San Sebastian del Oeste

 From December 2021

This is the final post from our excursion to San Sebastian del Oeste from Puerto Vallarta.  Once we exited the bus, we were on our own to explore this mountaintop village.

It's a quaint little town, but I would rather have been refining my tortilla-making technique at the little roadside bakery. Things were completely shut down here for about a year during the pandemic, and we got the feeling that the damage to business was considerable.  This part of the excursion was anticlimactic, but it was still fun to walk around.

After an hour of wandering, it was time for the long ride back down the mountain to Puerto Vallarta.  We made it back in time for dinner and sunset.

Sipping Tequila: San Sebastian del Oeste

 From December 2021

Blue Agave

 

Julia's sister lives close to the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky, so we have "hiked" that trail on numerous occasions during annual visits to see family. When I drink good bourbon, I like to have it with some ice to open up its flavors.  I also like a Manhattan or Old-fashioned made with bourbon.

I've had shots of tequila that I choked down, and I've had some margaritas made with tequila that taste pretty darn good.  In college, we drank something called a Brave Bull, made with tequila and kahlua.  But I've never enjoyed tequila on the rocks or straight up.  

I've heard of sipping tequila, but I had yet to be convinced that there was such a thing.  On the excursion to San Sebastian, we stopped at a blue agave farm and tequila distillery.  All of the tequila made here is sold on-site and made from pure blue agave. You can't buy this tequila at any liquor store.  You have to buy it here, and it sells out every year.

When I first stepped into the distillery, it was like walking into the 19th Century.  This is a very basic, primitive operation.  No glitzy powerpoint or shiny copper.  This family-owned operation has been making tequila this way for many generations.

agave mash

 

the still

Through the tour, the distillery employee reminded us that this tequila is not made for shots or margaritas.  "Go buy Jose Cuervo, if you want that," he scoffed.  "Our tequila is made to be sipped in small quantities and enjoyed on its own."  

I was thinking, "yeah, right.  Good marketing."  Then he brought out their Tequila Blanco, their least expensive and least-aged tequila.  It was still about $40/bottle.  Hmm, pretty good.  Better than any tequila that I've had before.  

 Next, he brought out two more bottles, the reposado and the viejo.

 

The reposado is aged for about a year in oak barrels and was about $60.  "That's some serious cash," I thought.  Then I sipped it and understood why.   It was so smooth and flavorful that I didn't want to add any ice or water or mixer or anything to it.  This tequila shone on its own.  

I could tell you that the $80 viejo (aged) tequila was even better, but I would be lying.  It was good, but it burned a little (higher alcohol content) and wasn't my favorite.  

We bought a bottle of the reposado and still have most of it in the liquor cabinet.  Every once in awhile, we pour a small sip to remind ourselves of the good times that we had in Puerto Vallarta.  

 

Cafe La Quinta Mary: San Sabastian del Oeste

I've visited coffee plantations on previous travels to Costa Rica and Jamaica but never previously in Mexico.  Mexican coffee, particularly from the Chiapas region, has always held a special place in my heart.  When coffee was just a hobby for me, I had an internet friend from Alaska who would go to Chiapas each year and bring back coffee beans from area farmers, which he would then roast in his Alaskan pizza oven setup.  He mailed me five pounds of these raw beans. It was some of the best coffee that I've ever tried.

When I roasted professionally, I kept Mexican coffee beans in stock for two reasons.  One, I loved the flavor profile.  Two, it was the least expensive high-quality arabica coffee that I could find--often less than $2/lb for green in 152 lb bags.   I sold two different roasts:  a lightly roasted-bean that was marketed as Mexican Altura and an dark-oily bean that was marketed as French Roast (known internally as BBB for badly burn beans).  

The coffee plantation that we visited in the San Sabastian area was quite basic.  Here, an employee is grinding the coffee beans with a belt-driven grinder.

The owner is selling roasted coffee to us gringo tourists. His family has been growing coffee here for five generations.

As soon as the line died down, I asked him if he could sell me a kilo of green (raw) coffee beans.  He nodded and then disappeared for a long time in the back.  The price was half the price of roasted--a reasonable deal.  

When I went to roast the coffee back home, the preparation was not as clean as what I'm used to.  There were small amounts of debris mixed in with the green beans.  However, the lightly roasted coffee was delicious. 

First Stop: Tour to San Sebastian del Oeste

 From December 2021

Towards the end of our Puerto Vallarta trip, I reluctantly gave Julia permission to book an excursion into the mountains.  In my mind, I was thinking of past sightseeing bus tours, where you get out, take a few photos in a crowd of tourists, and move back into the bus for the next stop.  

This excursion turned out much better than that, and I'm glad that I let Julia talk me into it.  Things started out well when Julia called the excursion company and asked if there were any spots left for the tour on the next day to San Sebastian del Oeste.  The guy said that there were exactly two unfilled spots left on the tour.  If we could get to the pickup spot at a nearby hotel early the next morning, he would let us come along for $50/each (reduced from $85/each).  

We had no idea what to expect from the tour, except that it was supposed to include a coffee plantation, a tequila tasting, and a self-guided tour at the mountain village of San Sebastian del Oeste.  We had an early morning espresso near the pickup spot and soon saw three other couples waiting to be picked up.  Our tour operators were late.  This is Mexico and to be expected.

 

Eventually, a tour bus arrived, and the driver urged us all on.  However, just before leaving, he discovered that we weren't the people he was supposed to pick up.  We all got back off.  I'm not sure where the driver  would have taken us if he hadn't discovered the mistake.

Ten minutes later, a smaller bus/large van arrived on the opposite side of the street with a driver and a guide.  This was our ride.  We stopped at several other hotels along the beach on the way out of town and picked up  a few other couples.  

Then, the driver took us several hours up into the mountains.   The guide talked to us informally along the way, pointing out areas of interest, including new developments in the jungle that might appeal to northerners looking for lower priced, new homes.  The developments were lovely but would be a very different experience than Puerto Vallarta.

Our first stop was at a roadside bakery. 

 

Here we learned how to make tortillas the traditional way.

 

It isn't as easy as you might think.  The trick is to get the raw form to the grill in one whole flat piece.  It's a hand-on process, including flipping the tortilla with your fingers on the hot griddle.  No liability waivers needed in this part of the world.

the tricky part

After our lesson, we had pastries and coffee made by the professionals.  

 Our next stop would be a coffee plantation.