Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, guys, I'm fired up about this one because tonight you're going to meet Mike Winters, the founder of Cuenta Lasa Tequila, and find out how he came up with the idea to blend coffee lovers with tequila lovers and bring a tequila to market that is this amazing. Stick around, you're going to love this one. It's tasting tequila with bread.
All right, man, I am excited about this interview tonight. I've got Mike Winters from Quinta Lesa Tequila here, and we're going to talk about this tequila. How you doing tonight, Mike?
[00:00:37] Speaker B: I am doing great.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Great.
I'm glad to have you. Where, where are you at today?
[00:00:42] Speaker B: I am Miami, Florida.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Miami, Florida. Okay, so we're on the same time zone. We're just not in the same temperature zone.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: It's cold. We're freezing here, actually.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I quite. When I woke up this morning, so it was 55.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: That's basically Snelling for us.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: This is true.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Well, tell everybody that doesn't know who you are. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, how'd you get in the tequila business, all that stuff?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Oh, man, that's a long story right there. So I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, originally. I've been in Florida for about 15 years. But still, still pretty die hard Pittsburgh, you know, fan and all the sports. I'd be disowned if I wasn't. So that's kind of where we're at on that.
I got addicted to tequila through a series of events. I'm kind of a born entrepreneur, I guess. I've not worked for anybody since 99, so I've been kind of on my own for quite some time through various different things. And one of those ventures was a few restaurants in Florida that taught me kind of the rope, so to speak, within, you know, consumer products, food and beverage, I should say. Learned a little bit about that. Had a buddy that was launching a Tequila brand and needed some help on the distribution import side. So I said, hell, I'll do that. That was about 10, 12 years ago. I launched an import company and really just kind of fell in love with the culture of Tequila, just the whole community aspect of it and just the way that, you know, people like you that are just like, just so die hard fans and the loyalty and just like the true conversations. But even in that short period of time, even as an importer, made a lot of new friends and got to know a lot of brand owners, and it really kind of sparked my interest to. To dive deeper into the World.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: So have you always been a tequila drinker or did that sort of situation bring you to actually first really enjoying tequila?
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah, quite opposite actually. I've actually hated tequila pretty much my whole life. It was funny, my father and I, well, my, my father had some time shares in Cancun. So when I was younger I would go there and much like everybody else, you know, college, Cancun, you know, they, they get bad taste for tequila after too many nights of tequila. And I kind of swore that off around my 22nd birthday. I said, I'll never have tequila again. And I remember friends would like, you know, throughout the years, obviously different various celebration sit situations that give me a shot of tequila and I mastered the art of spitting the tequila back into my beer that I was holding and properly disposing of the beer and getting a new beer just so I wouldn't insult whoever gave me the shot because I just did not want tequila. And it wasn't really until, you know, I had these new, you know, gateway drug, I call it of a tequila we were importing that tasted a little bit more like bourbon whiskey. And I'm like, oh, that's, that's a lot different. It's not the tequila that I'm used to. And you know, mainly I was just drinking tequila for the most part, right. And so now I'm having a little bit better and I'm like, okay, this isn't so bad.
You know, just curious by nature, started diving a little deeper into the wormhole of agave and come across Fortaleza and all these, you know, additive free brands and what's this all about? And then I had that and I was like, okay, now it's over. I'm going to start, you know, now, now apparently I like tequila. So that's kind of how that, you know, evolved into, you know, understanding there is a huge difference of which tequila you're drinking. And I think that to me is probably one of the best things over the past four years or so of really diving deeper into this world that I've grown to appreciate. The amount of people that swore off tequila, that have found great brands and great products that, you know, truly care about what they're putting in their, in the bottle transition from whiskey and bourbons and all these things. And now drinking tequila, it's crazy.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it is really fun to sit down with that person that goes, no way. There was that time, you know, I can never drink it again. And, and you get them to taste something that is traditional and special, right? And then you Watch their face go, this doesn't taste like tequila. And next thing you know, they fall in that cavernous wormhole that we're all in.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: I. I don't even tell people when it's first. I'm like, just try this. Like, what is it? Shut up. Just drink it. Like it's. You'll. You're gonna like it. And very rarely do I get tequila as a guess, right? It's a whiskey, it's bourbon, it's. You know. And then a few people that know agave will get. It was like, oh, wow. And it's only because in their mind, they have completely blocked out the flavor profile of tequila and what a real tequila should taste like. So in their mind, they only have certain profile and a certain smell that they're looking for, which is shit, right?
That's what they're. That's what they're looking for. They're looking for that bad, nasty taste and smell that they've grown accustomed to hating. So when you give them something that doesn't have those same profiles, they're kind of like dumbfounded by what it is.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: What do you do when you run across those people that are absolutely in love with tequila, yet it's that other tequila, it's the ones that we're talking about that are so like, I don't want to say names and make somebody mad, but there's some tequilas out there that I do the nose on them and I'm like, wow, is this like a, Is this a cleaner? Like, right, this doesn't taste like something I should drink. And someone goes, no, that's the greatest tequila in the world. How do you talk to them without like making them feel bad?
[00:05:54] Speaker B: I've. I once was told I was in New Zealand, my sister lives there, and I was at a winery there. And you know, they have some really big wineries that are very flashy and you know, everything and whatnot. Then there's the other ones that are just like the true grit, you know, you can tell this is a family run and respectable. And that was the one I was really interested in going. And there was an older man there who, you know, let us in after we rang the bell numerous times and almost seemed annoyed that we were there. I asked him to pick out some wines and I said, well, what's your. What's your favorite wine? And he said, that's a stupid question. Ask me another question. And I said, well, that's. Why is it a bad question? He said, well, you're insinuating that there's such thing as a bad wine. And I said, I'm curious. And he says, well, there's no such thing as a bad wine. It's just a different wine. One might think that that wine that it's been sitting open for five days is bad. But then someone else might say, well, that sounds, that tastes different.
And I think that's the perspective that I've taken with, with tequila is that each person has a completely different profile and, you know, palate, right? And what they, what they enjoy. And what am I to tell you? That what you're drinking is shit, right? It's, it may taste like liquid gold to them and it's the greatest thing they've ever had since sliced bread. But then I look at it where I'm like, that for me, doesn't work. And case in point, I don't like IPAs, but yet they do very well. I think IPAs are garbage beer, but people freaking love IPAs, so it's like I can't sit there and say, oh, well, you know, certain brands or whatever are garbage. All I can say is that I don't personally like, adhere with like their production methods or how they produce it.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: It.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: But it doesn't necessarily mean that the profile is bad. It's just completely different than what we're putting out there.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great, that's a great answer. I'm similar. I'm drink what you like, right? If you like to drink it. I left tequila and moved to bourbon and I came back to tequila through Classia Zul, right? And that brought me back to tequila. So when I see somebody drinking it, I'm just like, oh, they just got the gateway drug to real tequila. I've said many times, bad tequila is to good tequila what marijuana is to heroin. It's a gateway.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah, could, could be. I mean, it's, you know, it's the same way I feel about celebrity owned brands like Strictly that are used just for publicity. You know, everyone hates them and craps on when I'm like, man, without them, I don't know if we would have gotten as much exposure as we've gotten, right? Like, if the Rock didn't open up a tequila, I'm not sure we're going to get as much exposure. And I can pretty much guarantee if Clooney never made shit, we would, we would still be very small. So it's like, it is what it is, right? Like, I welcome all of them. I always say, like they bring them to the door and then it's our job to educate once they're in. Right. So it's, you know, whatever gets into the show.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: That's a thanks to, you know, the owner of Paul Mitchell and Sammy Hagar and Clooney. You know, those were kind of the first ones.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Hagar still making a good tequila. So you got that.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. I mean, they, they, they did. I mean, in a way, like. Yeah. I mean, it's like anything. McDonald's burger once was good. Right. And I think that everyone kind of starts with good intentions, but then demand drives profits and VCs get involved and next thing you know, you're putting shit in a bottle because you're just pumping it out and whatever keeps consistency is what they are after.
So it's. That's just kind of like the necessary evil, so to speak, that comes with growth that you've got to be very careful with and with. And it's like, be careful what you wish for, I guess.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Right, exactly. So when you were thinking about, okay, I'm going to go ahead and start my own brand, where were you at in that point? Were you just in the import world and then thinking, hey, I'm going to start a brand?
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, import world. Learning a lot about, I'd say, go to market strategies and branding. And a lot of, like, my thinking was, man, I feel like there's a few brands that I was in talks with that or I was helping with or listening to their story that I just felt, man, they were missing the mark and not on product quality, but branding. And I think that everyone just keeps. They focus so much on what's in the bottle. And it should be, it should be dynamite. Right? It should be golden tradition, great, like, phenomenal product. That's like kind of just the way that it should be to have anything else. You, you're, you're already way behind. But the branding elements I think is where you need to really dive into. And that's something I like to think I'm okay at. And I'm, you know, as far as, like, the way you put a brand out there. And I've told everybody on my team that we are a fantastic brand and Art Tequila is what they drink while they listen to our story.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: That's good. Yeah. A lot of people have a great tequila, but they don't have a way to put it to the market. And that's you. You can get it in the bottle, but liquor to lips and figuring out how to get it into the place where people are going to see it and Want to pick it up? That's a whole nother ball game.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah, this, this. It's a lot more than just making good tequila. Right. And I think there's a lot of brands out there that make great tequila that unfortunately probably will never get any bigger than they are because they're just focused on making great tequila. And again, if that's their, Their, Their. Their idea behind it is, hey, we're just going to stay in these two, three markets and we're going to turn profit and we're just going to kind of run this thing and have fun then. Great. And they'll do that. They'll get niche audience and they'll. And they'll do well with that. But to. To really go to scale, you really have to understand why the consumer wants it in the first place.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Sure. Well, before we dive into the actual tequila and how you picked your distillery and came up with a profile, let's dive into a little bit of your branding. So what does the name mean?
[00:11:11] Speaker B: So Quinta Lisa. So quintao means £100. The Lisa part was literally put into a word, mash. I was on my third trademark, and my attorneys were like, dude, just pick something that means nothing. So I like the Quintao part. I had a bunch of. It was originally going to be called Quinta Luna, but there was a, I think, wine company or something in the EU that would have been a little conflicting. I again, put a bunch of things in a word match, and it had the. The Z and the Q I thought was pretty cool. And trademarks were happy. So that's. That's kind of what the nature of that. And it's funny because it kind of sparked the rest of the. The brand in so many ways. The. So the bottle, we were originally clear, and I said, no, I want the bottle to be black. So it allowed us to go to a lesser quality of a glass, meaning that it's less clear. So the. Like, the quality of glass means the clarity of the glass, not necessarily the weight or anything like that. But when you did. When I did that, it felt. It did feel light. So I actually designed our own bottle, and I'd put the texture on the bottom. As I was working out one day, I was like, oh, this would be great. At the bottom of my bottle is the texture of a dumbbell. And here I am thinking about, quinta means a hundred pounds. So it kind of all played well together. So I had the company go ahead and they textured the bottom, and it was like they called me like this Is amazing. This bottle's awesome. So it turned out really, really good. I was pretty happy with the way the shape of the bottle, and I call it the tuxedo wear in Chuck Taylor's is the. Is the style of our bottle, look at me, don't look at me type attitude. But it has this. Yeah, we put the orange on there. We played with some different colors, but I felt that the orange really popped off the shelf and then the label at an angle. That was a company. We. We hired a marketing agency in Mexico called Reforma. And just an awesome group of people for those who out there that are trying to create a new brand. Definitely look them up. But the one. The one designer there, she came up with this idea of putting this.
The orange label at an angle. And originally I'm like, this drives me crazy. But I love it, you know, like, it's like my OCD is like, why is it not straight? But then I'm also like, well, this needs to be this way forever. And I love it. I think, you know, you put it on the shelf when we did that many, many times, I'd go to bars and just put the sample up on the wall and then walk in the back of the bar and go, oh, shit. I see it like, do you see it like, yeah, I see it like, okay, cool. And that was really. The idea behind it was how do I pop off a shelf in a crowded market?
[00:13:25] Speaker A: It does too. It sits right here on my shelf among, you know, several hundred bottles. And whenever there's somebody over, inevitably, that. What is that one? Which one? That one. The black bottle. What's that? You know, so it becomes a conversation piece and gets shared. It stands out really nice. And it's. It's a heavy bottle.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: It isn't actually as heavy as you think. It feels like it's heavier than most, but it's really not. No kidding. Yeah. It's psychological. I'm pretty confident of it. I've not actually weighed the bottles that compared to other bottles, so I could be wrong, but I feel like it's more psychological than anything.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: It feels like a heavy bottle.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Depends how much fluid I guess is in it. Right.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: That one I picked up was full.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: This one is not.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: This one doesn't last around here very long. It is so good.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Okay, so let. Let's talk about the journey of. Okay, now I'm going to start a brand. So now I've got to go learn more about the actual tequila process. What. What was that process like for you?
[00:14:24] Speaker B: So fortunate enough because of the import world. I've been able to make some friends in Mexico, mainly a group called Tequila Partners. I'm sure you're familiar with JP and all those guys and Vinnie, and I'll be honest with you, like, impossible to do without them. They've done such a fantastic job to really help us. I know throughout the years. I'm not the easiest, I think, to get along with at times when it comes to work. And I'm pretty. Like, I don't sit idle well, I guess is my issue. They've been extremely patient dealing with that and really helping us navigate the world, you know, and how.
How things work, I should say, educating me a little bit on how business gets done. And when we came to them with this idea, they're like, man, it's kind of out of the box. We don't know how many NASA distillers would be interested in taking on this project. And I don't remember if it was JP or Vinny that suggested Ileana Partito, but I was like, yes, yes, I wanna, I wanna meet her. Because instantly I think that it takes a certain level of grit to stand out as a female master distiller. And I'm like, well, if anyone's going to be able to buy into this, it's going to be her. Just based on, like, her willingness to just basically throw caution to the wind, so to speak, and, and, you know, just dive into it. Right. For the bold, I mean, is our slogan. So you need someone bold that's willing to do it. And so there it is. Day one, I think we went out to Distillery, pitched the idea to Iliana. She came out in these, like, black leather pants with red Doc Martens. And I'm like, this is the girl. Like, this is the fricking boss that's going to take us, like, to the promised land here. She knows exactly what she's doing.
I think the amount of respect that all the people around her, like, gave her and just kind of the way that she carried herself, I'm like, man, I really, really hope that she's interested. And I think originally she did not necessarily think it was going to taste good and was kind of curious, but I think that curiosity is what is like, let's. Let's see what it tastes like. So when I finally made samples that I had here in my kitchen that I made, she was like, okay, this is. You're onto something. Let's. Let's go full scale. So we did one. One barrel on our first production just to put it out There and test it and see and age it and play with it and run it through the ringer. Do all the different tests we need to do and check food for Al levels and yeast levels. Make sure there was no caffeine because there is no caffeine. It's actually less than a cup of decaf in there.
All these different things we need to make sure, additive free, obviously how the organic process works. Making sure because they have organic certification, we'll get into it. But remember, we're not talking just tequila production here, we're talking coffee production. So there's two huge worlds that collide that require quite a bit of management in order to create what's in that bottle.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Well, let's, let's dive into that. Let's talk about the coffee side a little bit. Yeah.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: So the, the coffee element was again like I wanted everything in the bottle to come from Mexico. I wasn't going to dive into different coffees from other worlds. And luckily coffee from Chiapas, Mexico is extremely low acidity, low bitterness. It's got this dark chocolatey note. Perfect for what we're looking to do. Right. You don't want high, you don't want really a high altitude coffee. And organic certifications in Chiapas don't come often. There's, it's kind of like a co op. There's a few, few different family farms that kind of join together that can get this certification because it's not cheap. But we're fortunate enough to get our hands on enough coffee consistently and we got a really good rapport with, with the farms that we, we get it from. But that was the first thing. And then, you know, to make the first batch, I brought all the coffee here stateside and we had it all made roasted here at a local roastery up actually up in Stuart, Florida. And I had all the barrels, 16 barrels in my warehouse in Florida that I actually made the cold brew myself. And that's something that's pretty normal that I've done in all my businesses. Bagel break, there's a bagel shop that I owned. I had to get in the back and I had to make the bagels. I had to see what goes into it.
It's hard for me to, to kind of dictate where it goes or suggest one thing or the other if I've never personally done it. So I just really need to kind of get my hands dirty. So for this I really wanted my hands on the cold brew. I wanted to make it myself, obviously with the help of you know, some master roasters that are here in the area. And we did, we produced cold brew and for 16 barrels we were producing them in 50 gallon filter systems that we made at my warehouse. And we aged our barrels in the cold brew at that point. So for those that don't know, the process for King Delisa is that every barrel we have is first aged in cold brew in order to make it a coffee barrel.
So once the barrels are done aging with the, the coffee, they then rinsed out and let them dry. And then we put our tequila at that point, doing it here stateside was going to be a very interesting test because not only are we going to be, you know, putting the coffee in the barrels and we're going to be, you know, aging them and then dumping it out and then rinsing them out, we have to now pack them and ship them to Mexico and they are going to be bone, bone dry by the time tequila goes in there.
Yeah, they went there and I'm like, well, it's either going to work or it's not going to work. And that's the time we're going to find out. And sure, shit, it worked great.
You know, it really, really turned out fantastic. And it was such a great lesson for me because now fast forward lot going into Lot 4. Here we're partnered with Siento Lando, which is in Guadalajara. It's the largest craft brewer in all of Mexico. They do tons of tons of different breweries. They make our cold brew for us. We went out there and we taught them how to make cold brew in big systems. Now we're producing 12,000 liter. There's a cold brew at a time in order to do our productions.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: And then are you reusing the barrels? Like, do they go back and do cold brew again and then come back and do tequila again?
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So every barrel we use. The one main thing that quintili is again, we do a lot of things differently, but the biggest thing is too, is we rechar our barrels every single time we use them. So after a production we resurface them, we break them apart, resurface and rechar them. And I do this because I think maybe you'll, you, you can agree is that there's a slight smoky note to quintaliza that, you know, some people even call it mezz, a little bit of mezcalish.
And that that production is from, you know, tree char in those barrels every single time. So we get the consistency again, because we're not using additives, we have to Follow the recipe every single time. As far as how we do it. So Kila's made one way. Ileana Partita has. They have that down pat. But the coffee side of things, down to reverse osmosis, the amount of minerals that go into the water, the amount of coffee that's in there, the temperature of the water that's in there, how long it's soaking in, agitating within the big, huge columns, we're Putting, you know, 4,000 liters each column, and it's all very, very precise. A lot of computers, way above my pay grade, but it turns out really, really good. And it's consistent.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: And those flavor. Flavor profiles, you might think that, oh, well, it doesn't affect it that much, but it does. It does. I've played with many different coffee styles in barrels, and the profile does change. And I love that because, you know, as far as, like, down the line, if I want to do something crazy and I want to put in a Brazilian coffee or something from Colombia, you would get different characteristics from the tequila. And that's fun to me. So when you're. When you're. Again, when you can't just throw in some. Some different flavors to keep consistency across lots, you just have to follow the process to a tea.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: That's interesting. I do get a smoky note, and I think in my toast, in my tasting notes, I think I actually referred to it more as a roasted taste, like a roasted agave. But also, like, if I remember right, there was like a nuttiness that I got the very first time, and it was just like. Like roasted nuts of some kind that I couldn't finger on.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: What?
[00:21:40] Speaker A: I couldn't say pecan or. It was just this nice nuttiness. And today when I drink it, I've had it several times now, I get this really nice coffee note that just overpowers the other things that I dive that I dove into the first time. I really like that. That agave tequila coffee together.
My wife says I'm not allowed to drink that for breakfast before work every day, but, man, I could. It's so good. And it goes back to. My favorite drink is a carajillo, you know, which is a great coffee flavor with, you know, the espresso and the tequila together. So this. This is like a little mini one of those to me. That's nice for sipping.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's. Again, the idea here was different, that, you know, if you did a blind taste test, and we've done it numerous times, man, definitively, people pick out kigalisa yeah, it's hands down.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it stands out on its own. Like, it's special. Now, for the profile of the tequila, is that something that you worked with Ileana on as well, to create the blanco that goes in the barrel?
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, the reality is, to me, when you're doing anything kind of unique, like aging here, the idea is to complement the base, not overpower it.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: So where I came into play here was, look, I've got a cool aging technique, which, again, I'm not reinventing the wheel here, other than it being coffee. I. To be honest with you, when I was trying to figure out the way to put coffee into this Tequila, I just wanted it to be added to free. And I played with so many different things, like putting it over beans and putting it over coffee grinds, and it just all tasted like crap. So it wasn't until I put it in this small barrel and actually went away on vacation, forgot about it, and to where I was like, oh, it just needs more time. That's what it was. That's what I figured it out. But at the time, I was using Ocho Reposado as the base, and, you know, it didn't quite. I didn't love the way that. I mean, it was great. Don't get me wrong. I love Ocho, but there was something missing. And, you know, Ileana Partitas, her blanco, organic blanco base, is truly special. It's just got that. It's a really good. You know, I feel like when you have a really good blanco that tastes like black licorice, like, now we're onto something. And that's where she had those little hints that I'm like, okay, this is going to be really, really, really good. Now it's my job not to, you know, eff it up, so to speak. Right. Like, I got to make sure that I complement this. Yeah. Where it complements the agave versus overpowering it.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, 100%.
So what is your age time that you do for your barrel? Yep.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: So we're in. We're two months in American whiskey barrels and three months into coffee barrels.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Okay. So you're going into regular barrel first for a couple of months and then kind of finishing in the coffee barrel, Correct?
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So we're aging in previously barrels that previously held Jack Daniels, and that's in there for two months, and they're older barrels, and then we finish off in the coffee barrels. Now, the big change is that on the first aging, the first two months, barrel rested at 55, but then we dilute down to 45 before we go into the coffee barrels. And that's an extremely important process, and I think that a lot of people don't realize that, but the method behind that is that we needed a slower extraction rate within the barrels. If it's too hot at 55 and it sucks the coffee out too fast, and it just. It's basically cooking a chicken at a thousand degrees. So for us, we needed something that was a little bit slower of a burn and kind of just really took time to take those profiles in. And it's funny, if you have King Delisa on, like, let's say month three, right? First month in coffee barrels, it tastes like dog water. It's horrible. It's got pure coffee in it. It's just so overpowering. It tastes like burnt coffee, and it's normal. That's what's funny is, you know, we're actually doing an experiment right now with another brand, and they called me up like, it's not tasting good. I'm like, be patient, grasshopper. It'll be fine. And now they call me three months later, like, oh, my God, it's perfect. It's amazing. And so it's. You know, it's one of those things where it just. It needed the time.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: So it. Does it take too much from the barrel, and then the longer time period, it gives it back kind of correct. Yeah.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: So essentially, it's getting to the layers of the onion, if you call it. Like, it pulls all the coffee out right away. So then you got a lot of coffee, and then now it starts to get into the char and the wood and starts bringing those notes. And so what's happening is you're now balancing out, right?
[00:25:41] Speaker A: You're.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: You're like. Actually, those char notes and those wood notes are now pushing the coffee away.
And the idea is to catch it right before the coffee's almost gone. Cause we've ra. We've aged our. That first test barrel I told you about, we aged it up to, I think, 11 months or maybe a little over a year. And the coffee was completely gone after about eight months. Completely gone.
And it just tasted like a very old extra anejo, which was awesome. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't even. It wasn't even an extra anejo yet, but it tasted like a very old.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: So have you thought about doing an anejo and getting it to that age statement in wood and then. Then throwing it in to finish it coffee barrel for a few months to round that back?
[00:26:17] Speaker B: No, I thought about Doing like a triple barrel aging. But quite honestly, I don't think I need to maybe down the line if I want to have some fun and do like a one off. But there is no really hard ideas of line extensions right now for us. I want to focus on what we do and what we do well. I also do feel like, you know, Quintelisa sips like an anejo, but it's versatile, like a blanco. Those, those profile notes really do pop out in like different cocktails.
So when we're putting them in like a paloma or an agroni or even I had two margaritas last night with it and it's like, damn, it's still so good. Even in like complete diluted in sugar, you know, it's still really, really good. And it's. It's always amazed me that that's able to pop through. But then like on the, what we call it, the anejo side, when you start going into more boozier drinks, your old Fashioned, your Manhattans and stuff, it's like, holy crap, this really shines through. And I've just been. I love that. And then like when you talk about rum drinks too, bro, we put it in a painkiller and oh, my God, it's my favorite little tiki drink. Like, I'll have the umbrella in the whole nine yards if it's king to Lisa in there. It's so good.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: I have not put it in a cocktail. To me, it's so good to sip on that.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: Just do it.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: It's been my sip, so I'm going to have to like to throw it in a cocktail now.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Now just do it.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: You did come out with a higher proof one as well, right?
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So the high proof is really just actually just cat strength. So it's a 45, which is what we rested at. And the whole rate, the real whole reason behind that was that everybody at the distillery, everybody in the team was pissed that I didn't launch this at a 45. Yeah. And then I launched it at a 40. So I kind of said, well, look, all right, for the aficionados and everyone that likes the high proof, I'm going to go ahead with the cash strength. You know what we rest at, and it's been a hit. People really do like it. You had it, right?
[00:28:04] Speaker A: Nope, never had that one.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: How. How are we doing this podcast and you don't have that?
[00:28:07] Speaker A: I have this one. This is delicious.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: I have, I have failed you. And I will make sure you have a bottle by the. By the End of the week, you'll.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Get not filled me in any way, shape or form. This has been delicious. And like I said, I. You've won me over as a normal casual bottle to pull off this shelf. But you were talking about that favorites thing, right? And I have people ask me that all the time. What's your favorite tequila? You know, I review a lot and I always say I don't. I don't have a favorite. I have some go to tequilas. But even for me, that changes all the time. I'll have maybe something new that comes. And now it's kind of got me, you know, it's new, so I'm drinking it all the time. And then I go back to like a. Go to tequila.
But then I always say that I have. I have cherished tequilas. Those are ones that you just can't get, you know, hard to find or whatever. You break them out at special situations. But then I have what I call special tequilas. And those are the ones with flavors like this that I go tonight. Like, I don't want just a tequila. I want something that's a little more to me when I drink something like yours. And I'm gonna just sit down and you know, finish the evening off and have a glass. I don't have to make a cocktail. It's bringing a cocktail to me by having so many flavors in it already that I don't need it in a cocktail.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: I love that.
Yeah. I mean, I drink it pretty much neat all the time. Or like I do like it with a cube. But I mean, again, you know, when you're traveling around from market to market, bartenders are going to play with it. And I've always just been kind of like wild what they can do with it. Because again, like when we. When I first made it, I was like, this is going to be. Yes, neat on the rocks, cigar, steak, like, you know, Speakeasy's cigar bars. Like that's where my head went. And it was quickly, like, no. Poolside, 95 degrees frozen, frozen drinks. What? So it's been a. It's been wild.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Well, one thing I'm not is a bartender. I cannot. My. My go to drink is a can of Squirt and some tequila in it. And if I have some lime Squirt.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Wow, that's it. Squirt. That's. That's a throwback. Yeah, my. My grandfather used to drink Squirt and Veo all the time.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Best Paloma, Just a can of Squirt some tequila.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: That's funny. That's funny. I love that.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: That's my go to.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: So you have. This is the high proof. Is it staying as a constant. Like, people can order that all the time.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: No, no, we actually. I think they just sold out Sip officially. Don't think. I don't. I know there's none that Breakthrough, so I think SIP just sold out. But the first half of that pallet, we did a. We did a full pallet. That first full 8, 40 cases or so, sold out so fast. And then I allocated the rest to Breakthrough and to sift Tequila and to some other, you know, key accounts. I think there's a few floating around in Tennessee and a few floating around in New Jersey, but.
But not a lot, you know, a couple of case here or there.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: You're gonna do it again?
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: So we're. We're gonna change the methods a little bit, I think, playing with, you know, doing it more traditional. I'm gonna see how that goes. But maybe more to hone a brick oven on the next one. Play with that and see if that, you know. You know, because we really only do a barrel or two, we don't really go crazy.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: I was actually gonna ask you that now that Ileana has the new stone oven there and the tohona in operation, if that was something you were gonna integrate in. That's. That's. That's pretty exciting to see these things happening at this distillery.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: These I went, from the first day we went there to now is just a drastic change. She's done such a great job of building that distillery up.
And again, like, I'm not surprised. When we first were in there, I'm like, this is going to blow up. She's going to do great. I think we're at a million liters right now capability. So she's done. She's done a really good job.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: That's fantastic.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: So do you have any other, like, special things coming out?
[00:31:44] Speaker B: We do. I can't announce them yet, but we do have a pretty big club coming up that we're working on right now.
Not 100% completed yet, but it'll make news for sure.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: It'll make news. Yeah.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Is that. Are you having brands reach out to you to do some collaborations with this?
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Yes and no. This one particularly was introduced by, you know, a mutual friend and kind of just. Yes, we want to do something like that. The rest is kind of like brands that I really want to align with and work with. It's tough because, like, do I want to do another Tequila brand or do I go outside the tequila world? And I think I'm leaning a little bit more about going outside the tequila world. You know, I think that we've done a really good job. My team and our PR department, everybody has done such a great job at, you know, getting the name and the IP of Kintalisa out there and so that the agave world, I'm not saying everyone knows about it by any means, but we've made a little bit of a nick, I should say, maybe not a whole dent, but there's a little scratch. So we want to kind of focus a little bit on, you know, consumers on the outside and aligning more on the branding side of things. And how do we partner up on. Convince them there's two different things between branding and marketing. Right. And so branding is obviously, you know, it's Quintaliza, we got a great brand. That is the styles, what we believe in the story.
Now we're after the marketing element of who do we market with, who do we align with? So it's the Nike swish and Jordan, right? That's what you're talking?
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome. So where did you get all of this knowledge of branding and marketing and pull all this together?
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Grassroots, bro. Just, you know.
No, I mean, like, I think it's. It's something that I always joke and. But in all serious, you know, I say ADHD is my superpower. I feel like I've been blessed to really have like this very active mind. I think active would be the understatement if you, anyone that knows me, overwhelming, maybe, But I'm always thinking of these ideas and concepts and I always think of, like, what would I like and how would I react to this brand or this ad or this reel or this picture or this bottle or this profile or this person that's attached to it. And I think like, you know, coming and growing up in Pittsburgh, it's, you know, this blue collar grit, you know, trying to be just hard working. And I think that like, there's. There's no substitution for that. So for me, if I can harness all that together and build something that people can really resonate around, that's when you create something, I think really, really special. Right. So I don't know that there was like one definitive moment. You know, I've had a lot of friends and partners that have created brands that I've been a part of or I've been around, and I've just taken a little bit off of that book, a little bit off of that book and just kind of really put it all together, like in my head and how I'd see it and how I' like to. I want to be able to, you know, interpret it. And that's how I've done it. I've always felt, too, that, like, if you create a brand or you create a product or whatever it is that you're creating a restaurant or whatever, and if you create it for you and what you truly, really love and what you really like and the styles and the colors and the attitudes and all that stuff, because that's what you like, then you will find people that like that shit, too. And you'll be ending. You'll be in a room with people you like. And it's. I can't go out and create a brand.
I'm just going to use golf as an example. I like golf, don't get me wrong. But I'm not a golfer, right. And if I was to go out and create a brand specifically for golfers, it would be unafforiginal. It would be like. It would be so fake because I wouldn't really know what they want, Right. Or, you know, or yacht, you know, sailors, or, you know, people, equestrian. Like, I don't live in that world, right? So I wouldn't be able to kind of create something that they would love. Instead, I'm just going to create something that I love and that I like. And if you like it, great. If you don't, cool. That's fine, too. That's the whole idea of, like, different, right?
[00:35:20] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. What a great answer. And as a serial entrepreneur as well, I've had many businesses that I've started and sold and some have failed and some make it, you know, you just keep doing it. I completely agree with you. Because there was. I got into a business. I started a business in a.
In an industry that I didn't even like. I just recognized I could make a good chunk of money here, and it was a great place to place when I sold my mortgage company, you know, this was a good opportunity. And it was the work six years of my life. It was successful.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: But every day that I had to drive somewhere, I had to think about not driving into the, you know, the side of the bridge, you know, because I didn't like what I did. So I totally get that. That makes perfect sense.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's no different. I. I started doing medical sales and installs of Mr. I'm actually a Medical Engineer by Trade is my original title. If you want to call it a title. And then that my father got me into that when I was very young and, and just basically did it for the very same reasons. How it's reliable and I can raise a family on it. And you know, at the time of getting married, had two kids and had things I had to pay for. So that's what I did. But I hated it. And I, you know, to this day, like tequila is that escape. I can finally step outside from not having to worry, worry about that. And I, I loved everything in the medical world because it got me to be able to do the restaurants and different things that I've done. But man, I tell you, I've never made less money and been more happy than I am now.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah, there's so much truth to that statement and a lot of things. It's funny that you say that my, I, I have. You said you haven't had a job since 99. Right, right. I haven't had a job since 97 and my last job was in the, in the medical sales business.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Oh, that's funny. Yeah, that's funny. We got a lot to talk about there. Yeah, yeah, no, it's been. But I think that there's, that, that's the type of people that it takes. So there's just, there's just two different types of people. There's no wrong, right reason there. And nothing's wrong or right as far as being an entrepreneur or, or going with the 9 to 5 career world or whatever. Right. I think at the end of the day you really gotta be happy.
But it is hard.
It's challenging for sure.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Yeah. It maybe would have been easier just to stay in that nine to five. You know, cut off my thinking when I got home because work was over.
Right. I couldn't do it. I still can't do it. I'm one of those four to five hour night sleep guys who wakes up and takes notes and remembers things back to bed.
[00:37:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I always use the analogy of skiing or I'm a snowboarder. So to me, I go to the top and it's like, well, there's the groom path and you can take it and it's fun and you'll have a great time and you'll smile and you'll get to the bottom of the hill. You'll get there really fast and it's great. Or you could go mess off in the trees and you know, who knows what'll happen? You know, you might make it, you might not. You might get end upside down. You know, it's a wild world in there. But I think, like, to me, I always chose the adventure route and said, well, let's see if it goes. And it just comes down to believing and having confidence in your abilities to. Even if you fall, you gotta get back up and dust yourself off and keep going. Right?
[00:38:15] Speaker A: Tree skiing on the backside of Steamboat Springs. That's the best place that I've ever done it. That's awesome.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: There you. There you go. There you go.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Well, now that you've got this great product out there and you've got some success with it, and you're kind of in your spot, if you could sit down and share this with somebody, anybody in the world. Live dead, family famous. Anybody sit down and share a little bit of the story and share the tequila. Who would you want to do that with?
[00:38:41] Speaker B: There's a lot of people, probably. Yeah. I don't know. My father passed away three years ago, so probably him. But, you know, aside from, you know, the sentimental side of things with my father or my grandfather, I think, I don't know, maybe Frank Sinatra, big fan. So maybe, maybe Frankie. Yeah, I don't know. I think that that would be kind of dope.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Very cool.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: I wouldn't mind, as far as living, like, I wouldn't mind sitting down, talking to Keanu Reeves with him about that. I think it'd be kind of cool just because I think that, again, I respect kind of, again, don't know the guy. And from what I see, though, it seems like he's been a pretty modest and humble guy. And, you know, I appreciate that. I think there's a lot of. A lot of good people out there. And unfortunately, you know, there's a lot of bad, bad press to paint people in a different direction. But he's one that I think that press has always not been able to give him bad, you know, and no matter what, he's always seems to. To be, you know, stand up.
Yeah, I mean, anything like that. I guess I've always just been a fan of anybody that's just hardworking. I mean, I grew up playing ice hockey. I still play hockey. And I think, like, you look at the, the way the hockey players are and the way they care of themselves and just the respect. You know, it's always we, we, we. It's not. I, I, I. And I think that that's a mentality that I think that every person, whether you're an entrepreneur or not, I think really needs to embody. I think the understanding that, like, I don't Care who you are. You're not where you are by yourself. I don't give a. What you've done. It doesn't matter. You're not there because of your own. And the sooner you realize that, the more fun you're going to have.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. That's. You keep dropping these little nuggets. We need to have, like, a bell go off every time you drop one of these.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Success nuggets that people need to hear. Because that. That was a big one right there. Well, I just put you on my list. I want to sit down and have a tequila. This one right here with you. And we have two places that this could happen, so one, I'll be at Disney World running the marathon in January.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Oh, sweet.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Nice. Running the full marathon. So maybe we can meet up in Florida somewhere.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: I won't run it with you, but I will be right there at the end. I could. Or probably. Probably not before, because you're going to want to run, but.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: Yeah, and I was going to say the other places. I'll be in a matatan for Ileana Partitas 10k run in January as well. So I fly home for a couple of days and then fly down there to run her 10k for charity.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: You know, I feel terrible. I've never been to her. To her 10k. And I've always been wanting to go, you know, and maybe. Maybe I could see if I can make it happen this year. That would be pretty cool.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: 10K is not that far to run like, we could run with, I'm sure.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Oh, I'm definitely not running. That's not going to happen yet. That's. That's a hard pass. Yeah. And it's not because I'm not in shape. It just. Now if we put me on ice skates, bro, I'll. We'll go for, you know, the longest. A full marathon. But when it comes to running, I don't run.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: I used to hate it, but I got fat. And it's the only thing that every time I get fat, if I start running and I lose weight. So now I'm just.
I ran a marathon last year. I run a marathon this year, and I don't know that I'll do that anymore. But just running is fun for me.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: So I've got too many. I broke my back about three years ago.
That hurts bad. I've broken. I've gotten. Yeah, I've got a lot of. A lot of injuries. I was never very nice to my body growing up, you know, playing ice hockey. And boxing and just being, you know, an idiot. You know, there's a lot of things that.
Now that I'm 44, it's like my body's, like, not gonna do that anymore. We're not doing that today.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: Wait till you. You're 56. Like, I am every.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Yeah. But, hey, you're running a marathon, so I don't know. It's like you're. You know, you got. You got some age on me, but I think you got the. You're running. I'm not. So there's that fat.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Get really fat. Maybe you'll start running.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Yeah, let's try not to do that.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: All right, well, let everybody know what. You have a website that people can go to, right?
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Of course. Yeah. Quintalisa. Tequila.com. obviously, follow us on our Instagram pages. I think you'll. I think you'll like our. Our Instagram. I mean, I know you. You obviously follow it, but for those that aren't aware, jump on. You know, I try to.
Try not to take ourselves too seriously. We. We have a good time. A lot of good humor, a lot of skits. I like to write that try to keep it fun. I always took a page out of Ryan Reynolds book. I think he did such a good job at, like, blending education with humor, and I think humor always WINS. I get DMs constantly. You know, hey, I don't even drink tequila. I'm sober. But I love your page. I love your brand. I love your stories. This is great. People that wear my shirts that literally are sober don't drink. And I think that's awesome, right? Because I do believe it's much bigger than just having a drink. Right? I think there's a. There's a culture there. There's a. You know, there's a story. And I think that. That, you know, it's the whole, like, for the bold, right? And doesn't. It's not for the drinkers. It's just for people that are willing to take the step outside of the box.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: And you're blending two real deep cultures. I have friends that are deep in the coffee world, and.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: They get coffee from different places and talk about how there's different flavor notes in their coffee. And I look at them like, okay, I don't get it. But then I do it with tequila, and they look at me and go, yeah, I don't. I don't get it. You know, it's. I like coffee, but I haven't been able to dive like that to it. It. And you're you're blending both those together 100%.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: I mean, that was literally the main design behind this was I wanted to bring these two huge cultures together that I think are very similar. I mean, the, the, the coffee production is no joke. I mean, the process, everything that goes into it and the growth, the cycle. And then when you get down to the actual production of the coffee, every little thing matters, right? The temperature, the. Of the beans and the temperature of the water. You know, it's the, you know, how much minerals are in the water, does it adhere to it and you know, all of these different things. How long is it a, you know, pour over or French press or, you know, all these different methods in order just to make a damn cup of coffee. But the reality is, is that it drastically changes the profile, right? And I, it's funny because I was like, when I was, you know, I'd say immature or maybe whatever. In my 30s, it was like I was, you know, whatever. What are they called? Like, little pods you put in a, you know, Keurig or whatever, boom. Call it a day, cover it with, you know, some kind of cream or sugar shit, and they'll call it a day.
And then it wasn't until my grandma literally called me out and made fun of me because I was putting sugar in my coffee. And she basically just said I wasn't a man if I'm not drinking it black. So from that day on, I started drinking it black. No joke. Never had put sugar in my coffee from that day on because I thought my grandma was like, like basically calling me out. And I started realizing there's a lot of profiles and I actually liked it. I liked the differences between coffee. And I wouldn't say that I dove deep into this coffee world of like, you know, experimenting and doing different cupping and stuff like that. But I could definitely pick out what I liked and what I didn't like. Like, you know, for me, I'm not a huge. For me, I kind of high altitude, the high acidity bitter coffees isn't for me. It gives me like heartburn or whatever. I just don't like it. But people love that stuff. I mean, you know, the guys that are going hardcore into the coffee world, they're like, oh, the higher, the better, the more acidity. It's like they're really, really into it. But what I found is that you can even take those types of coffees in roasters. A good roaster can, can roast that out. Essentially. They can, they can bring that, those notes down and play with It. And again, by no means am I a coffee roaster or an expert, but I've been able to at least appreciate what I enjoy. And I think whenever I dove into that world with even one of the ventures that I have in Miami, it's called Imperial Moto, We're a motorcycle coffee shop that I got involved with in 2016 on their F and B side of things. And that's really like, all right, cool. I love this culture. I love motorcycles, tattoos. Let's do this. We've got coffee. This is rad.
And then meeting more people like that and baristas. I'm like, cool. This community is amazing. And then I met this tequila community, and I'm like, these two people need to meet. Like, if I was a dating site, you know, if I could, like, do, like, hinge of, like, the two communities that you date and, like, definitely get married, it's like a coffee lover and a tequila lover. They could really, you know, have a good future. So I figured, like, if I could create this world, I would do that. And that's exactly what I wanted to go after. It was like, look, y' all just need to have a conversation about the methods on how these work, because it's very similar. And what you're geeking out on is exactly what they're geeking out on. Just two totally different, like, outcomes, right? And yeah, so that was like, really the nature of the beast was. And the whole point was just, let's have this conversation, right? And that's when you win rooms, right? In my opinion, like. Like, in this day and age, we're so used to just being on our phones and just being, you know, distracted and not really having true engagement. But then when you put it down and you have, like, these true conversations of something that's not work, that's not about your family and taxes and presidential bullshit and all this different stuff off. We're just talking coffee and tequila people, right? And like, you watch the room light up and, like, they're just excited about it. And I think, what more could you ask for?
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really awesome. I'm gonna come hang out with you. That's for sure. That's pretty cool.
I'm gonna have to tomorrow make a black cup of coffee and have that instead of my sugar free Red Bull for breakfast. That's what I'll do.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, don't do that anymore.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: Been doing that for 20 years, so.
Okay, so do you have a coffee? Like, can people order coffee?
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So right now, during the holiday season, we do put our coffee out, so it's Chiapas organic roasted coffee. It's roasted differently than our cold brew. We could do it like our cold brew. But then you guys would probably want to start painting houses after you have it. I would, I would, I would advise that you don't drink the cold brew.
It's got some, you know, it's. Yeah, yeah. You're either gonna crap your pants or run through a wall. You're not really sure. You'll probably do both.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: Both at the same time.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's, that's. It needs to get into the wood. It does a good job. But the. No, this is a. It's a great mild, you know, medium roast coffee that we make. It's something that, again, I just do it for fun. We don't charge for it. You know, you gotta, you know, buy a bottle naturally to get one just because we don't do a ton of them. But I know a lot of people that get super excited when the coffee comes out. So it is out right now on our website. You can buy a bottle and you get a bag of coffee with it for free. I may or may not after the new year, I don't know, throw like a limited release of 50 bags or so out there just to. To, you know, depending on what we have left over. But it really is good. It's funny, as soon as I announced it, everybody on my team was like, bag for me, please. Bag for me. Like, do you not, you know, I'm putting it aside. Yes.
[00:48:41] Speaker A: Okay. So they can get that on your website.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: They can get on the website. Yep. So on our. On our Instagram. Right, sorry. On our website right now, actually in our Instagram, all the links are in our bio. So we're doing holiday things. I don't know when this will air, but you know, this. There's a. There is stuff that is available.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: Okay, perfect. In a couple weeks. We'll air in a couple weeks.
[00:48:59] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. Well, this I did might not be. The coffee might be sold out by the time you go by then.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Stay tuned. Stay tuned.
[00:49:05] Speaker A: I did. I seen the post with the coffee. That's what made me wonder if you actually had coffee that people could buy all the time. So it's just a seasonal product.
[00:49:12] Speaker B: It is a seasonal thing.
Yeah, it's. It's free. And again, like, I. Depending on when this comes out, I. There may be some bags left over. So just stay tuned. If not, you'll catch us next year.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: Very cool. Very cool. Cool. Well, I want to say thanks. Thanks for doing this today. I learned a bunch and I'm, I'm excited about what you got going on. This is very cool and I can't wait to get another bottle, that's for sure.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: I'm going to send you the high proof because I, I think we could do round two of this year. Yeah, I'd love to hear what you, what your thoughts are. And it's crazy that you didn't have the high proof. You, especially for aficionados, I think that's something really, truly special. People really geek out over that. And again, I don't, I don't necessarily drink that a lot. I can't. I mean, I appreciate it. I think it's great. It's a little too much for me.
But, you know, I get why, why those that like it, like it.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: I mean, I love a high proof and a still strength. It's usually the drink that kicks off my drinking.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Like the end of the day, it's been a rough day or whatever. I come down and I'm, I'm gonna pour a blanco and it's going to be usually a still strength or a high proof, but then the next one is going to be, you know, something like what you have. And that's my end of the night and what I found. I, I, so I, I have a big glass, right?
[00:50:22] Speaker B: I, yeah, it's a huge glass.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: I used to drink quite a few drinks through the evening, and my wife asked me if I could maybe cut it down to two drinks a night, so I bought a bigger cup.
So when I, when I pour my last one, you know, like, if I'm gonna end the night off with this or next day or something, you know, it's a pretty big pour that gets sipped on through the evening till I'm out, you know? Right. But a high proof, usually that's what kicks me in and gets, gets the day, gets the day rolling.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: So I have a question for you. If you could, what would you align or compare or like, what does King Taliza remind you of in regards to either a repo or a BL or an.
Is there something that it reminds you of or that you like, you know, that it reminds you of when you started drinking it, what did you like about it the most?
[00:51:05] Speaker A: The first time I liked it, it was a character that I couldn't go, this is like this. It was like nothing else I have had, had. And I liked that because I got that a, a really great coffee note that I was looking for It Right. I expected it yesterday I had. Or yesterday I had a video come out of the new Anejo Cascawine 5525. And that is one of the first anos where I identified coffee in the actual flavor profile. And yeah, I think I even said that in the video is, man, I can't believe I'm getting coffee in this. Like, I had a leather and a tobacco, you know, like, you'd get in a good anejo, and then all of a sudden there was this coffee. And when I think, you know, tonight of what. I would relate that back to that. That was a much more complex on the ano side. You know, it's aged in sherry barrel, so it's got like this weird complexity of lots of flavors. But. But the very first hit of that coffee, I would compare this to that. What age.
[00:52:08] Speaker B: What are they aged at? I'm sorry?
[00:52:09] Speaker A: How long they aged? I don't know what the age time was. I know that There was like 40 barrels in sherry barrels and then three American white oak whiskey barrels. And that was blended together at a. A high ABV. And then when it came out, they blended the 47 Plata with the other one. And it's. I think it's a 46 ABV is where it came out at. And it's. It's. It's a very special bottle. You only get it.
[00:52:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:34] Speaker A: Distillery is for their 70th anniversary. Before that, in tasting it, to me, I would grab it when I wanted an anejo. So if I was going to come out and grab a vaez anejo, actually, it does remind me of this one in a way, because it has the herbal minerality, the vegetable Valles flavors of tequila. I have that in here. And I have more of an anejo feel, but with that coffee taste. So.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: It's a hard one to say.
Fits into this category. It replaces a category for me.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: Like, yeah, I'll compare.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Instead, I was.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: I was. I was banking that you wouldn't be able to compare it, because I'm yet to. And I feel like I talked to so many people that know tequila way better than I do and have tried way more than tequilas than I have and know everything about tequila way more than I do. And I think that. That they're all like, man, I don't know. It's like nothing I've ever had, you know, And I think. And I. I love that. I love that answer. And it's like, to me, it's, you know, everyone's like, hey, what does success look like for you in this brand? Like, is it when you sell it or when you do this? I'm like, no, bro, I've already succeeded. People come to me and say it's like something I've never had before. And that was the goal.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: Let's be different. Let's stand out. I mean, look how crazy crowded tequila is.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: To stand out among all of those bottles. Just based on profile alone. Let's go. Like, that's cool.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I agree. It is. It's hard to pin it down. If I go into just the tequila piece of it, I get a great Vallez Agave forward Tequila with this coffee that's not anyplace else. That's right.
And like I said earlier, I don't make a lot of cocktails. And when I want one, this is like a cocktail in a glass for me. It's like I made, you know, a tequila with, you know, something that was going to be expressing coffee in there. And it's. But I don't want anybody that's listening to think that it's overpowering because.
[00:54:27] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's not very.
[00:54:28] Speaker A: It's agave forward. It. You can taste tequila. It just has this nice hint, this coffee note that makes it really nice.
[00:54:36] Speaker B: Right, right, right. Yeah. And for those that are not bartenders like myself and as you had mentioned, there is on our website, we do have a bunch of cocktails that you can dive into, like recipes if you do want to try to play with different, different, different cocktails. Like right now we have the.
Which one do we just put up the.
Oh, it's so good too.
[00:54:55] Speaker A: Wasn't it like a Christmas one?
[00:54:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just. My mind's the coquito.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like an a. It's like an eggnog, right?
[00:55:03] Speaker B: It's replaced. Well, it's not. Yeah, it's not eggnog.
Yeah, yeah. And we have a. We have a coconut milk coquito that's up with Quintaliza and Oh, my God, it's so good.
[00:55:14] Speaker A: I made a comment on that actual post toast.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: Did you? Okay.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I said something like, okay, this is next. I'm trying this. And you. You made a comment back like.
[00:55:21] Speaker B: And this is the one you drink in the morning because you put it in a, like a mason jar when you make it. Right. And then you put it in the fridge and let it sit for like the next morning. Done. And then you. In the morning, you'll like, break the Crust, like, it'll, like, start a little bit. There'll be, like, some coconut chunks or whatever. Stir it around or whatever. Pour it in a small little shot glass and just sip on it for while.
[00:55:41] Speaker A: A.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: It's Christmas in a glass. It is, like, the most amazing thing. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of that. And that's. I don't drink in the morning, but I will drink that during the holidays.
[00:55:50] Speaker A: I think that's going to be the drink that. I'm going to make that for our Christmas. So we will wake up and all my kids are in their 30s, so we're all legal. Yep.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: Getting drunk early on Christmas probably will make the rest of the day go easier.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: There you go. I sent you that. I'm sure I sent you the recipe if you commented on it.
[00:56:09] Speaker A: But, yeah, I did follow it.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: Like, all I can tell you is whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk. Never stop whisking. And then don't be afraid in the morning. If it's like, oh, it's got a little bit chunksy, that's fine. You can churn it out if you want if it bothers you, but you can whisk it again. That's just what happens with coconut milk. But I. I went with coconut milk. Most of my family is lactose intolerant, so we went with coconut. And it really, really is.
It's special. A little bit of nutmeg on top. Call it a day.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: Okay, that's. That's gonna happen. I think it's a full bottle. Like, is it a full one of. One's a half bottle, one's a full bottle? Yeah.
[00:56:39] Speaker B: Depending on how much obvious you wanna make. But, yeah.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: Yeah, probably the full bottle.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: I mean. Yeah. What are we doing here exactly?
[00:56:46] Speaker A: It's Christmas, man. Come on.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: What are we. What are we doing? What's. Where are we going with our life? Right.
[00:56:51] Speaker A: Well, dude, I want to say thanks for doing this with me tonight. I really appreciate it. Appreciate the tequila. Thanks for doing something bold and different. Like, that's one thing that's cool. You did something that a lot of people have this idea of making a brand, but you've done the marketing, the branding, and you really created something that's bold and different, and I appreciate that about what you did. So. So I want to say cheers.
[00:57:12] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:57:12] Speaker A: Thanks for doing this.
[00:57:12] Speaker B: Salud. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
