Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Buckle your seatbelts because this interview is amazing. Tonight I sit down with Alejandro Patterson, one of the owners of tesoro Azul. Yes. A celebrity brand with a super famous singer behind it. And he's going to talk about how that happened. How a guy that grew up running around as a child at Hoduro's distillery while his mom worked there for over 20 years, becomes a brand owner partnered with a celebrity in Mexico, Martin, making a fantastic traditional tequila. Stick around for this one. It's amazing.
It's tasting tequila with Brad.
All right. I am super fired up to be here today with Alejandro Patterson and tesoro Ozul. How are you doing today?
[00:00:49] Speaker B: I'm very well, Brad. Thank you for asking. How are you doing?
[00:00:52] Speaker A: I'm excited, man. It's beautiful. Almost end of summer, and I'm sipping on a great tequila and I get to talk to. I get to talk to somebody about tequila. That always fires me up.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: It always is a pleasure, too.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: If you could tell. Tell us a little bit by starting about who you are and what your role is with tesoro Azul.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Okay. Well, my name is Alejandro.
That's my full name. I'm kind of like a street mutt. I have blood from all over the place. So I am a partner in the brand, and I'm a partner in tesorosul. My role is what we say in Mexico. I'm a todolobo, which means I oversee a lot of parts of the operation itself. I have a lot of input in the quality and the production of how we make the tequila itself. And then I also do a part of the distribution, and I oversee some of the parts of how we do the publicity and just, you know, all over the place, but very much involved in how we communicate about the brand as well and how we get things done.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: That's awesome. So you're kind of the guy with the tools, the entire toolbox of the whole thing.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: You.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: You make sure it all goes and works, right?
[00:02:01] Speaker B: The. The handyman behind the curtains.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: That's awesome. All right. What initially drew you to the tequila industry and what's your, like, Tequila background?
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so I personally have been working in. In the tequila industry for close to 20 years with different brands and with different projects. I got so, you know, having agave and just different. Different aspects of tequila production. But I guess my.
My love for tequila grew when I was younger. My mom worked for tequila radura for close to 20 years in the 90s and early 2000s. So I, you know, I spent most of my Weekends going to the Hacienda. We have a little house in the, in the entrance to San Jose del Refugio.
So yeah, that's where, you know, I, I spent a lot of my, you know, my weekends, my summers, you know, walking around the distillery when it was a different time. You know, it was very easy to, you know, go through everywhere and, you know, just walk around and nobody asks you any questions about like. Well, they knew who I was, but it was great. That's where I learned, you know, I, I was mesmerized by the, the embassado, how you bottle the, the, the tequila. I used to spend hours just watching bottles go through the line and, you know, walking around the production houses and, and all that. So yeah, it was, it was, it was my, I guess it was my introduction to, to tequila. And then, you know, started to grow up and started to learn more about it and then got my hands into it myself and, you know, there we go.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: That's fantastic. Don't you wish we could still find some of those old hodura bottles?
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Yes. So I, you know, my father in law got me a bottle of Hacienda del Cristero. This was my mom's favorite tequila. It's, it's from the house of Herradura. They used to produce this back in the day. And I don't know how he got it, but he got a, he got a couple bottles of it. So I, I opened one and I, you know, I drank a little bit of that one, but the other one I'm going to keep just in the, in the back case.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: I wish I kept some of these bottles, but like, you know, I like to have a history or a, you know, I guess an archive of things that are from our, our past. And my mom was in the, the group that led the initial launch of Tequila El Jimador back in the day. And it was funny because in the label there was a, one of the things that said Made in Mexico and there was a slight little golden strip above and below it. And if you looked at it with a looper, I don't know how you say a loop, but with a magnifying glass there was the names of all of them, of all the people that were involved with the project. So unfortunately, when I was younger I drank all those bottles, so I don't have any of them left, but I'm trying to find one of those.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: That's very cool. That's, that's a neat little. We call those Easter eggs. You Know when you can find a little thing that nobody knows is there.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: If you could tell me how did you become involved with this brand?
[00:05:01] Speaker B: Okay. So, you know, like I said, I've been around Tequila myself for quite a while and between my different paths, you know, you grow a base of people that, you know, the tequila world is actually very much smaller than most people would think. And a lot of, A lot of the people that are involved in this business, we know each other, you know, and we, we exchange information and we talk about things and, and try to, you know, most of us try to help each other out. So this was maybe eight or nine years ago. I went to Roserva de la no Rosal of Gonzalez, sorry, Rose Gonzalez, which is the. The ex owners of Don Julio. They have a new distillery, right. And I met Eduardo Gonzalez, which was one of the, one of the owners, and I was trying to make a tequila with him, which didn't come to pass. But you know, I get, I got to meet him and he was a great guy. Unfortunately it was, you know, maybe three or four months before he passed away and I found out that he passed away and you know, it was a bad, very sad thing. But then a few months afterwards, I met Lalo, which is Lalo Gonzalez, the, you know, one of the co owners of, of Lalo Tequila. And we have mutual friends, you know, just in a meeting, in a reunion, we, we got to talking. My mom had passed away maybe, you know, a couple years before his father. So we talked about, you know, griefing and things. We exchanged numbers and then, you know, we became friends and, and you know, once in a while we would talk about something, you know, that, you know, he had questions about or that I needed something. And you know, just like I said, you know, people in the industry trying to help each other out. So one day in 2020, Lalo calls me up and he says, hey, you know, one of my friends that I know has a project of Tequila. He wants to do a brand for Marcantones Solis and I don't have time for it. This was back when Lalo was just beginning and I think he was just before he moved to the US So it was like when he would. Had a lot of focus on, on his brand. So he asked me if I wanted to take the project on. And yeah, we started with that conversation and then I talked to Jose Monroy, which is my other partner in the brand now, and that's how we, you know, we started the conversation and how tesorosul became part of the Conversation and then it, it took off into being an actual project.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: So how many years has the brand been available now?
[00:07:17] Speaker B: So in Mexico for three years. We started in 2022 in Mexico in March. And this was important to us because we wanted to see how the Mexican market would react to, to having, you know, let's call it a celebrity tequila. Because as soon as you attach somebody that's known or that has a name for something, we are immediately called a celebrity tequila. But I'll talk a little bit about how we want to differentiate ourselves from this or make it just a better thing. So yeah, we wanted to see how people would take it here. It was well accepted. We started only with Blanco and an Cristalino, which is a very popular subcategory in tequila right now. So we started there and then we've been selling in the US for, you know, maybe a year and a half, a little bit over a year.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: So how did that go over with having a celebrity tequila? Like, you know, in America there's so many celebrity tequilas that we, a lot of us automatically go, oh no, celebrity, I don't know as many Mexican celebrities that have tequila brands, did it go over really well?
[00:08:23] Speaker B: So this was why we accepted the project because I think we were very excited about having something that would be 100% Mexican and 100% authentic.
My main concern was when I started with this project was let's do a really, really good tequila. Because like you said, there's a stigma surrounding celebrity brands and that usually the quality is not or is not the first concern. Right? The marketing usually or distribution is the first concern. In my opinion, there's three things that have to function well for a brand to be successful. So you have to have a good project product, you have to have good distribution, and then you have to have good publicity or good advertisement. If one of those three is lacking, then maybe you have a really good product and you have good distribution, but nobody knows about you, nobody finds, you know, or vice versa. You have really good distribution, really good advertisement that the product is really crappy. So you get one a one time buy and then nobody rebuys you because the product is not really good. Or you know, the other option, which, which would mean everybody looks for you, you have a good product but nobody can find you because your distribution is very bad. So, so we wanted to do something that was going to fulfill all three areas and capacities was our main concern.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Tell everybody a little bit about Marco. I know that he's, I know he's a popular singer. In Mexico, but I don't know that he's being played on American radio. So give us a little bit about Marco.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, in Marco, Antonio Solis is a. Is a singer. He's been in the industry for about 40 years. So in Mexico we have what we call the music greats, which was, you know, Alejandro Fernandez, you know, Jose, Jose, the. There was a Juan Gabriel. There's a whole bunch of singers that were extremely popular in a certain era. And I think Marco is the last living one of these guys. He's a little bit younger than the other ones were, but he still fits in the same category. So he has a humongous fan base in Mexico. And not just Mexico, like Latin America. And anybody that speaks Spanish pretty much knows who he is. You know, I've been to Dominican Republic and Colombia and just all these places that we're now opening markets and, and everybody loves him. So it's, it's pretty funny. But once we started this project, I wanted to see, you know, what Marco's commitment was to the project. And his main concern, or the first thing he told me is he wanted to bring something that was really well done and just bring that to other people's attention. His name just brings another platform to a brand and it helps it get. Get to more people quicker. I guess that's why we, we decided to do the project together. But Tesorosul was a mark brand, sorry, brand that was part of Produtas Finos Agave or distillery. And it had been sitting kind of in the shelf, not really knowing how to, how to finish the marketing on it, how to do the image and how, how it was going to function in the market. And I think when Marco fell onto this and we did a, I think like 40 different profile tequila tasting in Michoacan where he has, where he lives and he has a hotel. And once he tried Tesorosol, he basically said, you know, this is what I was looking for. This is the tesoro I was looking for. So that's the moment where we decided that Marco and Tesol Azul were going to merge into one project. And it was going to start as, you know, as a joint thing from then on.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Very cool. So has he been really involved in the way the presentation of the bottles and, and the whole like, look of it, or is that something you guys did and then presented back to him?
[00:12:15] Speaker B: So a little bit back and forth. So yes, he, he does. We, we do involve him in a lot of the image part of the thing in the tequila part of the production. We do a little bit more of that. Obviously we send him input and we always get his input back. And like I said, the brand profile that he selected was Tesoro Sul, after all. So, yes, of course we always want to have his final saying. Part of the image and part of how we did the reamp of the bottle. The bottle. The bottle itself and the labeling for the bottle has passed through a lot of changes just to get to the part where we wanted it or where it is now. So, yeah, of course him and his team are very much involved in how all that plays out and also like how we do the marketing and the imagery of Tesorosul and how he falls into that play is also. He's very much involved in that, how we do that as well.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: The bottling, the packaging of this is beautiful. The boxes they came in, I was really impressed with the way that it looks. It's great looking glass, it's a great bottle shape. So I was really impressed. I really wondered, you know, when you have somebody that has such a background as he does, that I'm sure each part of his image is probably very important and how that's displayed. So I wondered if he had a lot to go into that because it does have a really nice, elegant, classic look to it. It's a good looking design.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Yes. Thank you. So, yeah, we try to make every part of this brand to be quality and not necessarily be unreachable price wise to everybody. We want this to be something that is accessible but that you're not lacking quality whatsoever when you pay for it.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Awesome. So how did the collaboration come together with Productos Finas d' agave nom 1416.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So Alex Lopez, which is the majority, I guess, owner nowadays and he's the main operator of the. Of the distillery, is a close friend of mine for about 20 years. If you're gonna drink, I have to drink.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah, you got to get your glass.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: So I always have my, my little tesoros shot glass available.
I carry it in my backpack. I always say that it's kind of like a, like a, a gunman without his pistola, you know? Yeah, it's like what's a tequila without his chocolate? So.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Well, I, I seem to drink out of a 12 ounce, big old stiffer because, you know, I like big pores. Cheers.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Whatever. Whatever works.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: Salud, my friend.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Salud, amigo. So. So yeah, Alex, Alex and I have been doing business for many, many years. And when I got the call from Lalo and then afterwards from Jose Monroy about the project. I told Alex that I wanted to bring, you know, his people and I wanted to bring Marco to the distillery and, and see if it was something that was feasible for everybody. You know, Alex was excited about the project and you know, Marco saw many different distilleries and once he got to Prolotosfino, he, you know, he said that and his team were all in synthany about saying that this is a place where they thought they were going to be able to do, you know, what they had in mind for the brand.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, let's dive in a little bit of the production piece. So, agaves, where the agave is coming from?
[00:15:35] Speaker B: So the agave is all from the region of, around Casos Maria. So Jesus Maria is like one of the highest points of Los Altos. It's, it's right behind Aranda. So it's about 20 minute drive from Arandas. You get to it from the back road or you can climb up from where Atotonilco is. There's a road that goes around the, and then you go up to the Jesus Maria as well. So the agaves are all from that area that we use for tesorasulo from the distillery itself. And our production is as traditional as possible without using a taona. So we, we have the water source that we have at the distillery is a deep well. It's a water, deep well water and it's about 300 meters deep. So there is a lot of minerality that comes from, from that area itself. Thus, you know, from the water from the agave itself. And everything that is grown or that's filtered in that area is very mineral. So I think using a taona was going to be excessive. So what we do is we do a traditional production without the taona. So this means we do brick ovens or masonry ovens.
It's cooked for 72 hours total. So 24 hours in direct contact with steam. 24 hours with the steam off inside the oven with the closed door. And then afterwards we open the doors off so that the agave can cool down and it can be manipulated. Afterwards we take it to a roller mill. It gets, it gets rolled, it gets milled. We extract the agave juice and then we take the agave juice to take it to the fermentation area. It's done in stainless steel tanks with no lid. It's open. And the yeast that we use is a yeast that was naturally in the environment.
It was isolated. And then we use it especially for this profile. So it's something that our lab does very well. They can segment or separate and isolate different yeast that are found in the area. And then we can propens. Propensate. We can replicate the yeast and then use it for our fermentation process.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: The fermentation lasts between four or three or four days, depending on the. On the temperature. The temperature and the environment can vary because it's very. It gets very cold in the winter, and then in the summer, it doesn't get extremely hot. It does.
It is very. And when the temperature is lower, the yeast, they get sleepy, so they don't work as heavy. And then when it's a little bit hotter, you know, it speeds up. So that takes about three or four days. Then we do a double distillation and stainless steel stills with copper serpentine.
And then, you know, we get tequila roughly about 55, sometimes a little bit higher. And then we have to diluted to bottle it at 40. We do 40 for us all around. And then the only one that we do differently in Mexico, because the market asks for it differently. They're accustomed to it, is 35 for the Anaco Biscanin.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Gotcha. So a lot of distilleries take on what's called the Mozart method, and they're playing classical music during fermentation. Is any of Marco's music being played while you guys are doing fermentation?
[00:18:46] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. We don't. We don't do that. It's a good idea, though.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: I think that would be fantastic to have Marco's music influence the. That yeast and make that yeast even happier while they're fermenting.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Incorporated. Yes. So there's a very popular song that says yeah, is one of the main. One of his main songs. And we always, you know, have that in mind that when we start drinking tesoras, like, where are we going to end up? That's the translation to it.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: That's not a bad idea. We should. We should. I should propose that in the next partners meeting.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Well, you know, whenever you're looking for a limited edition or an additional sku, that's always a great way to add. This one was done with Marco's music.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: I think that's. Of course, I want to. I'm working on, you know, where we want to get. So like I said in Mexico, we started with blanco and an then about a year. It took us about a year, year and a half afterwards to get the reposado done just right to where we wanted it. So we're now working on, on a high proof, but we want to get that rolling out sometime soon. But, you know, it's a lot of exploring and you know, going back to the kitchen to find out if things didn't work out so, so proper or where, where you wanted it. So like for the reposado, in my opinion, it's, it's the category that is the most difficult to pinpoint where you want your, your profile because it's so open in a short period of time, you know, so reposados are anywhere from two months to 12 months. But there's a lot of change that happens in that period of time. If you have a reposado that's, you know, two months or two months or nine, nine weeks, it's going to be very, very mellow. But you, you can still have a reposado that's 11 months and it's, you know, it's completely different animal. It's very close to, to an anejo. So getting to, in my perception, it always has to be very balanced. You have to have a nice balance between what you get from blanco that's very crispy, that's vegetal, peppery and very clean to where you start getting a lot of the wood incorporation from what you get a lot of caramel wood, even tobacco flavors and aromas. So getting the balance between those two, I think is what makes reposados exciting or not exciting because some people say, like, ah, I don't like reposados at all. I think it's because sometimes you find reposados that are unbalanced or that are going a little bit more towards one way or another. And it just, it's very similar to the other categories. So it took us a while to get ours right, but finally we, we decided about a year and a half ago to launch it. And that was our third category that we put into the market.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: Well, let's dive into that. So let's go with the blanco. So after you're done distilling, are you guys resting the blanco in anything for any amount of time just going straight?
[00:21:33] Speaker B: No, the blanco has no wood. It doesn't, it doesn't have any touch from wood. So basically all we do is we dilute it with water that has gone through a reverse osmosis process and, and that's it. We Bottle it at 48 BB, no.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Stainless steel resting or anything at all. Just straight to my.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Straight, straight, straight. We do go through a process, you know, filtration and aeration before it goes into, after, after the dilution. Of the. Of the alcohol going back down to 40. Yes. It goes through a filtration and aeration process, but that's it. No rest.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Doing some. Doing some oxygenation and just cleaning it up, making it crystal clear. On the palate, I get a really soft, nice, clean sweetness with a little bit of a floral hint and a little bit of a. Of a citrus hint. And then what is really shocking to me on this, because the palette up front to me is very. I say soft. I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean that in a very approachable way.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: And that softness as it goes into the finish ramps up into this really nice, peppery finish. It's like Jekyll and Hyde, right. It's really easy to drink in the beginning. It's really nice, and then it heats up in the end. And I really like that. I. I find that different than a lot of the tequilas that I drink. And I. And the finish just kind of lingers there for quite a while as well. So I really like that.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So in my perception, like, we. You know, when we talk about tequila and the different aspects of. Of when you're tasting a tequila, you have, you know, what's the initial from the nose? And I have a big nose, so it. You know, my. My nose goes into the cup very easily, and I get a. I get a very strong bouquet usually. But, you know, we want to have an identification, identify the.
What you get as from the nose and then what you get from the mouth, because there are two different sensations, two different. You identify different things, but then they also complement themselves, because when you're drinking, you're also smelling. Right. So I like what you're saying about the pepper in. Yes, because. Yes. We always find pepper in tesoros at the end. And it's not.
It's not like when you were drinking tequila shots 20 years ago and you had a burn, which is different. You know, this is more of something that lingers in your. In your mouth, and it stays, which means it. It's. It has a lot. Long. Long. Yeah, it lingers. It lures in on the top, lingers.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: In a long finish. And it's not a burn that. It's not a burn. And it's. To me, it's almost like a white pepper.
And it. It's not hot. It goes on the back of your tongue. It's really balanced. It's just enough, you know, to get you going. Oh, that was really good. Right? It's got a great flavor.
Yeah, definitely. No, you Know, I've learned for me, if I get a burn here in my, in my esophagus, I drank the tequila too fast, right? If you take any tequila and shoot it, the burn's going to be in the wrong place. When you take a tequila, you sip it and you taste it, it should light up in your mouth but then disappear when you swallow it. And this does, what makes it a little more interesting to me is how much it goes from a nice clean, cooked agave sweetness and that floral, it like switches over to pepper and it does it really quickly. And going into that finish, I really like that aspect.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: It's.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: It's really cool.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Well, thank you. I think we, we did a good job then.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Okay, so let's, let's talk about the repo. What is your aging time and what kind of barrels are you using for your reposado?
[00:25:05] Speaker B: So we do four months in, in the reposado, very close to four months. So we use X Tennessee whiskey barrels. And I will tell you a little bit about why, but let me pour myself some too.
So I like, like we said at the beginning of this, of this interview, I always like about, you know, talking about tequila and, you know, when I can put my input or my history that I've learned over the years, I always like to, to, to explain things. So in my perception, tequila has grown and has changed or evolved over time. And it always has evolved because there's always been a different focus or different presence in marketing and how the general market of tequila has or is focused or driven. So, you know, back at the beginning of the century, tequila was, you know, a product that was more for like the, the lower class people, you know, the guys that you saw at the cantinas and things like this, you know, stumbling over their horses or whatever. And it was never, you know, an alcohol that was considered to be in the higher class.
You know, the senoras in Mexico always drank cognac or Ron or brandy or different alcohols. Right. So back in like the 60s, 70s, some distilleries decided to start using barrels for tequila to give it a softer feel and a softer presence. And obviously by being softer, it was marketed towards women. And this has been present in different areas or different places in the history of tequila. And it's always, you know, trying to focus on women. And obviously we, we as men, we follow women. So when, when women ask for it at the bar or whatever, and then being a chista kind of country back in that day, we would have to pay for them. And for the bottle. So then after, you know, a little time that you started paying for bottles of tequila, then you started trying what you were paying yourselves.
So yeah, then you grew or you got a different audience. Reposado started to become readily available in different brands around the 60s and 70s. I've been to distilleries. There's a great distillery that's called Cine La Providencia Jalisco. It's now being renovated by some people. But back in, when I went into that distillery, it was closed off completely. It was like going into Cuba. It was completely closed off from time. Everything was shut down in the ease or 50s and left as is. Like the original bar was there with the furniture, the cash register with the big buttons. There was even tequila bottle labels that were not used and they were stored in back rooms. It was just literally like being stuck in time. One of the things that caught my attention was there was a picture of the main patio when you walk into that distillery and there was barrels that were set out on the patio. And the label of the picture said Lottel Exportacion para Europa. So it means it was a export towards Europe. And back then every export had to be, you know, done by. Well still now it had to be done by bus to the, to the nearest port. And then it had to be shipped out to Europe in a boat that you, you know, probably took two months back then. So what do you think, you know, came out of those barrels when he got to, to. To Europe?
It has to be, you know, a reposado at least. Who knows how they, how they label it or how they sold it as, as whatever in, in, in that market.
Yes, there has been reposados, you know, before the 60s or 70s when it become popular. But when it did become popular in the 60s and 70s, there was not a lot of cooperages in Mexico or there, you know, maybe there was none of. So what we had to do to get barrels was look to our neighbor in this, in the States that were doing a lot of barrels in Tennessee and whiskey and bourbon. So Tennessee whiskey has like we do in tequila. And that means that they can only use the barrel once and then they have to discard it. Right. So that was a waste for them and it was something that we could, you know, gain. And I guess that was a win win situation in which we bought use barrels at a cheaper price instead of having to buy older barrels. And for, you know, the producers of Tennessee whiskey, it was, you know, let's get some money back from something that we were going to Throw away anyway, you know. So what I'm trying to say with all this is that the flavors that we expect in aged tequila, reposados, anejos and extra anejos are heavily influenced by Tennessee whiskey and by bourbon. It is. It is. Those flavors that we expect to get in are tequilas. And, you know, those flavors are heavily influenced. So why did we decide to use these barrels is because we wanted to do something that was traditional and something that was as close to the roots of aged tequila as possible. And these are the roots. There's a lot of brands that use wine barrels or they use port or sherry or different types of expressions, and that's perfect. It gives different qualities to the tequila. But we wanted to do something that stuck to the roots of how tequila production was done back, you know, and still is to this day. But how it was done from the beginning. Sure.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: That's a great explanation, too. A lot of people don't understand the timelines and things, so it was a great explanation. Do you guys have any plans for an anejo that's non crystallino to come out?
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Yes, in the near future. I guess the anejo would be easy because we just don't go through the filtration process. Mm. But, yeah, definitely, we wanna. We wanna do an anejo as well. I'm more focused right now on. On getting a high proof going. And then after. After that, I. I will work on the. On the anejo itself.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: So are you doing two different high proofs, one for Mexico and then one for the States at different proofs like some brands do, or are you doing the same proof for both?
[00:31:05] Speaker B: I'm not sure yet, because I asked.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: That because I've seen a. I know of a brand that, you know, launched a 43 in Mexico because that's a high proof in Mexico. That's a great jump. But their American product's gonna be a 49. And we. We like it a little hotter here.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So I. I think the US Market is more accustomed to having, you know, products that are higher proof. In Mexico, it wasn't. It isn't really a big thing except for, like, Mezcal, you know, but for many, many years, I think, though, the highest proof tequila that you could drink was, like, you know, I rather blablanco. The. The old, you know, cylindrical blue bottle that was at 46. I think that was the highest tequila you could drink for a long time. Nowadays, there's, you know, different products, especially Racia, Sotol, Mezcal, Bacanora, and Different ones that are higher proof. And I think that's great. It's, it's, you know, if the market, again, is evolving so we have different people that are, you know, more custom or that expect to have different.
Different ways to enjoy, you know, tequila. Because tequila is a category that it's in Mexico in the norm is from 35 to 55. So anywhere in that ABV range is a product that you can enjoy. And obviously, you know, one of the questions that I get asked a lot is which one is your favorite tequila? You know, it's everybody's favorite question. And I always answer with it depends for what. If I'm going to drink a bottle at a wedding, I'm most likely going to want to have a softer tequila that, you know, maybe triple distilled or that is a 35 ABV in Mexico or whatever. But if I'm going to, you know, have maybe one or two, yeah, I can go for a tequila that's stronger or that has a lot more character.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: You know, that's a good answer to that question. The first thing they want to ask me is, what's your favorite tequila? And my answer is always, the one that I pulled down and poured today. That's my favorite one today.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: I like that.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: But there is different, you know, I. I call them cherished bottles. I think my friends are having trouble taking that word to Spanish. So is my.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Which. Which fills. Filled nicely in this interview. Yeah, it's right.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: My treasured bottles. Right. So there's ones that are special to me. As you mentioned, this is a small community. People think it's a big community. But when you get the opportunity to sit down and. And share a bottle with somebody like Jimmy Salza or Rene Carranza or Sergio Cruz, and you bring those bottles home, those become like, very special bottles to me because there's something that was given to me by them, and we usually shared it in some phenomenal location. It's always. Every time I'm there, they take me to some phenomenal location to have a drink. And that. That road from Atate Nico up to Jesus Maria, one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: So, yeah, it's amazing.
So that. What you're talking about right now is, I think, like, I always call, like my ratatouille moments. You know, I like drinking wine, you know, regular, like red wine and white wine. So whenever my. My wife and I travel, we, you know, we try to go, if. If we. If there's somewhere that's a wine distillery, wine Bodega or something. That's close. We. We always like to try to see if we can go. Yep. And it's funny because the wine always tastes better on vacation because, you know, it's associated with everything. The view and the food that they give you and the, you know, the conversation that you have with either the, you know, the no logo or the bodega owner or whatever. It's. Yeah, it's. It's great. And then when you drink it at home, it always brings you back to that moment. That's the ratatouille, you know, moment. So, yeah, it obvious. Obviously, once you have. When you have a deeper connection to a brand, it always gives it a different meaning. Sometimes, you know, when you. When you experience a brand just at a, like a trade show and you, you know, you drink a cup and you discard it, and that's. You get a very small experience of what that brand and what that production and everything that's around that brand really is. And it's like, that's why I like to have more one on ones. I like taking people to the distillery. I. I usually try to go myself. I like to, you know, do small tastings, small, you know, things that we can do with food. I like food as well. So anything that has more time and that you can talk about what you're actually trying is always better for me.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And I also, I just did a video explaining to people, when you pop that first pour and you have that glass of tequila, don't judge that glass of tequila on your first pour. Let that rest, let it get some air, and come back and try it again. I've noticed that sometimes a tequila can be a little bit more astringent, maybe more alcohol forward in that first pour. And then when you let it rest and you come back maybe a week later, and oxygen's got to do its thing in there a little bit now, you may get a little more floral, a little more minerality or a little more citrus or whatever, those things that come to the front and completely changes your view on what that tequila tasted like on your very first pour. So I've been trying to encourage people to let it rest, taste it again.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: So oxygen does wonders for this, not just in tequila, you know, and wine and everything. That's why people like to, you know, open a bottle of wine and let it sit for an hour before you pour it, especially if it's an older wine. I think the same thing happens in tequila and especially some brands, you know, they sometimes are Experimenting with, you know, unique lots or batches, and maybe they didn't oxygenize a batch as long as they did for the past one, you know, and you might get differences just by that. So, yes, I agree with what you're saying. If you let tequila rest a little bit, it changes the perception of how you. How you experience it.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Okay, so now I'm going to go back to the owner side of you.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: If you were looking at the tequila landscape today and where the industry is, what one piece of advice would you give yourself before you got into this industry today?
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Ah, okay.
So I actually. I actually get approached or asked by a lot of people because I, you know, I've been in this for a while. If, you know, I can take a meeting or ask, you know, just to pick my brain or to, you know, see what needs to happen, or maybe if I can help them, you know, get to a distillery or, you know, just kind of, you know, show them what road to take. And I think my main job when this happens is usually to discourage people because a lot of people don't understand what, you know, how much effort and how much work and how much money it takes to. To build a brand. You know, it's not expensive to. If you want to make a tequila and you want to bottle a tequila and you want to have, you know, maybe even a container of tequila just to sell off, that's not expensive. That's very doable for anybody. But to actually grow a brand and have some traction, have some presence, and the different channels that you have to go through to get it out there, it's a lot of effort, and it takes a lot of time because it's usually done by connections. It's usually done by the people that you know, the people that you know or to get to know along the way. And it really helps you, you know, when you start getting this network of different, you know, people in different areas, it helps, you know how your brand is. Is getting exposure, of course. But, you know, some. Some people don't understand how much, you know, time and perseverance it takes. And you have to be very willing to have no as an answer. I think you get a lot of shutdowns in a lot of places, and then you get a lot of really nice acceptances in other places. So it's just, you know, it's kind of like dating, I guess.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: Well, I. I've been a business owner and an entrepreneur my whole life. So you. You just explained owning a business, they're all kind of the same you know, when it comes down to that. So what is the most exciting moment or most exciting memory you have since starting Tesoro Azul?
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Well, there's been many moments where I, you know, I've had a lot of, a lot of pleasure. But, you know, there's. There's certain things that I think catch my attention and I think it's more when you have like a one on one conversation. You know, we've had, we've had good moments. Like, you know, when we started selling Costco, that was great. When we did our launch, it was really cool because we did that in Los Piso Cavanas in Guadalajara, which is an historical building here, they allowed us to do a dinner. It's not very common, but to do like private events. It's used for government and certain things and more like cultural events. But definitely you can't like host a concert or anything there because, you know, the building is old, the vibration affects the structure. So we were able to do our launch there and have a really nice dinner and everything. That was really nice. But I think like the moments when I was really proud was when we decided to do the Agave Awards. Right. So going back to the. This stigma that we get around celebrity brand. So yeah, a lot, you know, a lot of our nos that we get immediately, even though before people try us is, you know, you're, you're a celebrity brand.
And my initial response to that is, you know, just try the product first. If you try the product, maybe, you know, your, your opinion will change. So what I really liked about the Agabo Awards is that, you know, it was done in a blind tasting. So blind tastings for me are fantastic because it takes away everything that you know about a brand, everything that you think you know about a brand, and it puts you in a completely plain situation for everybody. It's like golf. You know, when you play with a handicap, some, some guys have a very high handicap, some guys have a very low one. But then when you're playing golf, everybody's handicaps, you know, evens the playing field out. So I think that's what I like about blind tastings. And the way that the Acado Awards was done was exactly that, you know, everything was sent out without a reference to the, to the name of the tequila or the product itself. It was just done with, I think, the alcohol content, the ABB and what kind of category it was, and that was it. So we ranked a double gold for blanco and a double gold for the reposado as well. So that was, I think, kind of one of my high points. When we found out that we ranked so high because it was validates what we're saying about our tequila, you know, and what sometimes people think because we have a celebrity attached to the. To the brand and just not attached. He's, you know, he's the majority owner of the brands. He's very much involved in. In making sure that this product is up to par and up to standards. And believe you me, that me and Alex Lopez and Jose are very much are very stubborn about having the tequila done right. I think we've been in this industry for so long that we don't want to have, you know, our name or our reputation or, you know, anything be compromised about having a bad product launched in the market. So we want to do things right. And I think that that point was, you know, kind of like the validation that was very nice to receive.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Yeah, those tastings were great. And the way they put that together was impressive for me as well.
And knowing that it's blind. Blind takes it all out, right? Blind lets, you know, gosh, I have no idea what this is, and I'm going to taste it just based on my profile, and I think that's the best way to do it. And so the whole brand Mexican owned then, correct?
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Yes. Every partner in the brand is Mexican.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: I love that because that's something that we don't get to talk about a whole lot. You know, as a. As a gringo loco. Right. Just doing nothing but taking from the region. I'm glad that there's a brand here that's giving back and creating could be generational wealth for people. I'm glad I get to buy something from a company that the money is staying there and not leaving with, say, Brown Foreman or one of those companies.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Well, I am the most American part of the whole brand because I always get crap from my partners. Say, hi, you're gringo. Because I was born in the US My dad is American. That's why my last name is Patterson. Yeah. You know, but I grew up in Mexico my whole life, so I. I'm a reverse immigrant, if you will.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: That's fantastic. Okay, so now that you have this beautiful baby here, that's. That's not just all yours. You've got some other parents with you. But I always look at these tequila brands as somebody's baby. If you could sit down today, pour a glass, share the tequila, and share this story. Anybody ever in the world, future, past, anybody, who would you most want to sit down, pour Them a glass of what you have and really share your heart of what you've done to put this together.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: Wow, that's a great question. Off the top of my head, I think I would have to say Winston Churchill.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: No kidding.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think there. So there in wine, there's a lot of history that goes back to what influence England has in what they drink in other countries and, you know, what they drink in the royal family and things like this. You know, Winston Churchill drank a lot. Yeah. So I think it would be very interesting to have a conversation with him about, you know, what his. What his perception on alcohol as a whole. And, you know, I bet you he probably never drank tequila, so it would be awesome to take him a bottle.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: I could just imagine that conversation with him too, because he was such a deep and powerful individual and everything that he did.
So that's a really cool answer. That's awesome. Okay, where can everybody find your tequila?
[00:44:54] Speaker B: What.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: What states are you available in? Where can people get you?
[00:44:56] Speaker B: All right, so we're working on our distribution. Of course. You can find us on tesolasol.com Our webpage does online shipping to most states, except for control states, but we do have distribution in California, in Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and I think Delaware. So we are. We are working on getting more distribution, but we also want to take care of the roads that we already have paved and to, you know, be very present in the places where we are. But we also sell in Dominican Republic.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:34] Speaker B: Which is pretty interesting. I got to a chance to go there a few months ago, and that market is pretty intense. I didn't expect, you know, so many people and I didn't expect so many people to like tequila.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: We gotta. Gotta move them from what, a Cuba, Cuba Libre to a Batanga. Right. It's the same thing.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Cuba. Yeah. Okay. So if I picked up on a couple things that are coming, high proof is coming. Sounds like maybe there's an anejo coming. Is there anything else that's gonna show up in the future that we can be excited about?
[00:46:08] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I. I guess, you know, like some certain special editions that we want to work with. So half of this brand is from Micho can, you know, which is my other partner and Mario Solis. He's from Michoacan as well, from Mario de Rosales. They live in. In Morelia. So a lot of the things that we have around, around. Around the Tequila. Because the tequila we make in Calista. Right. Everything we else that we do is made from artisanal hands and Michoacan. Right. So like, you know, some of the pos materials that we do. These are copper. Copper shooter glasses that are made in Santa Maria del Cobre, which is in Micho car. We do a lot of woodwork, we do some textiles, and we're working on getting more and more materials that are going to be done from. From Michoacan that are going to show the craftsmanship and, you know, the culture part of. Of Mexico. So. So remember, this is a Mexican brand that we're trying to take to other places. And of course, it's not only just tequila. We want to express different sides of what the Mexican culture is, you know, so tequila music and craftsmanship.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Well, you know, I got an idea for your batch that you have playing Marco's music. Yeah, I think you should make that batch with all Michoacan agaves, with all michokana rawas.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: That's. Yeah, that's interesting. I have some agave and micho can.
Yeah, that should happen.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: I think that'd be a good blend.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Yes and no. I think it depends like, on what parts of Michigan. So, you know, the soil in different areas. I find a lot of soil. It's very similar to like the lowlands. You know, it's more like.
Yeah, like in Baez, it's more clay and it has different.
Different characteristics. And then there's certain areas in Michigan that also have like very red soil like you find in. In Los Altos, that's more mineral, it's more sandy. So yes, I think just depending on where you source it from, you can find things that are very similar to what you plan in your area. I mean, that's. That's basically what the.
What the. You know, entails and the. The places that are close to Jalisco have very similar features in where and where you grow the agaves.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: I think that would be a great limited singers release with music from Marco during fermentation and agaves from his home state. I think. I think I just helped you create your next bottle.
[00:48:33] Speaker B: I think we're going to have to give you royalties.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: No royalties needed, just a bottle.
That is awesome. I want to. 1. I want to say salud. You got a glass there? Do you still have some?
[00:48:47] Speaker B: I always.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: So. Salute. Thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate you. I appreciate the tequila. I will definitely share it with my friends. And this is a great tequila, so people need to check it out. And thanks for doing.
[00:48:59] Speaker B: Definitely need to go to the distillery. If you have not been anywhere close we have to take you.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: So I want to say thank you today. Thanks for doing this for me, and I really appreciate your time tonight now.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Thank you very much, Brad. I appreciate your time. And I hope we, you know, we did what we were supposed to do and talk about tequila and get some different information out there.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Great information. Thank you.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
