Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I'm pretty fired up about tonight, guys. We got a returning guest. We've got the owner of Lost Lore Tequila is going to be with us today. Arturo is going to answer questions about all the new things they've got going on, share some of the new up and coming things as well, and give a little brief history of Arturo Llamas and Lost Lord Tequila. Check this one out.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: It's tasting tequila with bread.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Well, Arturo, I am fired up about having you back on the show. One of the first repeat guests. So I'm fired up to talk to you tonight and talk about all the new things you've got going on. How you doing today?
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Doing good, man. How about yourself?
[00:00:41] Speaker A: I'm just enjoying some Los la blanco and ready to talk. Good tequila.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Awesome. Yeah, same thing here. I see you got a nice bottle of ambarano there.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I haven't, haven't popped this one open. It's too pretty.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I'm in the same boat. I'm like, I can't. When I finish the bottles, I can't throw them out because they're. They're pretty. They're pretty color. My kids like us. Like, I have like six empty ones, but yeah, there you go. Pretty nice.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Well, it's very cool. I appreciate you sending that out too, by the way. Thank you very much for that.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Absolutely, man.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: For the people who haven't heard you in an interview, give a little bit of your background, where your story comes from and your. Your story into tequila.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Brad, I'm first and foremost, thank you so much for the invite again. It's always fun chatting with you and know all, seeing all the cool things you're doing. So I, I'm very appreciative of the invite and I'm excited to be here for a second time. So. Yeah, man, excited to talk some tequila.
You know, my whole story with tequila and the Gavi spirit starts in the 1920s.
This is a tradition that my great grandfather started in Witzila, Mexico. It was a tradition that was passed down from my great grandfather to my grandfather, then to my father. And then it kind of got lost with my father. My father moved to the United States for the American dream. He was a migrant farm worker. He was a fat free worker and he kind of moved from place to place. He was in California for some time. He's picking oranges in Florida and then he landed in Illinois and he's picking produce for a Dutch family. So instead of moving around, he decided to kind of settle there. And, you know, Started working for a factory.
You know, at that point, our tradition was lost. And that's where our name comes from, lost lore. But growing up, I'd always hear my dad talk about distilling, you know, with his dad and his brothers and sisters. So something that really intrigued me because, you know, I wanted to be like my dad, still want to be like my dad. So I knew that at some point in my life, I wanted to bring this tradition back together as a tribute to them, you know, my parents, who gave up a lot to come to the United States and be immigrants and really, really fight and work hard to give us opportunity. So, you know, flash forward some years, I went into some different indust.
Went to the furniture industry, went to the beer industry. And you know, my wife Sarah, who's a big part of this, she's a co founder in the company, you know, she knew that we wanted to do this and I wanted to bring our tradition back. So she really kind of, kind of pushed me to do it. You know, this was in 2021. And I'm happy she did because, you know, we were super busy with our career.
You know, we have four kids, so, you know, just busy with life in general.
But in 2021, you know, we went to my father and we told him about the project, thought he'd be super excited about it. It really wasn't because my dad's retired, he doesn't want to work anymore, which is totally fine. But I was pretty persistent. I asked over and over and over again, and he finally said yes, let's. Let's do this.
Me, my father, Sarah, we went down to Mexico to team up with the Vivanco family, and Los Alotaquila was born.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: That's awesome. Did you already know the Vivankos to get that started there?
[00:03:53] Speaker B: We did not. So my family knows the Vivankos kind of distantly. So my family, they still make agave spirits, mescalin, tila, Zacatecas. They have a brand and they actually, you know, know them through the industry. So my cousin Zenobio knows Cesar Vanco, who is the nephew of Sergio Vovanko, who's kind of the sales and marketing army now. I'm 14. 14. So, yeah, kind of, kind of indirectly, you know, just a little bit.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: That's very cool. And you ended up at such an amazing nom. I mean, it's so cool we visited there. It's so beautiful and it's a lot of fun when you're spending the day with Sergio Cruz.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: So that's a great Place to be.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: It's a good time, man. It's really fun. We gotta. We gotta connect down there one of these times because it's.
It's. It's pretty fun hanging out with, you know, not only the Vanco family and Sergio Cruz, but just overall, they have great staff over there. You know, they're very attent and they're very kind. So, yeah, we. We'll have to connect sometime soon.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll have to make that happen for sure.
All right. Talk about this new Hoven that you have coming out. The label is. You always have, like, amazing labels, but to have Sergio on there, it's so cool.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Yep, yep. So this is the new Hoven. You know, Sergio and I, we. We worked very, very closely on all the releases that we have, but, you know, Sergio is a huge part of this. Obviously, Sergio is a maverick in this industry. He's really, you know, pushing innovation, and I'm right there with him. And, you know, I felt like it was important to, you know, do a tribute for him. Right. So I asked him if it was okay if we put him on a label. It wasn't necessarily going to be for the Hoven. We just kind of wanted to get something in process, and he really loved it. And I told him, hey, you know, why don't we do it for the Hoven? And that's what we end up doing. But, yeah, this is a really unique blend between our tequila blanco and our Reposako.
So it's closer to, like a 6040 blend, where it's about 60% of Blanco, and then the rest of it is repo. So, you know, there's some other things that we do with tequila along the way with oxygen and stuff like that. This is all a little bit different, so it's a really earthy flavor. You're going to get a lot of minerality from the blanco, of course, but then you get some really nice, you know, undertones from the reposado. So it's a beautiful blend between the two tequilas. And, you know, I'm really enjoying it right now.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Is that reposado? Is that in American oak? Is that what you age that in?
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yep, yep. Yeah. So it's a used American oak. So we use some used. Check on your whiskey barrel. So it's got some really interesting flavors going on. Of course, oak is. Is going to be kind of what's going to be standing front and center, but you get some really nice caramel notes in there and some nice vanilla notes. So, you know, when you blend These two, it's just. It's really interesting because we didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't pick the blend either. This was Sergio.
And, you know, when it came out, I'm just like, wow. This is first. First, very, very flavorful. But then after that, you know, you kind of sit there and start digesting the flavors of tequila and. And seeing what it tastes like. And it's like, wow, man. You're just pulling out so many different flavors. You know, with our blanca, which is complex enough, you're pulling out agave minerality, definitely some citrus. And then with our repo, you know, normally it's vanilla oak, little bit of caramel there too. So when you blend everything together, it's just like a beautiful bouquet flavor.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Wow. Now, is it 80 ABV?
[00:07:21] Speaker B: So this one is. Is not 80 ABV. So this one right here is 92 proof. It's 46 ABV. So we wanted to kind of come out with a little bit more alcohol content just to kind of bring out a little bit more flavor.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: Did you push the alcohol content in the blanco side or is it from the high proof repo that you guys usually do?
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Both.
Both.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So kind of both sides. Repo comes out of barrels. It depends on. On the barrels too. But it doesn't go in necessarily at 40. It's usually a little bit higher. We try to push it pretty close to 50. And then when it comes to the blanco itself, you know, it's usually coming out of the still closer to 53, but that one is diluted a little bit more to, you know, kind of get to that 46% ABV.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Well, drinking through your blanco, your high proof and your still strength together, like, if you sit down, it is like an evolution of the blanco just getting a little bit more complex with every one that you move to. And yeah, your still strength is one of my absolute favorite still strengths.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: And thanks, man. I appreciate that.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: The bottle gets.
It gets turned over. That's one that I'm always looking for another bottle.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: That one.
Yeah, yeah, that's. It's a good one, man. Age expressions. But, you know, blanco. For me, if I'm gonna go to a store and if I'm gonna buy a bottle of tequila, you know, nine times out of 10, it's blanco. And I just have a really big appreciation for blanco and.
And not just ours, a lot of blancos. I think it's really cool to taste blancos, you know, from the valley or other blancos from the highlands and just See what the different agaves taste like. I mean, of course it's all one, you know, blue Weber agave. But the terroir has so much to do with flavor too, and then from there, different yeast and stuff like that. So I. I feel like it's the essence of tequila. But yeah, with us, what we wanted to do was kind of just showcase what blanco can be because it changes a lot. You know, once we change it, you change the abv. And when you come with, you know, our regular blanco compared to our high proof blanco, those are pretty similar. You know, I think high proof, you know, we just diluted a little bit more to get to our regular blanco. But when it comes to still strength, when the tequila comes out of the still, when we distill our profile, it comes out pretty much closer to 53% ABV. But we really wanted to push it to get to 55% ABV. So we made some different cuts in our distillation and we were able to get to 55%. And it just changes the profile completely. It's still lost lore, but it's got a little bit more of an edge.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Last lower with a kick.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: So is that something that's going to keep coming out or is this still strength kind of gone?
[00:10:08] Speaker B: I don't know, man. I don't know. I think everyone's asking, you know, even Sarah asked. I, I have no clue. We. I have no idea what we're going to do in the future with this stuff. So, you know, I think if the time feels right, we'll do it. If it doesn't, we won't. But, yeah, I kind of like, you know, keeping up with innovation. I am from the beer industry and we, we still run a brewery and in Illinois, and we come out with a different beer every couple weeks.
You know, if there is kind of like a slot for it in the future. Yeah, we'll do it. As of right now, we have no plans for 2026 to kind of come out with those Tequila scan. We'll see.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: I know when I see one, I grab it because I know that it's going to be gone one of these times. So. So let's talk about this, this beautiful bottle here a little bit. Because you used a wood that isn't commonly used in tequila, because I say it wrong. Amaramba. Is that right?
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Ambarana. Yeah, yeah. Ambarana.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Where does that wood come from? What is that? What's that kind of about?
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah, so this, this wood is from South America and Brazil, and it's A wood that imparts a lot of cinnamon and bacon spice flavors.
So, you know, I was sitting, I was at the brewery, and after the brewery, we went to a little bottle shop close to the brewery, and, you know, we're talking to a friend there, and he gave me a, a bourbon that was finished with amber on a wood. And I said, wow, this is really, really interesting. And, you know, the, the thought and idea came, well, what if we could do this with tequila and try it out and see kind of where it goes? So we did kind of like some, some trials, and, you know, it really worked well with our, our profile. I wouldn't say our profile is Cinnamon Ford by any means. Maybe there is some there in the background, but we really kind of amped it up with bacon spice and cinnamon. You know, when we, we tried playing around with this tequila, and, yeah, it came out really, really, really good. It surprised me. It really did.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Now, did you age only in those barrels, or was it finished in those barrels?
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's finished. Yeah. So this is our regular repo. That's finished.
You know, when we came up with the whole idea, Sergio had never worked with these barrels before, this wood before.
You know, I, I, I, I told him, hey, well, I'll try to gather whatever information I can. So I, I talked to a friend of mine who's got a distillery in Illinois, and, you know, I asked him about it, and he said, hey, be careful with that wood, because it's very, very strong. So, you know, I let Sergio know about it, and, you know, he was testing and tasting the tequila pretty much every three days or so, because if you let it sit there and you let it ride out for a long period of time, three months, four months, whatever it may be, it just, it'll take over. And, you know, it really wouldn't be a tequila at that point.
So, you know, he tasted it along the way, and, you know, we got to a point where it was probably sitting on Ambarana for about 40 days, and I felt like that was a really sweet spot. I felt like it was still tequila, which we always wanted to be. We still felt that there was some agave flavor there. But then you started getting some really copic flavors with a regular rub salado of oak caramel with vanilla. But then you have this, you know, additional dynamic where you start getting flavors of baking spice and cinnamon with the ambarana. And again, it just came out with like a, you know, really beautiful bouquet of flavor with this tequila. Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I noticed that it was.
Had a lot more spice to it and a lot more cinnamon and almost no floral note, which a lot of times I'll get some floral notes with a citrus note in your blanco. And it sort of like, muted that floral side to me and amped up all of the spice. And I love a strong cinnamon in the finish. That's one of my favorite flavors in a tequila. And it probably has the most of any repo that I've tried, where the cinnamon is like a great bomb of cinnamon in the finish, but still all that agave in the front. So there is fantastic.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, Sergio, he crushed it, man. I just kind of threw it out there. And, you know, when I say Serge is a maverick, he's. He's a maverick. I mean, he's really willing to go out there and, you know, do take some risk. You know, it's calculated risk, but he knows how to take some risk. And I mean, this tequila could have gone sideways. It totally can, but, you know, he made it work out.
So. Yeah, I think that that release was probably one of our. Our most popular releases, if not the most popular.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: It's pretty incredible. Now, you also hit it out of the park with, I'm going to say, has been my favorite bottle of tequila in 2012, and I just hope you make it again. But it's the Lu Agave jackfruit that is absolutely amazing. I actually keep it resealed and I seal it every time I open it, so it's harder for me to open and drink. So I don't drink at all.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I. I got bad news for you. That one's probably not going to come back. So that's never happened.
I got. I got. I got rid of that barrel. So really interesting project. It was a jackfruit barrel, brand new jackfruit barrel that came from Brazil. And, you know, what we did is we. It was a mistake. You know, I asked Sergio to put tequila, our repo, from our regular repo oak barrels to the jackfruit barrel, and he, I think, misunderstood me, and he just put blanco straight in there. So, you know, the jackfruit is very similar to the Ambarana, where it pulls out a lot of flavors really, really quick. So, you know, we're. We're down in Mexico and, you know, Lou's there and Adam from off premise Chicago, and, you know, we're. We're tasting this thing and, you know, it was still blanco. I think it was only in there for 40, 50 days, but it Just it, It. It imparted just, like, really, really subtle flavors in the jackfruit barrel, which could be, you know, very fruit forward, tropical.
So very unique flavors.
You know, we. We had to submit that to the crt, and we had some issues with it, so we had to kind of go back to the drawing board and get it back in oak.
Yeah, it was. It was a big mess, so I decided, yeah, probably not going to do this one again.
I sent it down to Oaxaca. It's actually going to get filled with rum.
So, yeah, we. We did a collaboration with Alembica Sedano. They sent us some barrels. I sent them some barrels.
Take a look for. Look out for that, because Alibi Cassadan is gonna do something pretty cool with that barrel. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: That's very cool.
The amount of tropical fruits that I picked up in it just absolutely blew me away. It's like when you. When you open up a blanco and you're like, I take. I taste pineapple and coconut in this blanco. How's that even happening? It's so good. It's. It's also very refreshing and way too.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Easy to drink, for sure. Yeah, I know, right? Thanks, man. I really appreciate the kind words because, again, it was one of those things where, you know, Sergio had never worked with that type of wood, and we didn't know what was going to happen. It really was kind of like a happy accident, you know, it's like, all right, well, our intentions were this. We had to end up doing this, but it actually came out really, really good. So I did like that, at least a lot.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Well, there's another great one. I didn't get a try. I didn't get to buy it. I was. I was budgeting, and these two single barrels came out at the same time. So I didn't get the. The Pyrolu single barrel, but I was able to taste it. And that one is a banger as well.
Yeah, but I didn't. I didn't catch what that one is. How did you guys make that one? What was the story behind the pyro?
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we. We got a cognac barrel. So we got a cognac barrel. So it's a French oak. And, you know, we sent that down and, you know, we put blanco in it and we let it sit for a long period of time. So that was a collaboration with. With Pyrolu. You know, Pyrolu is, you know, our bud, and he's a really good guy, and he's doing some great things for the community. So, you know, we definitely wanted to support him. And we came out with this tequila and it did come off pretty good. Again, this is, this all goes to the, the genius, the smarts of Sergio Cruz. Like, you know, not only is it really good distiller, but, you know, he's a very good barrel blender and you know, he understands barrel. So yeah, we, we really happy with that one. And that one's probably a one and done. I think that barrel somewhere over there, it may be dry rotting right now, who knows, but it's. It's over there somewhere.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: Well, I gotta say, not only is Sergio a master at this stuff, he's also coming along with his English really quickly.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: So that's pretty exciting.
So we'll get him to the point where we can have him on at a show.
I just did it with John and that was like trying to tame a roller coaster doing that interview.
But it was a lot of fun. So it's really exciting to be able to communicate better with Sergio. That's pretty awesome.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. He's got his English classes every, every week I. I'll call him and he'd be like, yeah, I'm in the middle of a class so I gotta call you back. Yeah, he's, he's doing them, I think it's like every Thursday or something like that. So I know not to call him Thursday mornings now.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah, my wife is taking Spanish classes on Thursday evening. So I said next time we're down there, she'll be able to speak Spanish and he'll be able to speak English. So it'll be awesome.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Love it.
That's awesome.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: So is there anything else that's about to come out that people can start looking for or pre ordering?
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Man. Yeah, I, I'm losing my mind with all this stuff. But let's see, the next one is going to be.
Our taona is going to come out. So our taonai is 100% taona instead of using a roller mill. So you know when you use a Taona, you have to use a lot more agave. So it's about double the agave to come out with this profile.
So very inefficient, but you get some really beautiful flavors that men in reality kind of gets kicked up. I think the sweetness of the agave, the cooked agave gets kicked up too. So we're really excited to release that one. It's coming up really, really, really soon. We have another rested series that's coming Up. We did a collaboration with Westbound and Down Brewing in Colorado and Denver.
So, you know, that one, we took their stout barrels and we pull up our reposal O and M. And this one is a little bit different than the ones that we've done in the past.
So I think that the, the sweetness is, is a lot higher.
You know, there's definitely more of a style character to this. So for anyone out there that, you know that likes chocolate notes or anything like that, they'll really enjoy this tequila.
And then we have our high proof ropesado that's going to be coming out in October as well.
So last year, high proof Reposado was probably one of our, our best releases.
You know, really, really good Reposado, Again, with that ABV being at 49%, you know, you start getting some different flavors.
Everything's amplified. Agave is always still there. It's the star of the show. But then you get some really nice oat flavors again. Caramel, vanilla on that one. But it's just like really, really, really flavorful. So we decided to bring that one back out again.
And then from there, you know, we got some stuff that we're looking at for 2026.
I think 2026 is going to be the year they would come out with our extra. Anyhow.
You know, Sergio and I had a meeting about it last week.
You know, we kind of have an idea what direction we're going to go into.
So that was going to be a tribute to my father who has been so key to everything that we've done. I mean, this is a tribute to him.
So, you know, the artwork is my father sitting there at the 14, 14 patio. And you know, it's going to be a release that's pretty near and dear to me. So I think that it'll be pretty small release.
We probably won't do more than one pallet, which is around 660 bottles. So, you know, pretty, pretty small. But you know, the quality is going to be super, super, super high.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love the way you're honoring your family and what you're doing and that your dad is actually involved in this with you. It makes it really cool. Very cool.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. He yells at me. You know, that's his job. So just yells at me and tells me what I'm doing wrong. But, you know, sometimes you need to kick an ass, right? So, yeah, no, he's, he's still a big part of it. You know, he, he still goes down there with me. You know, we were Just down there together a couple months ago. So he is retired, so he's not doing day to day stuff. But yeah, he's, he's, he's involved now.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: You've kind of taken a step back from your other business as well, right? To focus more on Lost lore?
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, up until about a month ago. So I was making furniture for probably 15 years. That's what it came out to. So you know, it's, it's, it's a chapter that's kind of done with and know now we're focusing more on Law Floor, which is great because I needed this time. I mean the, the brand is, is really growing. We're in about 30 states now. You know, we have a plan in place to kind of, you know, go and start working with some controlled states which are just a little bit more challenging as opposed to the open states.
You know, that's going to be our big focus next year. And you know, I feel like we went pretty wide, but it's time to go, time to go deep in these states.
So you know, we, we're building our team and you know, we're trying to get more people in the market so that we could do tastings and just work more with distributors, with promotions, incentives so that, you know, we could bring, you know, as much Lost Lord to the market as possible in, in the right way though, you know, we, we're not trying to be in every account. That's not what Lost or is. You know, we want to be in accounts that are got me focused and really care about Tequila.
So you know, that's, that's our focus right now. And yeah, things are moving along and yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about it.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: That's awesome. On the Tohona that you're doing, are you going to just do the Tohona Blanco or will there be to Hona Repo and a Tohona on Yeho at some point?
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I like where your mind's going, Brad. So maybe we need to collaborate on to honor Reposalo now.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: That sounds like a great idea.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's going to be blanco. I really, I, I, I haven't really dug into too much of barrel aging any type of Taiwan because you know, again, you get some, some different flavors and we definitely want to keep those flavors and if we barrel age and if we can add to those flavors and contribute to those flavors, I'm all for it. You know, if it's something where it takes those flavors away, it takes some of the minerality and stuff. Like that, then probably not. But I think, you know, that's more of a Sergio question to see what he thinks. And yeah, man, I like this collaboration with Los Laura and Brad. Helena ropes out coming up.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: That'd be fantastic. Yeah, I just want to fly down there to taste the barrels.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Love it. Let's do it.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: We'll have a fun time on that process of the Tohono Blanco, are you going into the wood fermentation with fibers?
Are you doing stainless steel fermentation?
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Yeah, so that one is gonna be stainless with some fibers in there. So, you know, he does have the. The cotinas over there where they do the fermentation. And we, we, we. We tried it both ways, and I like both of them. But when you. You start adding the. The Tinas, you know, you're getting a different flavor, a different element, which is amazing, but, you know, whatever, because I wanted the talent to stand by itself and say, hey, this is a Telena Blanco. There's going to be nothing else that is going to contribute the flavor. This is it, and this is what it tastes like. So, you know, we. We do have some projects in place right now with those Tinas. I really like the Tinas. In the beer industry, they're called Fooders, and there's some amazing beers that you could, you know, put into Fooders, and you get, you know, completely different flavors. And what ends up happening is you have different yeast, right, that come from the air, or a yeast that you pitch or whatever it may be, but all of those yeast, they kind of get stuck in the wood.
So whatever tequila or most of you put in there, you're going to get those yeast, and you're going to get kind of like a blend of flavors, which is very beautiful.
You know, that's something that we have in the pipeline. We have our own Tina Blanco, Beta Blanco, if you will. That's going to be coming out here soon. So we're hoping that we can sneak it in before the end of the year, but if not, it'll definitely be early next year.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Do you feel that the wood softens some of the minerality in fermentation from the tohono versus the stainless steel? Keeps that minerality a little more.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: I think so, Yeah. I think that, you know, when we tasted the two side by side, when we were trying to figure out what our profile was going to be, you know, I felt that the minerality was definitely sharper when it was in stainless steel. And then when we. We did the other one, Athena, it's like, okay, it's still there, but there's another element. So I don't know, kind of like in my mind, if, you know, I'm just saying. All right. There's something else that's taking attention away from it, from the minerality, but, you know, it definitely felt like it kind of got lost a little bit. Still very beautiful. Great tequila. But, yeah, we. We decided to do stainless, so it's definitely, you know, Agave. Agave. Agave is the star of the show, that one.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Do you do any distillation with fibers in distillation?
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Not yet. So, you know, Sergio has. Has done it with some other brands. I think he's done that with a couple of the Siempre releases.
You know, we have not done it just yet. I think it's really innovative. I think it's cool. It definitely imparts different flavors, so, you know, we may go down that road. I think I have to educate myself a little bit more on it because it's. He's like a maverick, man. It's just like, you know, stuff that, you know, you really don't see, you know, the distilleries and, you know, but it's. It's great quality, and that's what matters most. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to learning a little bit more about it and possibly doing it in the future.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Is there ever a future Lost Lore Mezcal?
[00:28:44] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know. Maybe.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: I think that would be.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: No.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Be really cool. That'd be going back all the way, right, to show.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Yes.
Yeah. I. I don't know what's going to happen, you know, if it's specifically going to be lost Lore. You know, I. I do know that, you know, I have a project with my cousin that's called Primo Edmano, so, like, cousin brother.
So, you know, that's going to be more focused on agave spirits and skull.
You know, we have something really, really, really cool coming up with that. So, you know, probably not going to necessarily happen this year, but it will happen next year, and it's going to be interesting stuff that may involve a master distiller that. That, you know, so we'll see.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: That's awesome. That'd be very cool.
See, is there any. Any other guesses I can make that are gonna happen?
[00:29:37] Speaker B: You're picking my brain now.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm seeing right in there.
I just. I. I mean, I know your story, and I know how deep it all goes and how innovative you are, and now that your time is going to be a little More focused.
I think you're going to have a lot of amazing things happen, and I think the growth is going to be good, too. So I'm excited about watching it happen.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Yeah, me. Me too. You know, I feel like we're. We're a unique Tequila company. You know, there's a lot of amazing tequila companies out there.
You know, we're. We're proud Mexican Americans, and I feel like, you know, we have a respect for tradition and tequila, and we really show that with a lot of releases, especially with that Cor Blanco or Pasada and Anejo. But I feel like we have kind of like the. The American side, where it's like, hey, I was born and raised in Chicago, right? And it's like, you know, I have a. A certain idea of what music I like. Like, I could listen to Chalino Sanchez, and I could also listen to Tupac or Biggie. It doesn't matter. I'll listen to it all. So, like, you know, you really kind of see that in our social media with me and Sarah being Mexican American, and, like, I feel that makes us really, really unique. So, you know, between, you know, kind of like what the brand is in our releases and what we're doing. Yeah, I feel like we have something special going now.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: I totally agree. It's a Tequila that I talk about to a lot of my friends, that I explain, you know, the name and that, you know, how that almost got lost and how you're keeping it alive. And then now you're doing it in such an awesome format. And the Tequila is great. You guys are awesome. So it's.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: It's.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: I'm. I'm fired up about you guys and your growth.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Awesome, man. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's a grind. It's a grind every day. But hey, man, if we're. If we're not working, you know, the competition is always working. So, you know, we have to. We have to keep grinding away.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: So how close is that Indiana Distribution?
[00:31:30] Speaker B: I think it's coming really quick. Yeah, we. We had a call with a distributor who's in a few states in the Midwest, and, you know, I have another call tomorrow, so I think it's coming quick. Indiana is important for me because again, I being born and raised in Chicago, it's like, well, northwest Indiana is right there. We'd spend a lot of time in Northwest Indiana. And I think we talked about this. I went to the Indy 500 like, 10 times in a row. Like, I'm very familiar with Indianapolis. You know, I'm very familiar with northwest Indiana. So yeah, I'm hoping this happens this year. If it doesn't happen this year, I'll. Damn it, I'll make sure it happens next year. But we're still hoping to launch here. I'm hoping by September. If it doesn't happen September, then, you know, the ship is sail. Because no one's going to do anything for October, November, December. But you know, maybe January, February is going to be, you know, in our cards. But yeah, we'll see.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: Well, I have some, I have some restaurants and bars or restaurants, bars and liquor stores that I know they're going to make shelf space for it as soon as you get it because I've told them about it so much.
It'll be awesome to have you here.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that. I know if anyone could do it, it's Brad, man, you know, everybody.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: So meeting a lot of people, I'll.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Say that.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: This is, this has been a. This has been a fun ride and I appreciate you doing such an early interview with me. I think you're like maybe my third or fourth one and I just started doing this almost to a full year to be, I think August 24th when I posted my first videos.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: That's awesome, man. You gotta throw a big party.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: We're gonna have to hopefully have lost lore here. We can have a big lost lore party.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: I love it, man. So, yeah, we'll have to be in touch, man. But I, I remember when you got everything going. I thought it was really cool and it's awesome to see your growth because it's really catching on. I see you all over the place, so congrats to you, Brett.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: No, I appreciate that. It's a lot of fun. It's because of the people like you that are so open and helpful and courteous with your time. You know, it's. It's the, the whole Tequila group of people has been really just downright amazing.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Agreed.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Add to it going to Mexico and going to. Around us and to Tequila and Guadalajara and the Tataniko and all these little towns where everybody is just so open and nice and gosh, I wish it was like that here.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: I'm with you, man. It's. It's a different world, you know, it's more community focused and you know, there's a lot of kind people. There's a lot of too. But it's like that over here in the US Man. It's like, you know, there's a lot of kind people. Like you'd like yourself and you Know, it's. It's. It's interesting, but it's definitely a different culture. That's absolutely. For sure.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Yep. I like that. Everybody kind of takes a minute right here. Everything's go, go, go all the time.
I've. I've fit into that better than most. I mean, I'm a work 10, 12 hours a day, work on the weekends, always going. And you get down there and you're like, oh, look, everybody's late.
Yeah, it's because it's just take a minute, take a step. Who cares? You know, let's make this an enjoyable time. And I do enjoy that so much.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: I agree. Every time I go to Aranda's, it's. It's a different world. It's very relaxed. Nothing's rushed. Nothing's. There's no times.
Like, my first meeting with Sergio, he was late by like an hour and a half, and he comes in and he's like, all right, you guys ready to drink tequila? It's like, I guess, yeah, let's do this.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: So, yeah. So, no. And it's. It's. It's. It's fun, man. It's. It's like, again, it's. It's. It's a different world, you know, Sometimes it feels like it's a journey, man. It's. It's fun to go over there. And, you know, for people who haven't gone over there that may be afraid because they. It's not safe or anything along those lines, I can tell you, I'm from Chicago, man. If you look for Chela, you're going to find it. And it's the same thing anywhere you look for Chuba, you're going to find it. But, you know, in Guadalajara and around us, very safe areas. And I suggest anyone who has an interest to go over there to go over there and go to Tequila, too. Like, Tequila is amazing. You know, Tequila is more of a touristy town. You know, you can go to a lot of great places like Fortaleza, you know, El Teo, Just a lot of great distilleries, and, you know, in the highlands, and there's great places like non 1414 that you can go to. You know, you go visit the Camarenas, you go to Ocho, you know, you go to Tapatio, El Bandillo, whatever it may be. So, yeah, it's definitely a fun place to go to.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: I. I say plan a couple of distilleries each day, except for 14, 14 when you're going there, that's the only one you go to on that.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep, yep.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Yeah, we started at 10 in the morning and I know that I left at 8:30 at night and I was told everybody else was one in the mornings.
Yeah, learned my lesson.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Goes. Yeah. We have a really cool bartenders trip coming up. So we're, we're taking some bartenders from the Phoenix area down there. It's probably about 10 bartenders and we're going to go over there, we're going to have dinner. And you know, I asked Sergey, I said, hey, can you be available for this? And he's excited. He's like, yep, I'll be there. So yeah, yeah, we'll see how that goes. That should be a fun night.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: That'll be a super fun night. Was there anything in the tequila world right now that bothers you or that you're concerned or worried about?
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Man, I just think I probably should pay more attention to it. But like, we've kind of just been like in our, in our own lane, you know, and just kind of like focusing on us and how we can be better every single day.
So, you know, I haven't really, you know, studied or know enough about what else is going on in the tequila industry. I know that there's, you know, always the additive free fight and I think that what Tequila Matchmaker was, did, was awesome. And Scarlet and Grover and I think they really gave us a platform and a voice, you know, if anything, you know, I would say, you know, kind of maybe being able to have more of a voicing platform and using that in our marketing because it makes a difference, you know. So, you know, as far as the bickering that goes back and forth between the CRT or other organizations, we're not paying too much attention to it. You know, we appreciate the CRT for what it is. Obviously, you know, we have to work with them. And when we submit labels, we probably work more with the CRT now than ever because we have a new expression that comes out often. You know, there's a really good group of nice people over there that are very professional and straightforward. But yeah, maybe I, I'd hope that, you know, with time we could try to figure out more of a platform for added free tequila.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I agree with you. And I could imagine the time that you spend with them just on labeling alone.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yep, it's a long, long time.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: What's the thing that you're most proud of to date from what you've done with your business?
[00:38:36] Speaker B: I think that my, my most.
I guess this is a tribute to my parents so my parents are seeing this, and I feel like for my dad, it's full circle in some ways. So he, he came over here, he did completely different things that he didn't have any skill in, didn't have any idea it was work for him. And to give us opportunities to bring this back to our family, like to my parents, my dad, like that. That means the world to me.
I know that there's all these other things that, you know, goes on in the tequila industry, specifically with our brand and releases and this and that, but, you know, if I didn't have that, then there's no point of doing anything else. So that's the most important for me.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: Very awesome. Well, I want to say thanks for doing this with me.
This will be out in a couple of weeks, so it'll come out in towards the end of August. And I know that you're doing, I think, free shipping on your website.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: Free shipping.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Free shipping. So everybody needs to know that. And it's lostlore.com, correct?
[00:39:36] Speaker B: It's lostlord tequila.com. yeah. Sarah's yelling at me. She's like, you know how much money we're gonna lose on this? But, you know, I think it's a good bottles. Yeah, it's a good opportunity to, to have people taste lost lore. You know, there's still a lot of states that we're not in and, you know, we get inquiries pretty often. And, you know, I. I want people to, to be able to try it out, you know, without taking a risk of, all right, hey, I gotta drive over here or I gotta pay an exuberant amount of money for shipping. You know, this is a good chance to do it.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Yep. I was in Chicago this weekend, so it was like, I've gotta drive to one of the stores that I know has some lost lore. So social media wise, you guys have great social media, so check out them on Instagram and Facebook. And do you guys have a tick tock as well?
[00:40:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it's there. It's for the cool. It's. It's for the cool kids. I'm not cool enough for TikTok.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I struggle at TikTok. Mine's growing on YouTube, so I got the YouTube growth going on, so. Well, I know you're busy doing what you do. I want to say thanks for doing this with me today. I appreciate you very much. You guys are awesome and I can't wait to see you guys in person again.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Yeah, me too, man.
Brad, I appreciate you. You know, what you're doing is really important. For this industry, especially for the small guys. You know, we.
We're small, you know, in terms of the tequila industry. We don't have big marketing budgets or anything like that. So what you're doing means the world to us. Thank you.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate you doing this with me. So I got a little teeny bit. I'll cheers you here at the end.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: There you go, brother.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Salute my friend.
It's so good.
