[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, guys. Brad, Nick with Tasting Tequila with Brad. And tonight I have a really special deal here for you guys. Bringing one of my favorite tequilas to talk about with owner and founder Arturo Ama.
How you doing today, Arturo?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: I'm good, Brad. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm really looking forward to it.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Well, thanks for taking your time. I've done a little bit of research on you, and I realized that, one, you must be one heck of a go getter. Two, I don't know how you have time to do any of the things that you do for fun, because your workload seems a bunch. And I read a thing that while you were in college that you actually ran 18 credit hours a semester so you could get through school fast. Is that right?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Did. I'm a very impatient person, so. I mean, the good thing about being impatient is you gotta put some hard work behind it. And 18 credit hours, man. I graduated a little bit early and went straight into my master's.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: That's awesome. What. What are your degrees in?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: So, business management for my undergrad, and I had a focus on project management, MBA for my graduate degree.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: That's fantastic. So where are you from originally?
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Chicago. So born and raised in Chicagoland area. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona right now. I just moved out here early this year. It's very hot. It finally cooled down, which is nice, so I'll take it. And I know my friends in Chicago are saying that it's starting to get cool over there. So I'm really enjoying the transition now.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: And one of the things I found amazing, I have a lot of friends in Scottsdale was in the summertime, they do their sports inside like we do our sports inside in the wintertime.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Blew me away like 110, 115 degrees outside. You know, I really have never been in that type of heat. And then I got here, I'm like, oh, it's not too bad, but like, when you're in the sun, it's. It's brutal. It's. It's really bad. You know, I try to stay in the shade as much as possible.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: I've only been out there in the winter times.
Well, I know that you have. You have multiple businesses. So Tequila seems like this was like the third business that you really got rolling. Is that right?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So Tequila is our latest and greatest, and it's one of the funnest for sure. I am in the beer industry. We have a brewery just outside of Chicago. Name of the brewery is Sangrella Brewing. We started in 2000. You know, we focus on quality ales and lagers. And, you know, I run a furniture company, so it's a big factory, about 400 employees, and we make a lot of furniture for the big box stores like Target, and make a lot of furniture for Wayfair, Pottery Barn. So, yeah, it's a pretty busy day.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Day in and day out, and that's pretty incredible. I'm a kind of a serial entrepreneur, so I totally understand. And when I find a business I like or I find something that's fun, I end up doing that, like, 100%.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: So I completely get it.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: So I did a little research to your family history really is where the tequila and agave spirits come from for you. So tell me a little bit about this story of how you, you know, how your family came through agave spirits and then went off to college, started this business, and then what. What drove you back to tequila, and how did tequila become such a passion project for you?
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. My story in agave spirit starts in the 1920s. My great grandfather, Nicholas Llamas, I distilled agave spirits in Huitzila. Second thank us Mex. This was a tradition that was passed down from my great grandfather to my grandfather to my father. And my father left the left Mexico to the United States for the American dream. He was a migrant farm worker. He worked in California. He picked oranges in Florida, and he picked produce in Chicago land area. And that's where I was born. So growing up, I'd always hear my dad talk about agave spirits and distilling with his dad, his brothers and sisters. So it was something that really intrigued me because I wanted to be like dad. I still want to be like my dad. So, you know, I knew that eventually I want to bring back this tradition. So I went into some different industries. I went into the furniture industry. I went into the beer industry. But I still had that itch to, you know, get our distilling tradition going again. So a few years ago, I went to my father, I tell him about the project, and he wasn't super excited about it. My dad's retirement age, and I don't think he wants to work anymore. But I was pretty persistent with him, and I asked him over and over and over again, and he finally said yes under the condition that we made a profile that was similar to what he was distilling in the 1960s and 1970s. So we went down to Mexico, and we teamed up with Mount 1414, the Bal family, Sergio Cruz and Lost Lord.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Teguilla was born and is that where you started? Did you go straight to Sergio Vivanca there and that like, did you have a contact there that you knew them and knew their profile already?
[00:05:09] Speaker B: So I'm, I'm a big fan of RT Gnome and I really, really appreciate what they do with all the different gnomes. 1411, 46, 1123. So, you know, thanks to Jake Lustig. You know, I kind of.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah, Jake did a great job with that.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: He did, he really did. So I kind of knew like what I want to gravitate towards. So, you know, we, we had multiple meetings with various distilleries and you know, we just really, really connected with NOM 1414. So we told them about our story. They were really interested in it. Of course, we're very family oriented and they are too. And that's when we connected with the Volanco family.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: That's awesome. And you know, I love a lot of tequilas that come from 1414 and I know all these people get hung up on the celebrity, you know, celebrity tequilas. Right. And I always say there's two celebrities that come out of 1414, one of them is always in the bottle. That tequila is the celebrity.
Sergio Cruz is quite the celebrity as well. Just a fantastic master distiller and just a genius at this.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he does a really good job. You know, I, what I really like about Sergio is we're very like minded when it comes to ingredients and processes and he's kind of like a maverick when it comes to this industry. He's not afraid to take chances. Of course, his name is Ana. He is our master distiller. So he's going to take calculated chances, but usually they pan out and they come out really, really well.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: That's awesome. So these bottles seem to be a little bit special to me. As I look at it, it doesn't look like your normal just plain old glass bottle. So I bet there's a story even behind this bottle.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. The, the bottle is 100% recycled Coca Cola glass. So we work with a really great bottle manufacturer just outside of Wallahata. Very, very kind lady. She's been in the industry for a long time. She's really focused on quality. So we teamed up with her. You know, we wanted something that was going to be, you know, very kind of like a representation of what the tequila is. Right. You know, our tequila is very authentic and I feel like it's rustic, it's artisanal and we felt the need to kind of express that on the Bottle as well. So, you know, it was very important to me, of course, to have really good juice, but on top of that, have really good packaging. The glass is 100% recycled. It's a beautiful glass. There's no two glasses out there same. You know, the bottle is very beautiful, and you can see all the imperfections then, you know, from there going into the label. You know, the label is very unique. It's very custom to every different expression that we have. You know, what we want to do is we want to show the process of making tequila. What we're trying to do is we're trying to educate the consumer, you know, showing where everything starts. Fields with a blanco. You can see the donkey on there. And then it goes into our reposado, the agaves and the ovens, and then it goes into distilling, and then it goes into fermentation. So a lot of different, you know, custom artwork that we do on our. On our bottles. And, you know, I'm really happy we did it because like I said, it shows a story and educates the consumer.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: The labels are awesome, too. I mean, I do. This is the only one I've had so far, but I've looked at how you guys put everything on the bottle. The batch number, the bottle number, and then the design of each one's been just. I find it really cool looking. Now, talking about that process a little bit, tell me about the agaves that you're using.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah, so we use highland agave. We do source our agave from the Vivanco family. They have over 20 Ranchitos is what they call them, and they're very mature agaves. We don't pull our agaves out at a certain time. You know, we pull them out at a certain sugar level. So we're looking to be in the 30s. You know, we've seen agaves that have brixes. What they call them is like the sugar level. We've seen it in the 35. We've seen it go even higher than. So once it hits that level, that's when we pull it out.
So, you know, that ends up being somewhere, know, five, six, seven years. Just depends on the agave. You know, what's going on with the Rancho to the soil profile. You know, there's some that are going to produce maybe a little bit a different profile because of the terroir. But, yeah, we're looking for really, really mature agave.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Now you can taste that in it for sure. Now on your fermentation, are you doing just the proprietary yeast or Are you doing champagne yeast? What's special going on there?
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. We do. We do a blend. So we do a blend between yeast. We blend champagne yeast along with rum yeast. You know, we feel like the rum kind of gives it, like, a little more of a rustic, you know, character to it. We feel like it works really, really well, and it complements our tequila really well.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic. Fermentation 5 to 7 days. Stainless steel tanks. Is that what they're doing there?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, stainless steel. So open top. So there's no temperature control. Fermentation. As far as length goes, it all depends. You know, in the summertime, it's a little bit faster. I would say it's probably like, maybe less than a week, you know, when it comes to the wintertime, just because it gets a little cooler in Los Altos, I would say that it probably takes maybe a week or so, maybe just a little bit after that. But, yeah, maybe a week until.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: And then twice. Distilled copper pots, right?
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So copper pots. I think that's super important for us. So, you know, there's sulfur compounds that come out of the fermentation process, and when we distill, the copper does a really good job at kind of holding back those sulfur compounds. So they're not in articula. So twice distill, you know, the first distillation, we're making our cuts. Heads, hearts, tails. You know, we lean always towards more hearts than anything. We do that for the first distillation and for the second distillation.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: So when you do so in ordinarily, you're cutting hearts, and you're. You're cutting heads and tails and living in the hearts. And then are you mixing any tails or heads back into that second distillation or just redoing hearts completely in second?
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we distill again, and then we're taking the hearts from there. So it's a very quality product, very selective on our cuts. You know, of course, the hearts are going to give you the most beautiful profile in tequila. Heads are great, too. They have amazing flavor. That's just not what lost lore is. You know, we always kind of hang around, you know, with more hearts more than anything, and we feel like it works really, really well and gives us quality tequila.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: So are you resting it before it's bottled?
[00:11:40] Speaker B: It. It rests for a period of time? You know, it all depends how. How anxious we are and, you know, trying to get juice over here to the U.S. we. We always want to leave it in there for a period of Time. But, you know, there, there's sometimes where, hey, we, we distill and, you know, maybe we pull it a little bit sooner. What's really nice is we do add oxygen to our tequila, our blanco, well, all expressions, but, you know, we'll put oxygen in it for a period of time. We feel like it kind of flashes off that more volatile alcohol and just kind of bounce it to keel out a little bit.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Okay, so you led me right into a good question. So the, the blanco is of course your 80 proof and then you have the 96 and then you have your still strength. Is the product that's in each one of those exactly the same product? One's just proofed down more than each one.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Yeah, great, Great question. So for the regular blanco and for iproof, it's the exact same product. So hearts, you know, for a distillation. Now when we distill, our distillate comes out closer. After our second distillation, it comes out closer to, you know, 53% ABB. So I really wanted to be at 55%. So, you know, it was something me and Sergio were kind of going back and forth. He really wanted to be 53%. But, you know, for this run, we f. We figured we do something special and we bumped it up to 55. So we do use a little bit more heads when it comes to our still strength. If you do still see our still strength out there, definitely grab it. This is going to be probably the only time that we do 810 proof, 5% ABV tequila. You know, we've had discussions with, with Sergio and he really wants to be 53%. And you know, Sergio is our massive distiller, so I totally respect that. And that's probably what we're going to do next time we release the still strength, which will be next year.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: From what I understand, keeping it 55 and getting it to pass is a lot more difficult than if you're a little bit under that 55. When it comes to where your, your angel share, you know, it's not an angel share when it's in a. Not in a barrel, but the same thing how it bleeds off so.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Exactly. It's always easy to add water, but it's, it's always our to bump your ABV up.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Well, you know, when I was, we were just in the town of Tequila back in August and I got the opportunity to sample straight off the still at a couple of places and the one place they're like, yeah, that's currently sitting at about, you know, 125 proof. And it was so much agave flavor. I wish we could sometimes get one more than, you know, that 55. But, yeah, rules are rules, right?
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Rules are rules. Unfortunately, you know, I really appreciate, you know, what caballito CE does. They. They have some. I mean, they're really boozy. I think that they're pretty close to 140 proof, so you can't really get them here in the United States. It's not possible. I don't think you could sell it, but when you go down there, definitely stop at the distillery and you could get, you know, one of those cool agave spirits in that. I. Abbas.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: Yeah, some. I. I hear stories about people going to Oaxaca and drinking, you know, mezcal poured from a gas can, you know, and it's some massive proof. And so it's always like, wow, that's kind of crazy sometimes.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: That's. That's fun. You know, we were. We were in. In Mexico early this year, and we were with a really good friend. His name is Luis Hernandez Pyrolu, and he's a big fan of caballito cerrero. And that was actually the first time I had it, and it was that one that I was just talking about that's like 140 proof or pretty close to it. And I tried it, and it's like, whoa. If, you know, it'll totally, like, blow out your palate. It's so good, though. It's got so much agave flavor. It's just really, really tasty. So for any of you guys who haven't tried it, I highly, highly suggest to try it out, you know, at least once, because it's definitely acquired. It's high abv, but the flavor is just phenomenal.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Try to have some good water with it.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Sometimes I trick my liver and I drink water for fun. So. Okay, so let's talk about your repos, because I know you have a standard repo. Is that your current blanco just going straight into American oak for eight months or seven months or in that time.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Frame, goes into American oak. You know, we. We take it out by taste. You know, that's usually anywhere between four to six months. So, you know, they'll sit in XJ Dan whiskey barrel. So, you know, we are getting some of that whiskey character with it. Of course, the tannins that we're pulling out of the barrel itself, you know, we're getting some really nice oak profile, some vanilla profile from it. So, yeah, we let it sit there not for a Super long time, but four to six months, you know, and if we feel like it needs a ride for a little bit longer, we will do.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: So kind of age to taste, not necessarily time.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah, all our expressions are age to taste.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Uh, that's the way it should be.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Sergio will taste it out. And, you know, every barrel's different too. You know, there's some barrels that are going to be a little bit newer, some that are going to be a little bit more fatigued. So, you know, what we do is we'll play around with the ABV when we put it in barrels. You know, if we feel like it's a barrel that's going to be a little bit more fatigued and we want it a little bit quicker for like a reposada, you know, we may put it in there for higher abv. Something like an oniejo definitely does not go in super, super high abv. It'll just pull all those tannins out and it would just be like a oaky, very, very okay bourbon or, you know, whiskey at that point. At that point, you're better off drinking bourbon whiskey. So, you know, we put it in there at a lower abv, so it kind of sit in there for a period of time to really get that oxygen to like interact tequila and then pull out those flavors from the barrel slowly over time.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like, you know, in tequila, for me, I, I do like bourbon. There's some, a lot of bourbon up here on this bar too. But for me, I'm a, I'm a tequila drinker, I'm a blanco drinker. And if I'm gonna have a repo or an anejo, I still want that agave there. I don't, I don't want it to taste like Jack Daniels or Maker Smart. Yeah, so I do like, I like the, I like the added flavor, you know, in some of them, but it's not, it's not my goal.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: So are you doing a high proof repo too, or is it proof down to 40 when it comes out?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is the, the high proof repo. So this is 49 ABB. So this one project, it's called La Catrina High proof Repo. It's something that we came out, you know, it was very important for my wife Sarah to kind of give a tribute to all the women in the industry that are really helping out bring good shoes to this industry. There's so many women in this industry as women sellers. The majority of our packaging team at 14. 14, they're women. So, you know, it's really important for us to, you know, empower women and really give them voice in this because they are very, very important to this industry.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Absolutely. On your repos, I also seen that you had some that maybe were aged in some different beer barrels.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So now we're. We're melding worlds. Right. So, you know, I am from the beer industry, so I have some friends in the beer industry, and I hit them up and say, hey, this is a project that we're doing. You know, would you be interested in giving us some barrels? So we've done two of them so far. We did one with Bottle Logic Brewing in Ann in California. They gave us their fundamental observation, vanilla style barrels. So we sent that down and what we did is we took our regular repo and then we put it in there and we finished it for a period of time. You know, it sat in there for probably three months, four months, something along those lines. So what we're looking to do always with all of our age expressions, is we're looking to complement the agave. If there's anything that just overpowers the agave, it's just not worth it for us. We'll either blend or. So we always wanted to compliment the agave. So we felt at three, four months, you know, it gave just enough character, you know, with that style barrel. Definitely vanilla from that style barrel. And it was really, really, really good release. I love that one. There's another one that we did with Revolution Brewery in Chicago and they gave us barley wine barrel. So those barley wine barrels, you know, they have a lot of brown sugar notes, caramel notes, and they really came through in tequila as well.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: That's probably very complimentary to the tequila.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: It is, it is. And those barrels, I mean, they're. They. They were first used for either whiskey or bourbon, and then they were used for beer. And then by the time we get them, they're very, very fatigued. And that's perfect for. It's. It's. It's a very interesting use of barrels because usually when the brewery is done with it, they'll just either toss the barrel or they'll sell it for a very cheap price or something for decoration or something along those lines. But it works well with us because I'm not looking to get a ton of barrel character from it. I'm just looking to complement the economy that's there.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: There's a Bardstown bourbon. You've probably heard of that one. They have one that is in a Founders beer Barrel.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah, Founders is doing a lot of them. Yeah, Bardstown. I had that release. It's.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: It's pretty good.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: That was gifted to me and I tried it. I was like, wow, this is awesome. I think somebody told me. Yeah, there was that one. There was another one, I think. What is it? The Dragon's Milk stout that they. They Barrel age in that one, too. That wasn't Founders. That was a different distillery. I think it might have been actually the distillery that makes that beer. But, yeah, it's really interesting. For sure.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've never seen it in tequila, so that, to me, is very interesting. That's pretty awesome. So you also have it.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: We have some really cool stuff coming up, too. So obviously the beer. Rusted stuff. It's called the Rusted series. And it's not only beer, it's distillery stuff, too. So if there was a distillery that had a really cool rye or something along those lines, that would be part of that series. But we have a new series of Reposadas coming out, and you're the first person to probably hear this, apart from my wife, but what we're doing is we're really kind of testing and playing with exotic woods. So we have a really cool reposado coming out here on the first part of next year where, you know, we're going to take our reposado and we're going to finish it in Ambarana Wood. And then we have another one that's going to come out after that. It'll be Mizunara. And then we have another one that's Ipe. And we have another one and just keeps on going because, you know, I think that there is some really cool, exotic woods out there to complement tequila. Again, we don't want to take it over. We don't want to take over that agave flavor. But if we could compliment what's there, I think it could be something really.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Sounds like you're going to end up with both my credit card number and my address.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: It's fun stuff, man. You know, I'm from the beer industry. We come out with a new beer, like, you know, every two weeks or whatever it is. And we definitely want to do that in the tequila industry. Not to that extent, but, you know, we. We want to, you know, keep it. Keep it interesting. I think innovation is really important. Again, we always want to respect tequila. We want to respect the agave. This plant has been in the ground for such a long period of time. It just wouldn't, you Know, make sense if I put chocolate cake in it or something like that. But, you know, what we're doing is we're just complementing the agave that's there, and we're doing that in different ways. Obviously, the barrel is part of it. The other ingredients with agave, you. There's a highland agave that we use. But, you know, what if we use the valley guy? You know, when it comes to the cooking time, yeah, we usually cook around 50 hours. But what if we cooked a little bit longer and we gave it a little bit more toast? What if we used the Taiwan instead of our roller mill? What if we fermented with different types of yeast? So it's going to be really, really fun here.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Coming up, you hit on one of the things I was going to ask, because I know that new to just got put in there at 14:14. So from what I'm told, they're doing some experimenting before they roll it out and bring it out to everybody. But is that a goal to have a tahuna style of tequila as well?
[00:23:59] Speaker B: For sure. We're all ready. I mean, we have our packaging ready. We have a new artwork for it. You know, it's the big tahuna wheel in front of the ovens. So we're ready for it. 14 Viva Mexico is working on the first expression of that, and then we're in line to kind of get that going here really soon.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: That's awesome. So you have it on Yahoo as well? I think it's like 36 months in that timeframe. Is that right?
[00:24:25] Speaker B: So, yeah, the regular on, you know, you know, sits in a barrel between 12 and 36 months. We're kind of right in mid. So again, it goes by taste, but, you know, we're pulling it out right around 16 to 18 months.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Gotcha. In the same barrels. And is that the same blanco that went into the barrels?
[00:24:41] Speaker B: It is. It's just a lower abv. You know, we want it to not pull a ton of character because it's going to sit for a longer period of time. And as tequila sits in barrels, you know, year after year or months after months, you know, they pull more and more from that barrel. And, you know, we knew that we were going to let it sit in there for a longer period of time. So it goes in there at pretty low abv. Again, just agave. The star of the show. So, you know, we wanted to pull out some complimentary flavors, but we definitely don't want it to be whiskey.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Do you have an XA in. In the works in the plans or Zamye, as far as you're going?
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we're, we're hoping to launch that. You know, I, it won't be next year. You know, I think that we're going to have to wait to 2026 on that one. But, you know, it's going to be a very special edition tribute to my father, so I'm really excited about it and for.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: That's awesome. Right? You know, I know anos are starting to be a little, a little bit harder to find. It's kind of running a little bit shorter, and us blanco drinkers are buying up as much blanco as possible. So that's pretty exciting for the people out there that are looking for, you know, those ZOs and XAs. That's awesome.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we, we really try to just have, you know, a diverse, you know, offering for sure. So my favorite tequila is blanco. So we have some, some really cool projects coming up to come up with with different variants of blanco. Again, just looking at the ingredients and process, you know, I feel like, you know, we can do and tweak a couple things to come out with a really, really nice.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Well, I've got to say, out of the high proofs that I've had, this one has some just amazing upfront minerality. I love it. I, I, there's this, there's a, a flavor that I get out of tequila that when I'd hear people say a long time ago, I'd always say, I don't know what they're talking about. But on the end of the nose, I can get like a wet concrete or just after the rain. That mineral smell, I love that. And it's, it's, it's very prominent in the front of this. So the nose on, it's amazing. The taste is phenomenal. The finish is so nice and long and so complex. It's just so. I can't wait to get the still strength. I'm gonna have to get some of that order because this is just amazing.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that profile, too, so.
Well, we were trying to figure out what the exact name of it is.
We use a tequila flavor wheel and we're like, hey, that looks like that's it. You know, you hit on the head, it's like wet cement earth, you know, petrichor, stuff like that.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Yeah, Petrichor.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I really like that. And it definitely comes out very well.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: It changes, too, each time. Like, I sat here and was drinking a little bit before you came on. And, you know, I'd be like, oh, there's that, there's that wet concrete or wet cement smell. It's like, oh, wait, I smell hay or wet grass, you know, and then each, each time you taste some of those smells that you had, you build into that taste. And the longer it sits, the more it opens up. It's, it is really a steps up into the complexity of a great blanco or a great high proof. So, so many. It's. Oh, yeah, I got cooked agave and it's sweet and I get a little citrus and finish peppery. This, this has so much going on. It's, it's, it's up there. It's pretty awesome.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: Thanks, man. I mean, Sergio Cruz, definitely crush it. So that's a very interesting profile and very different than, you know, other profiles in 1414. I mean, 1414 does a really good job across the board. But, you know, I, I feel like, you know, Sergio with our profile is, is really made something different to what 1414 is. And he's done the same thing with other profiles too, with other tequilas that are over there. So, yeah, I'm, I'm really excited for what he has coming up here in the future and just overall, like, you know, the support that he's had for, you know, the brands over there.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: We're going to be there in February and he's expecting us. We've, we've talked back and forth on WhatsApp and I know he doesn't speak fantastic English and I speak very little Spanish, so it's gonna be hard, but I'm gonna take him like a magician's hat and a wand to tell him to do some pictures because he's such a magician at this stuff.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah, he's.
Yeah, it's fun.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: I can't wait. Awesome. So it's, there's a few places that we're going when we go down in February and that's the one. I'm honestly the really super excited about getting to spend time with him. So it's gonna be cool.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: It's awesome.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: Where can everybody find you? Where's the best place? Like, I know you guys have some good distribution some of these Midwest states where we're not really fortunate enough to have you in the stores. So.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Can they go right to your website to buy? Do you have certain places you want them to go?
[00:29:34] Speaker B: They can go to our website, so. Www.lostlordquila.com. so, you know, from there it'll take you to, you know, one of Our accounts, one of our partners that kind of fulfill Tequila for us. You know, we're. We're expanding. You know, I really want to be accessible in as many stores as possible. Of course, we appreciate the direct to consumer market as much as possible, but you know, you're paying for shipping and stuff like that, so it could bump a tequila up 15, 20 or whatever it is. So, you know, we're really trying to develop a footprint right now to make our tequila more accessible in many more states. We're currently in 22 states. Come early this year. Sorry. Next year we're going to be in about 30 states. So my eye is on the Midwest, though. I'm a Midwest boy. We were in Illinois, but I'm really, really, really pushing to get in more states. So it looks like we'll be in Minnesota early next year. We'll also be in Indiana early next year. So, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna keep on moving.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: I was gonna say you have to have it here by May. You'd have hate to have to come into the Indianapolis 500 and then buy some other tequila to drink.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I mean, for like, probably 12, 13 years straight. So I'm very familiar with it. It's a big party. It's a great time, you know, for, for people who, who can't buy it right now. I mean, definitely check out our website, but you know, if you're on the east coast, check out, you know, our
[email protected] they do a really, really good job and just everything that they have, all their offerings in the west Coast. You know, we work very closely with some DTC accounts. One of them is Roadrunner Spirits. They do a good job and Sipsey does as well. So definitely check those guys out.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Do you work with Sip Tequila out of Florida as well?
[00:31:19] Speaker B: We do. We do. We work with Sip Teala. We just started with them recently. A great group of people over there. I think they do a phenomenal job in offering. They have. So definitely check out SIP as well.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: That's awesome. So I get a question. People ask me this all the time. Usually they'll DM me and say, hey, do you know where I can get some merch for that company? Like, do they sell hats or shirts? And some people are starting to now. So do you guys have any merch for people?
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So here's. Here's the deal with our merch. So, you know, we wanted to set up a store on our website and just start selling merch, hats and shirts and glassware. I just been so busy, I haven't had a chance to really. So here's the deal for now, if you are looking for a shirt, please, please, please reach out to me on Instagram or any of the social media platforms and we will send you a shirt. So free of cost, you know, nothing to you guys, just let us know and we'll definitely send you a shirt. So I have a box over here with like 100 shirts. It's just collecting dust, so I want to get it.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: It.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: You know why I like having them? Because when I go to Total Wine and the person comes around the corner to ask me if I need help and I'm standing there in a Lost Lurcher or Agave Social Club shirt, they usually go, thanks.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: This is the guy. You know, it's fantastic.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Instagram, you're at Lost Lord Tequila. TikTok at Lost Lord Tequila. Facebook, the same at Lost Lord Tequila.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: So. And I know you guys put out lots of stuff. I, I follow you on social media. I try to tag you as much stuff as we do as well. Is there any other places that people can find yet?
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Those. Those are the bigger ones. You know, there's the cool kid platforms that I just really haven't worked on. You know, I do handle for the most part, all of our socials. So I'm a big Instagram guy. That's where I. I kind of live in most. But I am checking out Facebook from here to there. TikTok. I kind of have someone who helps me out with that. I guess I'm just too old for that platform, I guess. But yeah, that's the cool kid thing out.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: I'm an old guy, so I look at Facebook the most then Instagram and then I need to hire like a 10 year old to take care of my TikTok.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: It's crazy though, because, like, there's some brands that are just really taking off TikTok. I think it's great. You just, you had to have a lot of, you know, content and videos and reels and stuff like that. And I'm a picture guy right now. So, you know, maybe it'll change with time. But you know, right now I try to keep it basic.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: I gotta tell you, if you want to see something crazy on TikTok, just go check out the Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter, Nutter Butter Cookie. Yeah, go, go look at their TikTok page. I don't know what's going on over there or who's running that, but There is some crazy stuff. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty crazy.
Well, I know you're super busy. I really appreciate you doing this and I love your brand. I think this is going to go out great for people, and I'm really excited about your stuff. I think it's amazing and more people around here should know about it. Appreciate you taking your time.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Awesome. Brent. Hey, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate you and appreciate what you're doing. You know, education is so important in this industry and, you know, you're obviously a very big contour when it comes to quality tequila. So thank you for what you're doing and spreading the word of good added free tequila.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: No worries.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: Thank you.
