Archive for March, 2010

Tourism Advertising by New Mexico “On a Shoestring Budget”

At least when compared to our competitors: 

Colorado   $15 Million

Arizona      $6 Million

Texas         $24 Million

Utah            $7 Million

New Mexico   $2.6 Million 

And that $2.6 million is to be cut in the just approved budget (March, 2010) by $700,000 for fiscal 2011.  

A number of old sayings apply here:  You don’t ask.  You don’t get.   *  Squeaking wheel gets the grease.   *   Don’t ask.  Don’t tell.   Well, maybe that last one doesn’t quite apply but you get the drift.    When money is spent on tourism advertising, there is a return on that investment.  Every study on tourism advertising spending shows the same thing.  When you spend $1.00, you are gonna get about $40.00 in economic activity and about $3.00 back into the state’s treasury. 

Now, we go the Santa Fe every year and say to the Legislators, if you spend $1.00 in tax money, you will get $3.00 back into the Treasury plus it puts people to work in tourism related jobs – either new jobs or more hours of work for existing jobs. 

I’m not a math wizard but, if I had a dollar and handed it to you and you give me $3.00 back, I’d say that’s a good thing.   You’d be my new best friend. We’d be BFFs  (Best Friends Forever)   But, to the New Mexico Legislature, you’d think we were speaking in tongues.  They just look at you like they’d look at an elderly aunt who just keeps telling the same stories over and over.  “Oh, you dear sweet heart, just sit quietly out of the way.  We’ve got some legislatin’ to do, hon.” 

When you use logic to prove the irrefutable point, we get that look:  you poor soul, you are so cute.  Trying to think and everything!    We get the verbal ‘pat on the head’. 

Now, the state will authorize millions in tax refunds and even direct investments to bring film production to New Mexico. And, that’s wonderful.  A good concept.  Brings a lot of money to the state.  Good, high paying jobs on the film crew.  

But, ask for millions for tourism adverting?  “That just promotes burger flipping jobs.”  It seems that every Legislator graduated from high school and went directly to a CEO position.  None had to work their way through college.  None had to be hired in some small business as a counter clerk or an office runner or a receptionist.  According to the National Restaurant Association 7 of 10 working Americans have worked in a restaurant….you know, flippin burgers or waiting tables or dishwashing or cashiering or cooking on the line.   

Those burger flippin jobs, according to the US Travel Association in 2007, brought $5.7 billion to the state and $700 million in taxes.  That makes tourism New Mexico’s second largest private industry and the largest private sector employer.  But, we don’t get any respect. 

Santa Fe is at a pretty high altitude.  Air is thinner up there.  I think it’s the last of oxygen.  Legislators from the plains and valleys go up there and it just affects them.  2 + 2 no longer equals 4.  

More money for tourism advertising will generate more tourism.  More tourists spending money means more in taxes for the state, more jobs for more people.  It seems simple enough, doesn’t it?

Know Your Coffee

 Ethiopian shepherds noticed goats who ate the fruit of this plant would start “dancing”, leaping and running.Coffee was first eaten.  Crushed berries with mixed with fat to form ‘energy balls’.  The rise of Islam greatly contributed to coffee’s popularity since alcohol was forbidden but coffee was allowed. 

All the coffee in the world grows in the coffee belt centered on the equator between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.  Hawaii is the only state to grow coffee.

 In 1675, the King of England banned coffee houses claiming people met there to conspire against him.

 70% of the world consumes Arabica coffee beans which is mild and aromatic.   30% consumes Robusta which is more bitter-tasting and contains 50% more caffeine than Arabica.Coffee grows on trees which can reach 30 feet tall.  Most commercian trees are trimmed to keep them at about 10 feet tall for easy bean picking.  The bean is actually a seed inside a bright red berry.   Coffee is pick, dried and stripped down to a green bean.   Coffee is often shipped green then roasted at 500 degrees.  After a few minutes, the bean will make a popping sound and double in size.  After a couple more minutes, the bean will pop again and this signals the bean is done.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity on earth.  Oil is the first.  Clearly, we like dark, drippy things. 

George Washington invented instant coffee.  Not that George.  A Belgian living in Guatamala named George Washington invented instant coffee in 1906. 

Espresso is not a bean, blend or type of roast.  It is the method for preparing coffee: shooting pressurized water through finely ground coffee beans. 

The Coffee Term – Americano comes from WWII during which American GIs would order espresso with hot water to dilute the brew. 

How caffeine works:   In the brain, there is a chemical calls Adenosine which likes to attach only to certain receptors.  When that happens, you get drowsy.  Caffeine is consumed and moves to the brain and jumps into the Adenosine receptors so the Adenosine cannot.  All this Adenosine floating around unattached startles the Pituitary Gland which thinks something is going on and releases adrenaline into the bloodstream. Caffeine also bumps up the dopamine levels.  Adrenaline and dopamine produce the caffeine high.

 Coffee Terms

Caffé Americano – espresso diluted with hot water to brewed strength 

Caffé  Latte – with steamed milk and a dollop of froth 

Caffé Mocha – with steamed milk and chocolate syrup 

Caffé  Romano – with lemon peel 

Cappuccnino – with steamed milk, topped with lots of froth 

Cortadito – Cubano topped with steamed milk and froth 

Cubano – double shot with caramelized sugar 

Espresso Breve – with cream or half/half 

Espresso Con Panna – topped with whipped cream 

Espresso Machiato – marked with a small amount of froth 

Mochaccino – with steamed milk, lots of froth and chocolate syrup 

Mocha- cortaditio – Cortadito with chocolate syrup or mexican chocolate syrup which has cinnamon

Coffee Terms

Caffé Americano – espresso diluted with hot water to brewed strength 

Caffé  Latte – with steamed milk and a dollop of froth 

Caffé Mocha – with steamed milk and chocolate syrup 

Caffé  Romano – with lemon peel 

Cappuccnino – with steamed milk, topped with lots of froth 

Cortadito – Cubano topped with steamed milk and froth 

Cubano – double shot with caramelized sugar 

Espresso Breve – with cream or half/half 

Espresso Con Panna – topped with whipped cream 

Espresso Machiato – marked with a small amount of froth 

Mochaccino – with steamed milk, lots of froth and chocolate syrup 

Mocha- cortaditio – Cortadito with chocolate syrup or mexican chocolate syrup which has cinnamon

Know Your Amaretto

 Amaretto is NOT made from Almonds!   It’s a pure distilled alcohol spirit infused with apricot pits, burnt sugar and other fruits.  Sometimes, almond flavoring, vanilla, cloves and other spices and herbs are added.  Said to have been made originally in 1525 by an artist’s model in tribute to the artist’s talent.

 The artist was Berndarino Luini.  The place was Saronno, Italy.  Thus, the first brand was Amaretto Di Saronno.  Leonardo de Vinci and his student,  Luini,  were commissioned to paint frescos in the Saronno church.  Luini was painting an area which included the Madonna.  He found a model in a local widowed innkeeper who apparently liked the attention.  In appreciation for his work (as an artist and as a lover, according to the story), she steeped brandy and apricot pits and produced the first amaretto.  Not to be confused with Amaro, which is a type of Italian cordials made primarily from herbs.  Luini was touched by the effort of the lovely widow and boasted about  the flavored brandy. It soon became popular in Rome.

 Disaranno Originale claims the story is true and that they have followed the original recipe since 1525.  They deny almonds or nuts of any kind are involved.  “Apricot kernel oil”, burnt sugar and seventeen other herbs and fruits in precise measures are  infused into ‘absolute alcohol’.   A number of other companies produce almond flavored liqueurs.

Cordial/Liqueur -a strongly flavored highly sweet liquor usually drunk in small quantities after dinner as a digestif.

 A cordials flavor can come from many sources: fruits, herbs & leaves, flowers, nuts, seeds and beans, roots and barks.   Cordials must contain at least 2.5% sugar but usually contain far more.  Honey, maple and corn syrups are also used as sweeteners.  Cordial and Liqueur as words are interchangeable.

 The base alcohol varies:  neutral grain spirits are common.  Many liqueurs, however, are made from a specific spirit, such as, Scotch in Drambuie, Cognac in Grand Marnier or Irish Whiskey in Bailey=s.  Others are distilled from the primary ingredients themselves.

 Cordial comes from Latin: cor which means heart.  Cordials were originally made by alchemist or monks as a health remedy or elixir to soothe weary travelers.  Liqueur comes from the Latin: liquefacere, meaning to melt or dissolve (which is how most cordials are made!).

 Cordials are produced by cold or hot methods.  Cold methods include infusion, maceration and percolation.  Distillers use infusion and maceration for fruits which might be damaged by heat.  During infusions, crushed fruits are soaked in water for as long as a year. The liquid is strained, sweetened and added to alcohol.   In maceration, the crushed fruit is soaked directly in alcohol.   After the liquid is strained off, the remaining fruit is distilled and the distillate is recombined with the infused liquid.  Liqueurs commonly made this way include: triple sec, cassis, cointreau; Grand Marnier.   Percolation is often used for flavorings such as herbs and leaves.  Ingredients are placed in a basket or strainer and the alcohol is pumped up over them.  This process, similar to brewing coffee without heat, may go on for months until all  flavor is extracted.  Ingredients may be distilled afterward.   Drambuie, Irish Mist, Chartreuse are made this way.

 Hot methods include distillation in water and distillation in alcohol.  Water distillation is used for delicate herbs and flowers.  Once distilled, the flavored water is added to an alcohol base.  Ingredients such as seeds, nuts, bark or orange peel are more often distilled in alcohol. They are first soaked in alcohol, the distilled with additional spirits.