Dried hibiscus flowers. Photo: empracht, Flickr.
Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things -- most recently, the proprietress of LeNell's liquor store. She's owned her own whiskey label, called Red Hook Rye, and has been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.
My first truckload of household goods from the States arrived in Mexico this past week. As soon as the refrigerator powered on, we headed to the market for groceries. First stop was a stand labeled "Semillas," meaning "seeds," where we found nuts, spices and dried hibiscus known as "jamaica" heaped tall in metal tubs and baskets. Tired of the boring jamaica we've found in restaurants -- over diluted and often made with jamaica concentrate -- Demian and I were excited to make a big batch of deep ruby red, tart jamaica as one of the first things to put into Casa Cóctel's refrigerator.
Alberta Straub, aka Miss Flighty, is a bartender committed to organic, natural ingredients in her drink making. She introduced me to making cocktails with jamaica. Miss Flighty loves using it as a replacement for cranberry juice and has been quite the evangelist for jamaica's refreshing, inexpensive and kidney-cleansing benefits. Jamaica is one of Alberta's bar essentials and she proved to me how delicious and versatile it is. Now it's a bar essential for me, too.
When I think of my mom, two things usually don't come to mind: beer and Frank Zappa. Which made it odd earlier this week when I opened an email to find she had sent me the following quote: "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
Though I am personally not a big fan of 
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