Lagniappe: A Bicycle Adventure and the Papi Hemingway Cocktail

Because this Lagniappe edition of our blog deals with cycling (in addition to a fantastic cocktail) Ann has allowed me to take the lead.  I will be brief.

The folks I ride with in the Santa Rosa Cycling Club represent all walks of life –  engineers, nurses, doctors, dentists, building contractors, lawyers, sheriffs, plumbers, teachers – we even have a rocket scientist and a renowned mountain climber.  But none of them, to my knowledge, has ridden a bike to Oaxaca and back nor created a world class cocktail. 

Jared, Beverage Director at Tacolicious and creator of the cocktail

The cocktail’s namesake.

Jared on his historic ride.

Jared Crabtree, the Tacolicious Beverage Director, has done both of these things.  His epic four-and-a-half month, 4,488 mile ride to Oaxaca and back in 2013 on his Surly Long Haul Trucker bicycle is an amazing saga. To give you a feel for it I am including a couple of snippets from the account posted on the Tacolicious web  page.  It is worth checking out for both cycling and culinary fans.

Setting out in early September, [Jared] made his way to La Paz (just that leg is 1,492 miles) where he got on a ferry to Mazatlán, and rode his way down the coast to Colima, turned north towards Guadalajara, then on to Mexico City, Puebla, and finally Oaxaca. In each place he stayed as short as a night or two or as long as a few weeks.

… Being his own tour guide definitely came with its hiccups. When he set out from Mexico City to Puebla, he unwittingly set out over a mountain pass where, as the sun set, he found himself at 13,000 feet. That night he spent in frigid temperatures, tucking himself in as tightly as he could in his sleeping bag. His bike took quite a beating too. A spoke that ripped through his tire landed him at Casa Ciclista in Guadalajara—a community project set up for traveling bike tourists. There he got his frame re-welded and his back wheel rebuilt, so he could finish his journey.

Jared took some amazing photos and kept a blog (see it here; and be sure to scroll down to see the commentary, in addition to the great photos).  I love his description of his experience when he arrived at Valle de los Cirios which is near Ensenada:

Although perhaps not as thrilling as that historic ride, to my mind creating the Papi Hemingway cocktail was in itself an amazing achievement.  Who would have thought that rum, mezcal and maraschino liqueur along with lime juice, agave nectar, and a splash of bitters could be so delicious.  It has become such a popular cocktail at Tacolicious that customers demand it whenever it rotates off the drink menu.

Ann and I recently tried to make our own Papi Hemingway based on the recipe below.

Because we do not have the arsenal of sophisticated cocktail ingredients available to bartenders at Tacolicious, we tweaked Jared’s recipe a bit to go with what we had on hand.  The result was fantastic, although undoubtedly not up to snuff with what Jared would put together.  So, if you are unable to make it to Tacolicious to get Jared’s personal touch, please accept this recipe as our lagniappe gift to you.  Cheers.