For the 5th label in the Comanche Moon Brewery series I wanted to use a South Texas theme. Although the entire state's history is viewed as being interlaced (entrelazada) with Mexico's, for me, San Antonio and everything south of it is the only part of the state that was actually authentically "Mexican." Whereas, Houston, Dallas, and Austin, as their names reflect, didn't become cities in earnest until after the war with Mexico, San Antonio throws in history back to 1718 as a Spanish mission — preceding the founding of the Republic of Texas by more than a century. Therefore, in my view, this region was authentically Spanish, and subsequently Mexican, long before it was Texan or American, and I think this fact, to a certain degree, distinguishes it from the rest of the state.
Accordingly, I did not want to use another brew in the same vein as 'ale,' 'porter,' or 'pilsner,' since these are English terms. No, for this label, I wanted to recreate the "Sidewinder Sidra" theme in regard to this (and that) region's inextricable link to Mexico, and by extension, the Spanish language. Well, it was through my time in Spain (where they also speak Spanish of course) that I became familiar with sidra, Spanish cider. However, it was also during in my time in the Iberian peninsula that I was introduced to another traditional drink known as horchata that became very popular in the New World after originating in the Old one. So at this juncture, I knew the general theme I wanted to develop (Texican), and I knew the product that the label was going to advertise (horchata), but I still needed to create a location from where this horchata emanates.
Well, those actually familiar with the Spanish language (a lot less people actually belong to this category than the number of people who believe, incorrectly, I might add, that they belong to this category) already know that the two most conspicuous phonetic absences from the language, relative to English especially, are the hard "j" ex. "jar") sound and the hard "h" sound (ex. "horse"). Therefore, the word is pronounced "ohr-chah-tah" not "hor-chah-ta". As a result, I needed a place in South Texas that matched these idiomatic phonetics (Harlingen was obviously not going to work). It turns out that I didn't have to think about it long because I remembered back to when I would shop at the South Lamar Central Market in Austin where all the employees wore name tags that displayed their hometown on them. Of course, I never saw much deviation from the standard "Austin, TX," "Round Rock, TX," and "Lockhart, TX," but there was one nametag that I saw that I never forgot because it was such a unique sounding place to me and upon seeing it for the first time I immediately suspected, without any additional knowledge, that it had to be located in the Rio Grande Valley, that locale was a place known as Rio Hondo, TX. Now the moniker was complete, "El Rio Hondo Horchata" was going to be the name of the brew, and due to horchata being a thick, "milky" beverage I thought making it a stout sounded just right. Furthermore, since stouts are typically high ABV, dark beers I wanted to go with a color scheme and tagline that matched that reputation and I don't think I could've found a better color pair than (deep) purple and amber to put on the black background. The tagline isn't just a reference to a high ABV ("spiked"), but also to Rio Hondo meaning "Deep River" in Spanish, hence the specific use of "profoundly," with "sweet" being an obvious reference to horchata being a sweetened drink. The image that I used had been holding space in my head for a few years now, I was just waiting for the right time to use it. Although not a photo of Rio Hondo, TX, it is a photo of the stretch of the Rio Grande that carves its way through Santa Elena Canyon in the Big Bend region of the state, and, in my opinion, illustrates the adjective "deep." Moreover, when it came time to decide which animal I was going to use as the avatar, there was no decision to be made as the horned frog is not only an official symbol of the state of Texas, but also a physical representation of "spiked." Additional symbolism and substance was brought in to tie it all together by using a "lone star" and the word "heroica" above it, which, on top of matching the silent "h" phonetics, is also a nod to the Mexican custom of adding this honorific title to historic cities, i.e., "Heroica Matamoros," "Heroica Puebla," "Cuatro Veces Heroica Veracruz."
Pues allí está, Heroica Rio Hondo Horchata...
