"damiana" news and stories

While at a hotel in Baja for a wedding last year, I was elated to find a bartender who seemed to understand my request for a really tart margarita. One sip of his margarita laced with damiana liqueur and the love spell was cast.

Damiana (Turnera aphrodisiaca) is an herb that grows wild in dry, sandy soil in areas like Mexico's Baja California Sur. The dried leaves and stems are used in various liqueurs. Guaycura Liqueur de Damiana, first marketed around the 1950s, is the most common commercial brand. It is packaged in a rather voluptuous, breasty, big-hipped bottle that is modeled after a fertility goddess.

You can also find damiana in a liqueur called Agavero. Claiming a history dating back to 1857, this damiana liqueur boasts a tequila base. The flavor is less herbal than Guaycura. We like the black pepper punch of the tequila base shining through in this liqueur. An all-natural, delicious liqueur called Calidad Fornax is made right here in La Paz by Products d'Alpin. The company has been working with damiana since 1980. Unfortunately, it's only available in Mexico.

No matter which brand of damiana you choose, we warn that this love spell cocktail recipe contains 4.5 ounces of alcohol. One is safe. Two is fun. Three is trouble. But hey, moderation is not a four-letter word.

Tequila is probably the last thing you'd choose to drink after filling your stomach with fine dining. It'd be like getting dressed up in your best clothes--then spilling something on yourself right as you walk out the door. However, Agavero is a tequila-based liqueur that can be savored after any meal. As it first hits your tongue, it's rich and almost has hints of wood and coffee, then it smooths out into a lighter, almost herbal taste

Agavero is created by separately aging blue agave anejo and reposado tequilas in oak barrels. The two liquors are then blended with essence of Damiana flowers, which grow in the mountains of the Jalisco region where Agavero is made--some Indian tribes there believe that Damiana is an aphrodisiac. While mostly designed to be sipped on its own, Agavero can also be used in mixed drinks such as the Mexican Cosmopolitan or to spike a post-dinner coffee. The bottle is designed to look like the spiky flower of the blue agave plant, with embossed leaves creeping up the sides.

For many of us going "home" for the holidays means ill-fitting gift shirts, drug store chocolate, eggnog spiked with bourbon, abusive grandparents, drunken tears, broken glass, the wail of sirens commingling with Xmas carols, blackouts, stunned girl or boyfriends gaping in mute horror at our ancestral home decor, and nonstop football on television.

Isn't it amazing that a simple few items of nutrition can make this sort of trauma pass like it was a summer night under the stars with the Philharmonic and a loved one by your blanket? Sound too amazing to be true? It isn't, dear friends, gather 'round. I've learned the key to holiday survival, which is to assume that wherever you go, no one will understand your culinary needs. You will need to bring all your weird herbs and foods with you, in little marked packets, for your relatives to make fun of.