Happy Monday,
On this post-Easter day you may be feeling full up after eating your body weight in chocolate eggs. Or maybe you decided to chill out and enjoy Easter in your own way.
Whether you’re full or not, there’s always room for more drink knowledge and I’ve been quenching my thirst with some tequila stories.
Today’s newsletter features an interview with Jack Vereker, the co-founder of El Rayo tequila. I’ll let the interview do the talking but what I will say is that El Rayo is definitely lightning in a bottle…
Best,
Jamie
You and Tom quit your jobs and went to Guadalajara. Why specifically Guadalajara and how did the place influence the creation of El Rayo?
For context, tequila is what's known as an Appellation of Origin. And it has similar specifications to like champagne. So, it has to be produced and bottled and labelled and there are five tequila producing states in Mexico, the biggest of which is called Jalisco.
As 90% of our tequila comes from Jalisco and the capital is Guadalajara, it made sense to us. It was the first city in Mexico we visited and it’s kind of like coming to the UK for the first time and going to Manchester instead of London. It’s like seeing the real side of the country instead of the tourist version.
A guy called Mario Ballesteros was influential during this period. He was an artist from Guadalajara that Tom had found on Instagram and we told him the vision of what we wanted our tequila to be.
He met us off the plane in 2017 and took us under his wing. In Guadalajara, we saw the real Mexico. It was vibrant, colourful and creative, not at all like Mexican stereotypes.
We wanted to showcase contemporary Mexico with El Rayo.
El Rayo stands for lightning and is linked to the story of lightning striking the original blue agave. How does that name reflect your values?
The name was probably one of the hardest things to come up with. We knew we wanted it to be in Spanish and we came across the story of the origins of Tequila and agave spirits when Mario told us.
What people tell their children in Mexico is that an agave farmer saw a lightning bolt strike his agave plant. He went out to the plant, saw it was cooked and charred and there was nectar coming out of it. So, cooking agave meant you could get tequila and that was an awesome story for us.
We thought it was perfect because it’s a historical story and ultimately tequila is a heritage-based product. We didn’t want to get rid of the tradition. We wanted to link to the heritage but display it in a modern way.
The label of our bottle is telling the lightning story and it means we’re trying to add electricity and vibrancy to the category.
You use highland and lowland agaves for producing El Rayo. What are the unique properties of these ingredients that are infused into the final product?
The raw ingredient for tequila is called the blue agave and it takes between six and eight years to grow to maturity. So essentially, where it's grown, the conditions it's grown in and the temperature all impact the flavour.
In the highlands of Mexico there’s a lot more oxygen, sunlight and rain so that translates into a fruity and sweeter kind of tequila. We use 70% of highland agaves because our distillery is located in that kind of terrain.
The lowlands of Mexico have less oxygen and sunlight and this translates to a peppery and dry kind of tequila. We wanted to balance out the sweetness with this dryness and use 30% lowland agaves for a good blend. El Rayo has a wonderful balance between the two.
You’ve said you’ve been inspired by the idea of modern Mexico. What does that mean to you?
There’s this incredible undercurrent of creativity going on in Mexico. This includes architects, design studios, artists, furniture makers, glassmakers and more. We want to be the brand that showcases all this creativity to the world and so every year we partner with new artists who create custom art for El Rayo.
We are a tequila brand but we’re also a lifestyle brand. We want people wearing our clothes, buying our artwork and steeping themselves in the modern Mexican culture.
What were some of the key lessons you learned from maestro Oscar Garcia?
Along with Mario, Oscar was our other key partner in bringing El Rayo to life. We invested a lot in our recipe development and Oscar had 50 years of tequila making experience to share with us.
One of the fundamental reasons for launching the brand was that we wanted to push the idea of tequila and tonic as the next gin and tonic. We wanted our tequila to be delicious on its own and stand out when paired with a mixer.
Oscar was instrumental in helping us find the right partner in creating this unique mix. Without him we wouldn’t have got meetings with distilleries. The tequila industry is close-knit in Mexico and essentially we were two gringos from London knocking on their doors.
We wouldn’t have got much out of the distilleries and Oscar helped to navigate those conversations. He was also involved with our production team at every step of the process. It was a nine-month process and we went through over 50 samples until we got to the spirit we wanted. It was definitely a labour of love.
What differentiates El Rayo from other tequilas?
As mentioned we have the split of highland and lowland agaves and we’re one of the only tequila brands in the world to use that mix. We’re also focused on bringing tequila into moments where it wouldn’t normally be drunk.
You won’t find us in five-star hotels. It’s more like a Sunday dinner pub experience with friends and family. We’re focused on the casual drinking environments.
What other tequila and mezcal brands do you admire and why?
Mezcal has been a big inspiration for us and there are a lot of awesome brands in the space. One of my favourites is Mezcal Verde, which has a similar ethos to us. They use different artists for all their labels and do it in a non-tacky way.
There’s a UK Mezcal brand called Pensador who we’ve become good friends with. From a liquid perspective, they are next level. I think they’re the best mezcal on the market.
I think we're lucky in the fact that there's not really any other brands in the UK trying to do a similar thing to us. There are a couple of tequila brands in the US doing similar things. Los Sunday’s Tequila comes to mind.
But in the UK and Europe, we’re on our own and that’s good with me.
How do you see the tequila and mezcal industry developing in the next decade?
I think it’s an exciting time for agave spirits. In the US, there’s a huge development market and that has fuelled the global expansion of premium tequila. People say to us that tequila is the next big thing.
But I think it’s happening right now and in the next 12 – 18 months we’ll see an explosion of premium tequila. All you have to do is look at the stats. In the UK, tequila is the fastest-growing category in the off-trade. In the on-trade, it’s the number one trending spirit. People are thirsty for premium tequila.
I think we’re lucky in that we’ve reached a state that for the last 10 – 15 years there has been a generation who’ve experienced awful tequila. But there are also people who’ve never had that bad experience. People in their 20s onwards are ready to be introduced to good tequila.
When people lose their preconceptions, it’s only going to help and the category will become more accessible and delicious.
Interested to find out more about El Rayo? Check out the website here.
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