The Ottawa Citizen wrote a story today about the demise of a tradition that’s as Mexican as Nopal Pie: The Liquid Lunch. Reporting from Mexico City, Catherine Bremer opens the article with this zinger:

The long Mexican business lunch, a tequila-fuelled food orgy that could last past sundown, is on the demise in the capital as a new generation of clean-living executives cuts back on costs and time-wasting.

Say it ain’t so, girlfriend! She got us at food orgy. Mostly orgy. That’s a lot of stamina you’ll need for all that tamal stuffin’

In an old habit as Mexican as mariachi, offices would empty for entire afternoons as employees packed into restaurants for hours-long feasts crucial for cementing business relations, even if they might leave people too drunk to sign deals.

Why go to Mexico when you can get shitfaced at lunch with your coworkers? After all, that’s what Mexicans do. But for Carlos Cazares [Ed. Note: Cindy, is he like, almost your cousin?], old traditions are being replaced by new ones:

“Power breakfasts” are in vogue, with Mexico City executives meeting over a pre-work plate of eggs and getting to the office, sober, by mid-morning.

Just like us at Guanabee. Except for eggs part. And the sober part. But who’s to blame for the joykill?

Mexican society has changed a lot, it’s more mature, more respectful of others. Long lunches are seen as old fashioned and in bad taste. A surge in female executives is also killing off the calorie-loaded “comidas,” which could launch businessmen on a bar crawl that led to a strip club or into the arms of a mistress in a pay-by-the-hour hotel.

There you have it. Mexico. No longer the land of food orgies, 9 margarita lunches, and tappin’ rent-a-hos.

Hasta la vista, liquid lunch [Ottawa Citizen]