Away, Away in Mexico

Away, Away in Mexico

Tequila
The thrill of the chase

Back in the early 80’s, I took a trip down to Mexico with my longtime friend, Sneed Mickleson. Sneed was looking for a Pima Bajo Indian princess that he had seen star in a black-and-white Western when he was thirteen. This had become a biannual quest, one that never yielded success but often resulted in Sneed offending indigenous Mexican peoples. For my part, I preferred to observe from a distance and drink Coronas in a lawn chair.  On this particular trip, however, in September of 1983, Sneed managed to escape the clutches of the Chuj tribe with a strange object in his back pocket. Half the size and in the shape of a beer bottle, the turquoise object was filled to the brim with a crystal-clear liquid. The liquid glittered, almost pink under the hot Mexican sun. We didn’t know it at the time, but Sneed had managed to abscond with an extremely rare tequila, Diabolitos de los Dragones Azules. These tequilas were distilled from a hybrid agave plant, grown on only a few fields before the Battle of the Alamo completely wiped out the strain. Only thirteen bottles remain in existence, one of which I buried in the center of the Dartmouth Green. Lest the old traditions fail.

Sincerely,

Roger Sherman III ’69