risky business partnerships were to blame for the sisters' present dilemma, Gonzalez, the labor organizer, said he believes Don Ramon's still has a chance at a 'hell of a comeback story' — particularly as another Mexican restaurant in the Financial District area, Orale Orale, recently announced its closure after some 30 years on Sacramento Street. 'They were part of the fabric of civic life … the place to go for the who's who of politicians. But it was also where local tradespeople made it a point to stop in. It was very much a community hall,' Gonzalez said of Don Ramon's. 'With all that history and all the connections to the community, it would not be hard to get local apprentices and tradesmen together to do a work party and help them. But they have to make the first move.'
Miami Herald
18 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Trader Joe's targeted by protesters for surprising reason
If there's one thing people tend to say about Trader Joe's, it's that the store has a pretty good reputation. Granted, you may not find every single product you need at Trader Joe's, and you may get annoyed by the fact that your favorite products might disappear without warning. Related: Costco doesn't want members (and non-members) to know this But for the most part, people tend to agree that shopping at Trader Joe's is a positive experience. Not only do the prices tend to be competitive, but the unique array of products makes for an interesting shopping trip. And while it's always sad to lose a favorite product, it's also fun to see new ones hit the shelves. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Plus, Trader Joe's also has some of the most courteous employees in all of retail. Customer service is a core part of the company's philosophy and culture. And when you're doing a mundane errand like grocery shopping, it's a nice thing to be smiled at. Though many shoppers are loyal Trader Joe's fans, the store has been called out on more than one occasion for several of its practices. For one thing, the company has been accused of racist product labeling, such as its Trader Jose's branding for Mexican food. While Trader Joe's no doubt meant it to be cute, a lot of people took it the wrong way, and understandably so. Related: Another supermarket chain tries new way to fix checkout Trader Joe's has also been accused of trying to prevent workers from unionizing. The chain wouldn't be the first business to try to engage in union-busting. But for a company that prides itself on putting employees first, some of its practices in that area have been questionable at best. One of the products you'll find at Trader Joe's is poultry. It's a staple item found in many consumers' refrigerators. On July 2, a protester from Direct Action Everywhere, a Bay Area-based animal rights group, was arrested after super-gluing himself to the poultry section at a Trader Joe's in Pasadena. Related: Costco has a massive labor problem nobody is talking about In addition, multiple members of Direct Action Everywhere stormed the store to protest the company's connection to Petaluma Poultry, a division of Perdue Foods that supplies Trader Joe's with chicken products. "Chickens deserve medical attention," chanted one protester while standing on a cash register. The protester who glued himself to the poultry shelf was eventually removed by law enforcement, who handcuffed him and led him out of the store. More retail: Walmart CEO sounds alarm on a big problem for customersTarget makes a change that might scare Walmart, CostcoTop investor takes firm stance on troubled retail brandWalmart and Costco making major change affecting all customers That same day, another member of Direct Action Everywhere was arrested after she glued her hand to the front desk at Trader Joe's headquarters in Monrovia. The group claims its goal is to educate the public on animal rights. Instead, it seems like all it did was cause chaos at a busy supermarket. Either way, Trader Joe's may want to rethink its poultry source - if not for the sake of animals, then for the sake of avoiding mayhem while people are trying to shop. Related: Walmart makes bold move to compete with restaurants The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump will charge 35% tariff on Canadian imports starting Aug. 1.
President Donald Trump plans to impose a 35% tariff on the majority of imports from Canada starting next month, an increase to the 25% levy the president first announced in February. Trump said the 35% tariff, which go into effect Aug. 1, is necessary because of fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. through Canada. 'As you will recall, the United States imposed tariffs on Canada to deal with our nation's fentanyl crisis, which is caused, in part, by Canada's failure to stop the drugs from pouring into our country. Instead of working with the United States, Canada retaliated with its own Tariffs,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'If Canada works with me to stop the flow of Fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.' In fiscal year 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border, compared with roughly 21,100 pounds seized at the Mexican border. The Canadian Border Services Agency seized nearly 18,300 pounds of drugs, including 1.2 pounds of fentanyl, entering Canada from the U.S. in 2024, CBC reported. Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, said his administration is working to reach a new trade deal with the U.S. before the Aug. 1 deadline. 'Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses. We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1,' Carney wrote on social media platform X. 'Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries.' Canada is the second largest trade partner of the U.S. at $57 billion in two-way commerce during May, according to data from the Census Bureau. Over the past several days, the Trump administration has sent a flurry of letters to dozens of U.S. trade partners informing them that higher import tariffs could kick in if no new trade agreements are reached by Aug. 1. Trump said he is also placing a 50% tariff on imports of copper starting in August, and is considering a 200% tariff on imported pharmaceutical products later this year. The post Trump will charge 35% tariff on Canadian imports starting Aug. 1. appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
