As readers may have picked up on by now, for my weird food and drink posts I like to try to switch the topics around a bit, and not have repeated or consecutive ones about the same food type, and/or from the same country or even continent. Well, I've been in the U.S. or Europe for a while, so today we're moving to Central America. Specifically, Ducal brand rojos (red) and negros (black) beans. And, if you're curious, I believe this is my first post about Guatemala since September 30, 2017, which covered some juice drinks from that nation.
The Ducal brand has been around since 1969. The company that manufactures their products is Industrias Alimenticias Kern's, which started in 1959. In turn Kern's was acquired by Fifco (Florida Ice and Farm Company) in 2006. Fifco, despite having the same name as a U.S. state, is actually named after the town of La Florida de Siquirres in Costa Rica. This company was stated by the Lindo Morales brothers (of Jamaican heritage) in 1908. Over the years Fifco has bought up other businesses, and now is part of the non-alcoholic beverage, dairy, bakery, alcoholic beverage, and real estate industries. Getting back to Kern's, this company's other products include sauces and ketchup. The Ducal brand is just several kinds of beans. And according to the ambitious title, these beans are fit for dukes, and presumably other high ranking members of royalty.
Ducal refried rojos (red) beans: These were reddish brown in color, and had the usual bean-y odor. Since they were refried they were highly processed, and had been pureed into a smooth paste. They kind of reminded me a bit of dog food in appearance. I tried some plain, and then put some on water crackers, along with ketchup and olives, as a sort of low-rent canape. The tasted was pretty much like other canned refried beans I've had--no better or worse. So, overall, decent, if you like refried beans. I have no reason to think they also wouldn't have been solid in a burrito, taco, etc.
Ducal refried negros (black) beans: These looked the same as the other kind, only the shade of brown was slightly darker. Otherwise the texture and odor was vey similar as well. Once again I tried some of these plain, and then spooned some onto crackers with olives and ketchup. I don't know if I could pick a winner between the two kinds, as their flavor wasn't very different. The result was the same--they were good, solid refried beans. Respectable examples of canned refried beans, suitable for all recipes involving this food type.
As usual, I'll flesh this out a little by discussing some famous Guatemalans, or at least folks with some Guatemalan heritage. I already discussed some of these people, in the Guatemalan juice drink post I mentioned previously, so these are additional examples. First off, there's Erick Barrondo. In the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, he won a silver medal in the men's 20 km. racewalk event. This is especially significant since to date he's the only Guatemalan Olympian to win any medal, in any game. In the world of music, we have Manny Marroquin. He was born in Guatemala, but moved to the U.S. as a child. He's a prolific and honored mixing engineer. He's worked with such famous musicians as Whitney Houston, 2Pac, Pink, John Mayer, Shakira, Rihanna, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and Johnny Legend. He's been nominated for 36 Grammys, and has won 8. To date, as he's still very much active. Then we have Tony Sarg who lived from 1880-1943. His father was a German government official, and his mother was English. Tony was born in Guatemala while his father was working as a consul for Germany. Sarg then went to the U.S., where he became a renowned puppeteer, illustrator, and animator. He's known as "America's Puppet Master." Finally, in the NFL, there was Guatemalan-born, American-raised John Hendy. In 1985 he played in all 16 games (10 as a starter) at cornerback for the San Diego Chargers. He intercepted 4 passes for 139 yards, and a touchdown, recovered a fumble, and accumulated an AV of 5. I couldn't find out why his career only lasted one season--presumably he had some catastrophic injury that forced him to retire.
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