Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, guys, thanks for stopping in. I'm stoked about this one. It's the first time I've got to do a brand owner interview and talk about a brand live instead of doing online. So, everybody, this is Brett Glaze with Hiatus Tequila. How you doing tonight?
[00:00:16] Speaker B: I'm great, Brad. Thanks for having me. This is. This is outstanding. I didn't know there were so many passionate people like yourself in the state of Indiana promoting tequila. So we're stoked to be here.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Well, I'm fired up to have you, and I'm fired up to be able to find a tequila in Indiana. You know, sometimes I'm always pushing to get brands here.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: So tell me a little bit about your journey in tequila. How in the hell did you get here?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's. It's a crazy story. I've been in the adult beverage business 30 years. Beer, wine, liquor, a little bit of everything. But I partnered up with these guys. I'm a minority owner. But the real brains behind this brand is a gentleman by the name of Christopher De Soto. Look them up. Google them.
Whatever the case may be, he's all over social media. Just a great guy all around, but just really, really passionate about tequila. Chris's story is he sold helicopters for 25 years, of all things. Yes, helicopters.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: There's got to be some good commission on selling a helicopter.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it takes. The sales cycle is very long, but once you sell one, yeah, you're going to make a little bit of money. But Chris didn't sell a tequila. I'm sorry, A helicopter company. Make millions of dollars and say, hey, I'm going to start a tequila company. It's truly from the perspective of he lived in Guadalajara, down there in Alisco, the state of Alisco, for eight years while he was selling helicopters in Central and South America and really immersed himself into the culture of tequila. Because there is a culture.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: No, big time. Yes.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: You live it daily yourself.
So when he got back to New York, during the final phases of his helicopter career, he started asking the guys, the bartenders in New York, hey, I haven't been around for eight years. What's hot? This would have been about 2015. And they said, hey, you've got to try the latest fad. The latest thing are tequilas and mezcals. He says, great, pour me some. Well, what they poured him, in his humble opinion, were inferior products.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Fire garbage.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Fire garbage. Sweet, syrupy, full of additives, preservatives, sugars, things like that. And he kind of set out on a mission, like, okay, I think I can do better. And at that point in time, brands like Casamigo, all the celebrity brands, I don't want to pick on anybody in particular, but all the celebrity brands, there's a couple out there that are okay, but they didn't ex. They didn't exist back then. He. He started hiatus and with the intention of bringing authentic, as cliche as it sounds, authentic Mexican tequila to the US So they flew back and forth, met with some, some master distillers down there, walked the agave fields and started.
Started this project. Got liquid in bottle. I want to say 2018, 2019.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: You've been doing it for a little while.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I partnered up with him and, and Adam Fagan, the other partner. 2020.
Kind of bumped into him of all places, in a bar in Indianapolis.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: No way.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: No way. Yeah. Imagine that in a bar. One of the owners walked in and we started talking. Everything else told me their story. I was in between jobs at that point in time and, you know, right place, right time, one of those things. And so they vetted me, I vetted them, I drank the liquid, fell in love, and here we are. So that's kind of how it came about. But that's. That's the Cliff Notes version. Yeah. So very much a small, boutique, additive free, preservative free agave forward. You've already said that. Agave forward. So that's what we feel is the right thing to do. So here we are.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: That's awesome. You know when you say authentic tequila and people don't really know what we're talking about, but it's like when you go and you go to a Mexican restaurant here and it says authentic Mexican restaurant and you eat the food here and you're excited about. It's good. But when you go to Mexico and you're in Jalisco or you're in Arandas and you're eating Mexican food at a Mexican restaurant there, it's completely different. Is completely different.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: As corny as it sounds, my background is beer and wine, a little bit of everything. But you can have a pint of Guinness anywhere in the United States. It's a great beer brand, but a pint of Guinness in Ireland, probably.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Completely different.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Completely different. Completely different. Same thing. So think same thing with Mexican food or Mexican tequila, which obviously all true tequila has to come from Mexico, Jalisco. So, yeah, completely different experience.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: So it's all about the production method. Right. There's ways to make it quick, make it cheap. Yeah. And usually those brands that are doing it they're not selling it cheaper, they're just making a bigger profit margin. So. Well let's. Since we're talking tequila, let's. Let's bust out a little blanco here and get started with the base.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: So not aged obviously. Lowlands Tequila. So our distillery, La Comfortia, our partners down there, Nam's 1137, third generation family owned tequila. We're two miles outside the town of Tequila. I think most of your listeners, followers probably know that. But there is a Tequila Mexico. Beautiful little town, sits at the base of a volcano. It's been there since 1530.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Great. Great hotel there too.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: There is. You get to stay in tequila barrel.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Tequila barrels.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Tequila barrels. Yeah.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: But they're not really tequila.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: They're not tequila.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: They're just big barrels in the agave field.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: It's glamping at its best.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: But they're really cool looking. And then they have some great tun tours as well and show you the whole process. And they're very open about that.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Yep. So very agave forward. We know where. One thing that we're very proud of in regards to our tequila, we know where all of our tequila is grown. A lot of tequilas, they source their blue agave on the open market. So they're just pulling it from wherever and that's fine to a certain degree. 50% of our blue agave comes from one farmer that we have a long term contract with. And the other 50% comes from three other farms, farmers that we know and do business with and have long, long term contracts with them as well. So we know where our blue agave is coming from. And it's grown to proper ripeness. So that's something that we're pretty proud of.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Jeff, that's awesome. It's very agave forward. It's very vegetal and it's earthy.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Do you pick up on any citrus? I know that's, that's. That may be a little curveball. And the reason why I say that where our agave fields are, they're surrounded by mango trees. And the pollen from the mango comes and sits in, sits, floats down and sits on the.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Can I get a little bit more of that in the, in the flavor than I do in this melt. It kind of reminds me another highlands agave that has mangoes. I mean Lowlands El Tecalino.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Oh great. Tequila.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: And they have mango trees.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: All around that distillery. And I do pick up a little bit of that same type of citrus. In the taste. You're a little more. Has a little more minerality. 100 and it's a little more earthy. The finish is nice and long. The finish is still hanging on. It's a little peppery. It's got it. It's very, it's very easy to drink. Like it doesn't have a big burn to it. There wasn't a big alcohol hit.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: So good. It's worth another try.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: There's not too many tequilas. I don't drink them. So their glasses empty? There's a couple here.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
There's a lot of good ones.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: That's a good blanco.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Thank you. No, Christopher, our honor will tell you, owner, our founder, you know, you can't start. I mean, you can't have a good repo or a good onier unless you start with a good blanco because that's the base products. Yeah.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: It's one thing to have the barrel give its contributions to a great blanco and add some barrel nuances, but if you have, if you have a bad bourbon, you can put it in a great barrel and you can have an amazing bourbon from that barrel.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: You just can't do that with tequila. A lot of people try. So let's talk about the process a little bit. Bringing these aged agaves in and cutting them. And probably tight.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Yes, very tight.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: And then stone oven.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Stone authentic Horno ovens, Stone brick ovens.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, so they have some, they have some autoclaves there too.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: But I know they do some low pressure autoclave stuff there too. Does come out tasting pretty good. But this is stone oven.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Stone oven, yes. 100.
Yeah. Roast the agave 48, 72 hours. Whatever. Think, whatever the master distiller and the production people think is right for that particular batch of agave that comes in from the field. So, yeah, stone ovens.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Fantastic. And then what's your method for crushing?
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah, so actually I'd have to defer to my owner a little bit. So I apologize for not being. But it's, it's, it's. It's like a screw mill.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Of all things. Are you familiar with the process? Yep. So it's a, it's, it's fairly unique process. So we're not the only ones doing it by any means. So. But it's. Whereas if you use the Tonya. Right.
That's a truly the most authentic way to, you know, squeeze out the juice from the, the blue agave and everything else. That's a very time labor intensive process. Slow, slow. Thank you. Slow, slow and everything else. But at the same time, we're not 100% industrialized, so to speak. So kind of the middle ground would be the screw press that we use.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: So are they using a screw mill and then. Then going into a roller mill?
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Okay. Because that's the other places I know of the. The screw mill instead of a shredder.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yep, yep.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: So the screw mill is a mill that turns and goes up into the agave and it just peels it into pieces and spreads it out, and then from there into probably a four or five pass roller mill.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Yep, exactly.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: That's. That's an awesome process. All right, so tell me about fermentation. How are you guys fermenting this awesome agave?
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah, open air tanks. Open air. Open air Open air yeast tanks. So if that clues you in, so to speak.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: So open air stainless steel.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Stainless steel, yes.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Okay. And then is it just wild fermentation or do you guys have some proprietary yeast that goes in there too?
[00:10:24] Speaker B: 90% sure it's wild yeast. Right. But I'd have to confer with my partner whether or not it's. If there's anything outside of the wild yeast that we're using.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: So I should say no, that's okay. There's a lot. There's a lot of brains that don't.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: And a lot of brains will say, well, it's. However, our master distiller does that. And I understand that too, because it is part of your process. So sometimes giving out, sometimes they don't want to give out. All those. Yeah, proprietary. Right. So I get that. So open fermentation. And you mentioned the mango trees. You know, so it's. It's amazing how people don't realize how just the area, the location creates, you know, a real terroir in tequila. Not just where the agaves came from in the fields, but like you mentioned, that wild yeast that's in the area. But even. How about the well water? I mean, it's gonna taste different too.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Oh, without a doubt. So we have a spring naturally fed spring on site.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, so we're very proud of that. That's another thing that.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Are they doing a blend of spring water and well water? Are they just using the spring water?
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Just using the spring.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Spring water.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Spring water, yeah.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: That may be where that different minerality in the earthiness comes from. Where some of the other tequilas. From Tequila. Sounds funny to say that. And it's also weird to call it the lowlands, you know?
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Thousand elevation.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: That's something that.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Taller than timber.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. So we say lowland highlands, but really the lowlands are 2,3000ft above sea level. So, yeah, so it's kind of an oxymoron.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: It is an oxymoron, but when you. When you compare it to the Highland region where you're at 9,000 elevation, you know, it's different. Well, let's. Let's hit that repo. Yeah, is fantastic. I'm gonna finish it.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: So this is our repo age. Six months in used American whiskey oak barrels.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: So six months.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Six months.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Do they.
Is there barreling area on site where the distillery is?
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Without a doubt, yeah.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Some have them at different locations and.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: So everything's down there.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: Is it a big facility? Because I've not been to this.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: No, it is not.
Like I said, I think at the beginning of the podcast, lack of ideas. Third. Third generation owned, same family, obviously, all three generations. Charlie is the master distiller and very small and quaint. So you mentioned earlier the barrels where you can stay on site and whatnot. So. Excuse me. As the facility, I mean, as the distillery has grown and their business and everything else, they've expanded. So they have a restaurant on site, they have hospitality, but their main focus is obviously making tequila. But, you know, they. They've taken advantage of everything they have there. But, yeah, it's. It's all right there. Hospitality, the food, the. The aging, the barreling, the. The bottling, the. Yeah, the storage of the barrel.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: All right there?
[00:13:10] Speaker B: All right there, yeah. La comrade.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: You know, it's. It's amazing to me when you go, being from America, where we've gone to factors.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Right. You've been in, you know, these major warehouses, you've probably seen how they bottle beer and how they make beer, and these are massive facilities. And you go to a distillery like this or like some of the others that we talk about, and you literally could fit something right here in my.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Bar, without a doubt.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: How in the world is this unbelievable tequila being sent all over the world and it's being made in an area where there's 12 workers.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You know the story I like to tell. And Chris, our Chris owner, could tell much better. One thing that he did to help out the distillery, all the labels that go on our bottles used to be hand applied.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: And you have a lot of stickers on there.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: We do, we do at various points all over the bottle. So it's not an easy process. Right. But Chris out to somebody in the, you know, in the. In the. The mechanical world of engineering.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: And came up with a hand roller for the employees there to apply the labels and they set the Bottle down. And it's actually called a jig. I only know that because my family has a tool engineering company.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Oh, there you go. Yeah.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: So it's kind of crazy that I would know what that is. But it's a jig that holds the bottle and then they roll the labels on it while still hand applied.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: Easier process.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Easier process. But that's made the, the workers there at the distillery, when they first got a hold of this mechanism, you know, it was like you handed them a bar of gold. Right. It changed their lives.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Like their first iPhone.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Couldn't you. You couldn't think of a better example. So. So, yeah. So. So while still very traditional, but to your point. Yeah. That's what people don't realize when it comes to all the different distilleries down there. Yeah. You have the mass produced.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: We're not going to name names, but those are, those are fact confra d and a lot of other small batch distilleries. You know, it's, it's all, it's all done by hand. Yeah. And that's something that they're very proud of. And that's kind of what makes a lot of these different distilleries unique. And it's the land and it's the agave and it's the soil and it's the trees and everything else. So that's what makes it so special.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: So tradition and the hands. Yes. And it's. To me, this is one. It's sipping. I always say it's sipping eight years of sunshine.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: Grow this plant. Right. And then this is a little longer because it's now been in a barrel six months.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: And then when you go to the anejo, it's been there even longer. It's got a great flavor. I pick up, I pick up a little vanilla that I normally get from agave. Sometimes you get that vanilla in the blanco. But the barrel really enhances the vanilla here. A little bit of caramel. Some of those barrel notes still agave forward. The minerality is muted from what it is in the blanco, which is. That's why I drink a blanco more than a barrel aged product. I love that. That just agave.
Yum.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: If you're a tequila person, you're always going to start with a blanco.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: Great sweetness, great barrel flavor.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: You know, we're not about. At hiatus, we're not about awards, but I will say of the three expressions that we have, Arepo is the one that's won the most accolades. So. Yeah. So a lot of blind taste test tastings that we've done.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: It's very balanced. Yeah, because you get that, you get that acidity, you get that little bit of burn in the finish, and then it just dissipates and nothing going down. You don't get that aftertaste, that.
That saccharin, glycerin aftertaste. Very clean, very balanced. It really gives you a good tingle in the back of the tongue. That's really good.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: So let me ask you this since we're talking tequila and I've been doing this for. I've been selling adult beverages for 30 years, but there's still a lot to learn, especially when it comes to tequila and your way. Knowledge, Way more knowledgeable than I am. So one thing I've been taught. So tell me if this is true or. Though when you get. When you drink it and you get that little bit of burn right there, I've been taught that those are residual oils. The blue agave plant, which is a succulent, is full of oils. And if you're making an authentic tequila, you're not stripping out all those oils and masking them with sugars and food colorings or preservatives and additives and things like that. That. So that little bit of burn that's left over are the residual oils. Is that true or not? Fill me in.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: I've never heard that.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: I've always been taught and have experienced with good tequilas that I really don't ever get that burn in the body. You know, sometimes when they're over, way overproofed, you know, but even with an overproof tequila like that, if you. If you aerate it in your mouth and you let that rest in your mouth before you swallow it, that'll go away.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Okay, let's learn something.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: It's kind of crazy. We're going to test the principle.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Okay, let's do it.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: You know, this one was pretty hot because you already tried it. And again, we're talking about 55 straight off this still. I've been. Been rested in this little bottle. That's it. It hasn't been aerated. There's nothing added to this. This is hot in the mouth. Right. So it's kind of great.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: That's just such a great, great, great nose.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: It's ridiculous. Yeah, don't follow it. Aerate it a little bit like you do wine and then swallow.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't get the burn.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: It's not here. No, it's here. It's. It's a rapid tongue and.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: So that, that balanced when, when it's really well balanced, what it does is it wraps your tongue, it makes you just gets all this saliva. Right. And, and you have all these flavors in that finish. No, but no heat here.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: No, I got zero, zero heat. That's unique.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So I was always told a great tequila burns in the mouth. It burns up front, doesn't burn in the back.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: And it's. But I say it does kind of burn in the back in the finish because it's still in your mouth. It's still there.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: I'm getting it right now.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: And it turns into this one. Turns into almost like spearmint, like. Yep, it's real. Nailed it all a spearminty flavor. It's just ridiculously good. Well, let's try this on. Yeho, I'm excited about it. So eight, what's your age time?
[00:19:23] Speaker B: A year and one day. A year and one day. So most of your listeners probably know this, but to be an authentic Anjo must be aged between one year and one and three years. We're one year, one year and one day. Christopher, once again, I keep referencing him, but he's the mastermind behind all this. He's a traditionalist. And, and no disrespect to tequilas that are age 3 years that go the full, full limit of aging and whatnot, but he says at that point in time you might as well make bourbon. It's just his opinion, some people would disagree. And you know, and there are a lot of, hey, there are a lot of good aged anejos out there that serve a purpose pair well with food, desserts, you know, on a, on a rock, big ball of ice or whatever the case may be having a cigar.
So you know, drink your spirit how you want to drink it. So drink what you like, drink what you like. Who are we to tell you how to drink, drink and what you drink and things like that. But that being said in the spirit of staying true to the spirit, like I said, we're one year, one day and that's great.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: I do think there's some great, great age tequilas. Right. We were talking off, off camera about some of the great brands that are out there been around forever and there's some great master distillers and master blenders that, that know how to keep an agave forward flavor in a barrel that's there for years. I get a lot more caramel. Yeah, I get a lot more barrel spice on the nose. But I still, I still get the agave.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: So if I must Confess, Brad. You know, we, we just talked about, you know, drink your spirit the way you want to drink it. I drink our blanco in a margarita or straight up with a little bit of soda water and an orange slice repo, usually neat with our anejo. I make old fashioned stuff. Yeah. And I, and I only bring that up one because one, it's a personal favorite. Yeah. But two, I tell that to people and it kind of blows their mind a little bit. Like what on an old fashioned. Like, I mean, I'm like you just. How do you do that? Well, it's pretty simple. You just take the bourbon out, you put tequila in. I suggest nanya. You could use a repo depending on how long it's been aged or whatever. And my friends and co workers and acquaintances that I've turned onto this particular drink with an ano, especially ours, they, they, they're always blown away and they're grown as well. Yeah.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: Oh, paper plane, paper plate. I have not. So I, I love a bourbon paper plate, but I'm yet to make a tequila paper plate and I have all the ingredients. So that's going to be a drink that I'm going to make for a video sometime next week. I, I'll have. If you leave that here, I'll make it.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: I'm gonna leave it all here. I did. I just, I feel privileged that if I, if my bottles can make it onto your wall somehow, some way. I don't know if there's, there's no room left.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: So things come down, things go up.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: So, so nice. Agave sweetness.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: More caramel, more of that barrel note. Caramel. That's there. The mouth feel has changed a little bit too. So this, this was a really thick viscosity, like a lot of oils. But this, the oils are a little more subdued to me.
Yeah, it's kind of just settled. It's rested. But that agave is still there. But I get a little bit of cinnamon in the finish which I didn't get in either of these. So that really gave some great, you know, spice nuance to the tequila. It's very good.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: We think so, but we're a little bit biased.
Appreciate the honest feedback.
We're not your top of the line tequila by any means. We're reasonably priced here. We're in Indiana.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: So how much is your blanco coming in?
[00:23:17] Speaker B: We're just gonna start at 50, 50, 60 and 70. 70. Yeah.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Great prices.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We feel. Like I said, we don't, you know, I don't want to downplay it. But for the money. We think it's a fair price for what you get.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: That's a great product for the great price.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: What's your distribution like? Where can people find this if they're not in Indiana?
[00:23:36] Speaker B: If they're not, just go to www.hiatastaquila.com. we do have an online retail store, so you can pretty much buy it anywhere in the US Online. There are a few states, you know, the government's involved, so there's a few states that restrict online shipping with our products. There's just a few, and that's fine. But we have strong distribution in Indiana. We have strong distribution in Florida, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Jersey, Tennessee, Nevada.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: So good distribution nationwide.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: We're getting there.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Get it on the website.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Get it on the website.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: You can get it in Indiana.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Indiana.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Not a lot of tequilas you can get in Indiana. Did you have a lot to do with that?
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Well, actually, funny story.
And I gotta. I don't wanna say brag, but I gotta talk about some partners of ours. I don't know if you and I talked about this. We may have when we first connected and went out, but really what brought the brand to Indiana was hughes culinary in 33. St. Elmo's, Hairy Izzy's and everything else. So great.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: St. Elmo's.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: St. Elmo's.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Famous steakhouses in India.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So for those of you that are listening out there watching that aren't familiar with us or tequila or whatever, if you ever had a steak in the Midwest, you've heard of St. Elmo's and they're famous for their shrimp cocktail and their steaks and everything else. So the Hughes family, or the proprietors. Owners. They are one of our original partners. Investors. Yeah. So they just been. They've been. They've been friends, business partners, proponents, and we've been so lucky to team up with them from the get go. That's kind of the reason why I jumped on board with these guys five years ago, knowing that they were involved. So. But they have a strong presence here in Indiana, so we're available in all their restaurants. And that's how this is how the brand ended up in Indiana. Very cool. I was here and. And we made the connection, whatnot. And not only are they in Indiana, but in the beginning of 2026, they're going to be out in the Phoenix Scottsdale area.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: So they're not going to open it. Elmo's though, right? They're gonna open.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Thank you for clarifying that. The co owner CEO. One time, him and I were enjoying a hiatus. He said to me, he's like, I will never do another St. Elmo's. It's the one and only. And he goes, I don't want to dilute the brand. He goes, I'm a steward of the restaurant. And the restaurant, I think the address is 127South Meridian. It's been there for since 2002. He's like, it's the one and only. He goes, I'll never dilute. Could I open other stores? Brands, manners, so on and so forth. Yes, without a doubt, 1933. But they're always, always be the one and only St. Elmo. So, yeah.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: So Great Restaurant and 1933 are great restaurants as well. This is good stuff.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So we're proud of what we've got going on here. So. And I just want to say thanks, Brad. I mean, I. With my partners, we're building this brand one cocktail at a time, one tasting at a time. And I found you online and realized that, like, literally, like, you were like 15 minutes, 15 minutes apart. And you're doing awesome things to promote the category, which we. If there were 20 more of you in the Midwest, my job would be so much easier. And I'm okay with getting out there and tasting tequila.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: And I'm okay with 20 more people doing this. The more people that get out there. Okay, a couple questions before we wrap up. Anything new coming. Do we have an xa? Do we have any other expressions or skus coming out soon?
[00:27:07] Speaker B: Yeah, two things. So I don't know if it'll happen in 2025, but we are going to play with an overproof.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Nice. We got a high proof.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Yep, yep. Still strength, overproof. Probably the beginning of 2026, if I had to guess. So that's up to Christopher and the master distiller, Charlie. So we can look at that. And then we do a barrel select program. Our first go around was 2024, and we did that in several different markets. And then we had locally, we had several different retailers here. Embrace the program where we did different variations. We did a couple. So we actually did three different variations. We did a different repo, we did a different anejo. Just like different batches, different lot numbers and everything else. And then we did what we called a wild card. And what was unique about that one is we aged one of our Anejos batches and French oak Chardonnay barrels. Wow. So I'll give you some samples of that. So. And I'm Going to put you on the spot here, but I will probably include you in the 2025 barrel select program. Meaning I'm going to have you be one of our testers, or tasters, I should say, and let you pick and help us choose what we're going to do for 2025.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: That'd be awesome.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Let you pick something that's special, you know, hey, we're. That's the great thing about what we're doing is super small company. There's literally like 10 of us in the whole company and working with a small distillery down there and. And tequila. The town of Tequila. And there's not a lot of red tape. There's not.
Yeah. No corporate bs, so to speak. And let's. Let's talk off air and. And yeah, we might be able to do something like that.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: More to come.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: More to come. All right. So sitting here 30 years in the alcohol business.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: If you could bring your tequila and sit down with absolutely anybody, anybody in history, time, family, famous, live, dead, whatever, who would you want to sit down with and pour a glass of your tequila with and have a fireside chat, if you will? Wow.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: That's a great question. And I can answer that in so many different ways. I don't want to say I'm a history buff, but I do like history. Not as knowledgeable as I should be. You know, you're kind of backing me in corner saying, just pick one person. I'm going to pick two people. So I'm straying from the questions. So big music fan. So somebody dead. David Bowie.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Okay. That'd be kind of cool.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: And somebody alive. His name, his real name is Paul Houston, but he goes by the name Bono. So. So I'm a music. I'm a music fanatic. And so I would like to probably have a snifter with those guys just to hear their perspective on the.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: How about Bowie and Bono in the same room?
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Oh, there's so many great people out there that I'd love to. You know, a buddy of mine and I were laughing the other day, or a buddy recited a quote. I think it was Dean Martin. Could have been Frank Sinatra. But he said he felt sorry for people. Let's go with Dean Martin. Pretty sure it was him. He said he felt sorry. His quote was, he felt sorry for people that don't drink because when they wake up in the morning, that's the best they're gonna feel all day.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Nah.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: So I gotta say, though, if you drink good tequila, when you wake up in the morning, you feel just as great as you did.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: As long as you don't mix it with garbage. Yeah, you know, you don't have to drink it straight, but something cle. Soda water, you know, ranch water. Topo, chico, whatever the case may be. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna be a little bit. Now.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: You're gonna mix it up?
[00:30:48] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. I'm gonna stay with the original question bit. Self serving. Oh. If as I. When I leave here tonight, if I can only leave you one bottle, which bottle would you.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Okay. Because I'm a blanco guy.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, you set that up.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: I'm gonna drink the blanco.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Like I said. I said it from the get go. If you don't start with a good blanco, can't win. You can't win with the other ones.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: And that's where the high proof comes in. To me, the high proof is more agave flavor. It's more of the plant because it's less of the water.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Do you think your wife will ever tell you to stop buying tequila?
[00:31:24] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, already has.
That's a weekly conversation. There's a budget set and I exceed it.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: There's worse isis.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: There is, yeah.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:34] Speaker A: I could be collecting watches or cars, airplanes, Helicopters.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Helicopters. Which brings us back full circle with Christopher and whatnot.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: I really appreciate you doing this, dude. This has been fun, Brad.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: This has been amazing. You know, when you first invite. When we first started talking, I'm like, wow, this guy is knowledgeable. More. Way more knowledgeable than me. I'm going to just say that up front. That's the great thing about this industry. You could learn from other people, but yet not feel intimidated and whatnot. And so when I found out that you were this immersed and it's just a hobby. This is. I make a living from this. This is my job.
This is how I get paid and whatnot. But this is just hobbies. So obviously you're all in on this. Like I said, we need. We need more people like you to wave the banner and just talk about good tequila. Because I'm going to finish off this way, if you don't mind. But as we started the conversation before we went on, on the air, unfortunately, a lot of people's first experience with tequilas was college, spring break, high school. You know, you snuck a bottle or you bought the cheap stuff from CVS or whatever. And then, you know, back in the day, the most expensive bottle of tequila you get was $10. And people had a bad experience, but unfortunately it was not because of tequila. Per se. It was all the chemicals, nitrates, additives, preservatives, sugars, mixos. Yeah. And everything else. And so that scarred a lot of people. But people have to realize that this spirit's been around since thousands of years, and it's part of the culture down there. And a good tequila is like a good bourbon, scotch, whiskey, sake, whatever, a good wine, whatever the case may be. And we need to have more people like you talk about what this spirit can't, can be and should be. Certainly say it that way. So we. I'll just say thank you on behalf of the community and. And keep doing what you're doing, and that's it.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: So I appreciate that very much.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Thanks, Brad. And that being said, we'll probably. Let's bring. Let's zoom Chris in from New York.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: I thought about that today and kind of came up with the idea a little bit too late. But, yeah, he'd be a great asset. He's way more knowledgeable. He's. He's on your level.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: It'd be pretty fun. Yeah. So thanks for tuning in, guys. Don't forget to check out their website. I'll put it right up here so you can go to it. And we'll also post them in the social media. And it's definitely a tequila to search out to try. Great prices, great product. I know you will enjoy it. Thanks for tuning in.
