The tequila brand Cenote initiated World Paloma Day as recently as in 2019 to promote the National Drink of Mexico. Cenote Tequila gets its name from the magnificent underground sweet water cave systems of the Yucatán Peninsula.
THE PALOMA
More popular in Mexico than the Margarita the Paloma, meaning dove in Spanish, might have gotten its name from a popular Mexican folk song from the 1860’s even though it was created almost 100 years after the song. The Paloma isn’t actually that commonly found on bar menus in Mexico. It is rather a drink you have at home, letting your guests mix their own from tequila and mixers. Squirt, the first grapefruit soda and commonly used in Palomas, was created in Phoenix, Arizona in 1938. It was advertised as a great mixer with tequila in 1950 but wasn’t actually exported to Mexico until 1955 so the cocktail probably saw the light of day sometime after that. It might have been the creation of Don Javier Delgado Corona the then owner and bartender at La Capilla in Tequila, Mexico. Correct or not, what is known is that Don Javier created another classic, the Batanga, in 1961. The Batanga is more or less a Rum and Coke with tequila instead of rum and, of course, with a salt rim.
THE DESIGNER
The Finnish designer Saara Hopea was born in Porvoo, Finland in 1925. She was the granddaughter of goldsmith Samuel Mika Westerlund where her father worked as a manager. After studying at the Central School of Industrial Design in Helsinki she worked at a metalsmith company before joining Nuutajärvi glassworks. During her career Hopea worked with jewelry design, enameling, textile design as well as glass design. The Stacking Glass was designed by Saara Hopea in 1951.
Celebrate Like a Mexican
