Maztlán's World Record

I knew that Mazatlán’s shrimp fishery industry is one of the largest in the world: 5,000 to 10,000 tons per year caught, processed, frozen, and exported all over the world by an estimated 10,000 people employed directly or indirectly in the industry. But what I didn’t know...

and recently discovered, is that Mazatlán is listed in the Guinness World Record Book as holding a shrimp-themed world record.

Around 2010, a group of Dutch students in the Netherlands, a country that possesses a large shrimp industry (who knew?), got together and decided to gain entry into the Guinness record book by competing for the world’s Largest Shrimp Cocktail (yes, there is such a thing). They attained that record with a shrimp cocktail weighing 116 kg (255 pounds lb 11 oz), breaking the previous record of 99 kg set by the United Kingdom in 2009 (the origin of the Largest Shrimp Cocktail record is unknown).

Soon after, the Mazatlán hotel association (Tres Islas), got wind of the Dutch accomplishment and decided to embark on a nine-month effort to acquire a record they felt should be held by Mazatlán, the city sometimes referred to as “El Capital de Camerón” – the Shrimp Capitol. That effort officially came to fruition in September of 2011 at an event called "Coctelazo Mazatlán 2011", with the creation of a cocktail that effectively “shrimped” the Netherland shrimp cocktail record at 538.5 kg (1,187 lb 3oz).

As documented in the Guinness Book of Records: “The glass itself took four months to manufacture, a Plexiglas acrylic cocktail glass replica that boasted a diameter of 1.36 m (4 ft 5 in) and a height of 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in). The group started with 675 kg (1,488 lb) of unpeeled shrimp before 80-some chefs started a six-hour task at 5:30 a.m. of peeling, cleaning, and cooking what ended up as 488 kg (1,075 kg) of prepared shrimp. Estimates of the total number of shrimp used soared past 33,000, although not all prepared shrimp were saved for the final cocktail.”

After Mazatlán’s entry into the Guinness record book in 2011, the Largest Shrimp Cocktail title continued to be contended by participants in various parts of the world, who were determined to wrestle the title from El Capital de Camerón. As a result of a 12-year back and forth, a restaurant in Denver, Colorado called El Coco Pirata held the title in early March of this year at 816 kg (3,260 lb).

But that record was soon in jeopardy. In the spirit of competition, culinary tradition, and I suspect just plain fun, Mazatlán hoteliers and restaurants, the fishing industry, and state and national authorities organized an event to be held on February 23rd at the Mazatlán Convention Center called the “Coctelazo Mazatlán 2023”, a successor to Coctelazo Mazatlán 2011. The specific intent of the event was to return the Largest Shrimp Cocktail record to Mazatlán.

José Ramón Manguart, president of Tres Islas explained that, “We have set ourselves the goal of what we did in 2011, which has the objective of promoting … our gastronomic value as a tourist asset, promoting Pacific shrimp as the best of the world, and letting it known that Mazatlán has the most important fishing fleet in Latin America.”

The attempt had to conform to the Guinness record parameters in terms of size and conformation of the cocktail vessel, and the cocktail recipe used by the then current record holder (which included a large quantity of non-shrimp ingredients as part of the final weight). The Mazatlán shrimp fishing industry provided 1,800 kg (3968 lb) of shrimp (later whittled down in the preparation process). Volunteers, cooks, and tourism and gastronomy students from the University of Sinaloa, took up the challenge.

The event was "refereed" by Susana Reyes, official Guinness World Record certifier. After 16 hours of defrosting shrimp and 10 hours of preparation before an appreciative crowd, the completed cocktail weighed in at 1701.5 kg (3751 lb), and Mazatlán once again held the Guinness record for the Largest Shrimp Cocktail in the world. In accordance with the Guinness requirement that, if possible, salvageable resources should not be wasted in the process of setting a record, everyone present was offered a helping of the world’s Largest Shrimp Cocktail as a gastronomic reward for attending the event (i.e., a good time was had by all).

FYI optional reading regarding the Guinness process:

Once a potential record attempt has been identified, Guinness World Records will review the evidence to determine if it meets the criteria for a world record. If the record attempt is successful, it will be added to the official Guinness World Records book.

Guinness World Records also has a team of adjudicators who travel the world to verify record attempts in person. This is especially important for record attempts that are difficult to verify remotely, such as record attempts that require specialized equipment or that take place over a long period of time.

To be considered for a Guinness World Record, the feat must meet the following criteria:

• Measurable: The record must be able to be measured objectively. For example, the record for the most push-ups in one minute is measurable because it can be counted.
• Breakable: The record must be able to be broken by someone else. For example, the record for the tallest person is breakable because someone could potentially grow taller than the current record holder.
• Standardizable: The record must be able to be repeated by someone else following the same rules. For example, the record for the fastest mile is standardizable because it is run on the same distance course under the same rules.

Once a feat has been verified by Guinness World Records, it is added to the official Guinness World Records book. The Guinness World Records book is published annually and contains a list of all of the current world records.