July 22, 2025 • 40 mins
Today on Brewsers, we talk to Arturo with Lost Lore Tequila. We talk about the over 100 year old story of Lost Lore, what the future holds, and so much more. Follow us on instagram and twitter at Brewserspod. Like, share, review, enjoy and cheers. #brewsers #brewserspod #Enjoylife #DrinkLocal #Cheers
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Bruisers podcast about beer, coffee, booze and Bruisers.
I'm your host, Rody John and today we talked to
Arturo with Lost Lower Tequila. We talked about the over
one hundred year old story of Lost Lower, what the
future holds, and so much more. This is such a
great conversation with Arturo is the fourth generation tequila maker
and observation. So but you don't want to hear from me,
(00:42):
you want to hear from him. So without further ado,
here is our Turo with Lost Lower Tequila. I would
(01:04):
like to welcome the show Arturo with Lost Lord Tequila.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I'm pretty good man. How about yourself doing well?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So for those listening, kind of penis a word picture,
where are you at? What's going on around you?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
So I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. So just wrap it up
my day right now. Just did a lot of tequila
stuff and we got some pretty cool things coming up
in the pipeline. So today was a big day to
kind of get prepared for what's coming up in the future. Nice.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
is your earliest memory about Bahol?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, so when it comes to the whole tequila story,
it's pretty interesting. It's very unique where this whole tradition
starter with my great grandfather. So he traditionally made a
gadvia spirits in the nineteen twenties and would see us
I can take us in Mexico. So this is a
tradition else passed on from my great grandfather to my
(01:57):
grandfather and then to my father. And my father was
doing this in the sixties and seventies and he decided
to go to the United States for the American dream.
And he was a migrant farm worker, so completely left
distilling and went into something completely different. And that's where
our name comes from, lost laws, lost tradition. So he
(02:18):
was a migrant farm worker. He worked in California, he
worked in Florida. He picked oranges with my mom, I know,
Orlando area, and then pick produce in the Chicago land area.
And that's where I was actually born, was in Chicago.
So I would always hear my dad talk about God
his spirits. He talked to his dad about it, you know,
(02:40):
my aunts and uncle. So it was something that really
intrigued me because you know, I want to be like
my dad, right, I still want to be like my dad.
So you know, I knew it was something that I
wanted to bring back at some point in my life. So,
you know, I went into some different industries. I went
into manufacturing and went into the beer industry, but I
still had that itch too to bring this tradition back.
(03:01):
And this is something that my wife, Sarah knew that,
you know, I wanted to do, so you know, she
kind of spearheaded the project and just made sure that
that it came to life. And you know, I'm happy
that that happened because we were at an age where,
you know, we had four kids and it was going
to be very difficult to do if we didn't do
it right then and there. And this was in twenty
(03:21):
twenty one. So once to my father, talked to him,
told him about the project. I thought he'd be super
excited about it, but he really wasn't. You know. My
dad's yeah, I know, my dad's at retirement age. You know,
he doesn't want to work anymore. But I kind of
convinced him, talk to him over and over and over again,
and he finally came along for the ride. And I
needed him there for that because you know that that's
(03:43):
where his background is. You know, he still remembers profile
techniques and stuff like that. So we went down to
New Mexico and we teamed up with the Vivanco family
and our message distiller Sergio Cruz and law Sport tequila
was born.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So when you were growing up, how much so your
dad worked in the in the in the industry obviously,
and then, like you said, moved up to America. How
many of his brothers and sisters stayed back and actually
continued working there.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, so, so my dad was the oldest, so you know,
a couple of his brothers, two three of the brothers
kept doing it for a short period and my grandfather
got sick and they all kind of moved to different places.
So my grandfather moved to Walajada, and you know, he
kind of left the industry behind too.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Right now, I was curious because I'm I was always
wondering how much of it it was still coming back
to you and in your even though like you guys
weren't there, but you may have come and visited and
maybe took some back with you or maybe you know.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's a that's a really good
question because like when my great grandfather started all this.
He had multiple sons and he taught all of them
how to do it right. So you know, my grandfather's
brothers made a godave of spirits and they taught their
sons and they taught their sons. So I have kind
(05:08):
of like, you know, distant cousins that are still making
a gove spirit. So that's where we would get kind
of like our family A gave Spirit from was from
you know, my dad's cousins, and they still make it
till this day. You know, it's it's been in production
now for one hundred years or so. And yeah, it's
very traditionally made and some pretty good juice.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's so crazy to think about, like you know how
many generations back we're doing this and again you can't
get I mean, you can make a gave spirits from
getting it from anywhere, but calling it obviously you have
to get it from this one region. And it's just
so fascinating too, because it's such it's still such an
old process of doing things. But then you have this
(05:54):
new like label of added to free and it's like
it shouldn't have had added to begin with, Like, yeah,
why are we doing what are we.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Doing just correctly? Yeah, yeah, and that's where we pride
ourselves on. Like, you know, when we wanted to make
this profile, you know, my father wanted to make it
as traditional as possible, kind of like what he used
to do in the sixties and seventies. So three ingredients.
The gave wada yeast. Of course, the yeast that they
used at that time was a natural yeast. It was
(06:25):
just open you know to ambient you know, ambient air
and whatever yeast was in the air would get attached
to you know, the fermentation and you know, kick off
the fermentation process. So yeah, very very clean, not a
lot of ingredients, and that's good, you know, I think
that for me at least, you know, that's how the
way tequila was and it should.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Be right exactly. Yeah, I mean there's too many people
really kind of just mucking it up and adding too
much stuff. Like at we said, like obviously there's something
doing additives because you have to have a craze of
no ada it is. So yeah, again, just make it
the clean way that we need to and like that,
just do.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That, yep, agreed, Yeah, yeah, for sure. You see, you know,
the the bigger brands trying to get more consistency out
of tequila. And you know I get that too, but
you know, at the end of the day, that's just
not what lost law is. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well, also, when we're looking at the alcohol sales, we've
seen such a trend now obviously beer and wine are
going down, even though medello now is the number one
beer in America. But then you know, whiskey, bourbon, and
tequila are the only ones really growing when it comes
to the you know, the market in general on the
growing side of it. Where do you kind of see
(07:44):
that you guys are kind of leading the pack when
it comes to innovation or I mean, you guys have
three different kind of blancos, So like what when it
comes to building this brand, how do you guys kind
of spearhead everything.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, So I come from the beer industry, and innovation
is really be at a beer industry. And so we
we still run a brewery in Chicago, Chicago Land named
the brewery is Sombrella Brewering. We're in Tinley Park, Illinois,
and what we do there is we come up with
new beers every two weeks or so, so you know,
we have to. It's it's not something where you know,
(08:19):
we we can just as a newer brand or as
a newer brewery. You know, we've been there for eight
nine years now. But you know we have to you know,
keep up right. We have to come up with new
things pretty often, and innovation is super cute to us.
So what I decided to do was to you know,
bring that whole idea to the tequila world. So you know,
(08:42):
we do have our core a blancover, psalo and onyo,
but you look at the ingredients and you look at
the process and there's so many different directions that you
can go to come up with a different profile. You know,
that's why we came up with, you know, different blancos.
We have a high prooved blanco that's a forty nine
percent ABV. We have a still string blanco that's at
(09:02):
fifty five percent ABV. So you know, different cuts you
know for a little bit of that different ABV, just
a little bit of a different process, but you know,
you get totally different tequilas. And same thing with the
repisados that we do. There's different barrels that we can use,
and you know, with that we come up with totally
(09:22):
different tequilas.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, you guys had a limited edition the Repisodo that
you guys give out online recently in a beautiful bottle.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
By the way, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Walk us through that Repisodo, And like you said, you
guys are doing different things. And then also how important
it is obviously to engage your fans online because if
they could actually you know, just repost something and tag
you guys and win a bottle of something is very
limited like that, Like who doesn't yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, right, yeah, So it was a pretty special release
for me. I again, I'm from the beer industry, but
I like a lot of you know, different other cause
you know, whether it's tequila, bourbon, whiskey, whatever it may be.
So I'm a big fan of different bourbons. And you know,
(10:10):
probably about a year year and a half ago, I
was in Chicago and I was visiting a bottle ship,
a bottle shop that a friend owns, and you know,
the guy there at the time, the bartender was like, hey,
try Arturo and it was a bourbon that was with
Ambroana wood and it just like totally blew my mind.
(10:33):
And you know, I started thinking, They're like, all right,
what food brought this? A tequila? You know, I don't
know if anyone had done it at that point. You know,
it's We're a small, nimble company, so why not, you know,
take take a chance, right, Let's see if we can
can do this. So, you know, we kind of put
a plan together and yeah, we took our base REPISODEO.
(10:53):
We finished it with Ambarana wood and it came out
to be a really good release for us, so we
didn't make too much of it. It was about two
thousand bottles by the time it came to the US.
It was already sold out, and you know, to get
it sold out at the distributor is one thing, but
to have it sell out at the stores really really quick,
it's a total of the thing. So you know, what
(11:13):
we've seen in the market is it pretty much sold out,
you know, everywhere. So I really don't know many accounts
that have it. I do know a couple of places
here in the Phoenix area that have a little bit
of it. You know, there's stores, there's a lot of
dry through liquor stores over here. So if you know
it's there, like, you get it. If you don't, you know,
(11:34):
there's you can't really walk inside and see that's on
the shelf. So that's kind of like my my honeypot
over there whenever I need a bottle of that limited
repos out, so that's where I go afterwards.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We're the ones in Texas are and I'm gonna try
to find one of myself.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Well I love that you are from the beer background
in the in the you know, the brewery background, because
they that business model is so interesting because of the
fact that you have to buy so much equipment up front,
and then you know, even if there's another brewery that
opens down the street, like, you've got to be on top.
(12:13):
You've got to have your niche. You can't just be
making good beer all the time. Well yes, obviously we
all want to make good beer, and everyone should be
making good beer. But you need to find a reason
why people go to that brewery, which is always so
and that's unfortunately that landlords and you know, sometimes other
things just happen where the breweries don't you know, actually
(12:36):
be able to stay open where they should be. But
the innovation, like you said, is something that really has
been prominent in the beer world, which it's always blending
and morphing. And I love now that we're seeing that
more with the spiritual world as well, because of the
fact that, yeah, we all want tequila, but we all
want this, this and this, but now we can actually
(12:57):
maybe add this to it to where if he makes
this in a drink or you know, whatever you want
to do, it adds even more as opposed to you
even trying to add add even more. How does it
work when it comes to like making cocktails or having
the idea first for the tequila, like what do you
want to do with it? And then maybe afterwards kind
(13:19):
of be like, oh, how do I insert this here?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Does that make sense? Yeah? Yeah, for sure. So I
think that, you know, for different releases, kind of like
the the method that I go through. All right, we have,
you know, three simple ingredients in tequila, right, so we
have the agave, we have the water, and we have
the ease. So the process is different too, depending on
(13:46):
what tequila you make. We're very traditional process, so we
use mature gave, we cook and stoe brick events. We
use a roller met to extract. We fermat with certain
use blends and with those ye's you know. We use
the Mozart method, you know, which is kind of playing
(14:06):
classical music while it's going through fermentation. Then we go
into decilling and we have all our different cuts. You know,
there's the heads that we use, the hearts, the tails
and stuff like that, and then the corres, bottling and aging.
So like, you know, we look at the ingredients first
and we say, okay, well what can we change because
(14:27):
with the agave, you can only use blue Weber agave
in tequila. But you know you could use a mature one,
one that's super ripe. We could use one that's maybe
a little bit younger. It just all depends what we
want to do the hema shave. So like when we're
taking the leaves off, like there's some brands out there
that do a very very close shape where they shape
(14:48):
the pina and it looks almost white because they take
all the green matter off. In our case, it's a
little bit longer. But what if we leave it even longer,
you know, we'll get even more vegetable character. You know,
when we cook, we cook for fifty hours. What if
we cook longer, What if we cook a little bit less?
You know, when it comes to extraction, we do use
a roller mill. We have a town other versions that
(15:11):
it's going to be coming out here soon, which is
a big volcanic wheel that squeezes all the juices out
of the agave. But like, yeah, what if we use
the town What if we use you know, the roller mill,
but we don't pass it through as many times? And
then fermentation, like what yeas are we using? Are we
going to be using a wild yeast? Are we going
to be using a champagne or we're gonna be using
(15:32):
a rum yeast, or we're gonna be using something something
completely else. Is going to be a combination of yeast?
You know, right now we're open, it's ambient temperature when
it ferments, so you know, we can't temperature control anything.
But hey, what if we have a tank there where
we are able to temperature control like we do with beer.
Then from there we could use different types of yeast,
(15:53):
you know, a l east or a logger yeast or
something along those lines. And then when it comes to distillation,
the equipment is very important. We use one hundred percent
popper pots. But you know your cuts man, You know,
for us, since we use a longer pinachhepe, we use
pretty much all the hearts for our cuts. But you know,
if we use a little bit more of the heads
(16:16):
to kind of give it a little bit more superior.
Alcohol is a little bit more flavor and stuff like that.
So there's just so many many variants with this and
permutations that if you make one little change, it could
come out completely different. So that's kind of like what's
going through my mind day in and day out. You know,
I have a brewer background, so you know, I really
(16:39):
really dig deep into ingredients, but I do dig a
lot into process because there's a lot of different things
that we can do. The tequila industry is very traditional.
You know, we're very fortunate to have our massive distiller,
Sergey Cruz, who is kind of like a maverick Inness industry,
and you know, he is am afraid to, you know,
(17:01):
take chances, and they're all calculated chances, but it's still
a chance that they're things that people haven't done before.
So you know, we're very fortunate to have him as
a massive hostiller to kind of support this. You know,
I want to say craziness. It is a little bit crazy,
but just kind of like the overall innovation of what
we're doing.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, I mean, you're I always think that brewing, distilling,
whatever it is, it's a beautiful marriage of like the
science and art together. And so obviously the scientific method
is like you said, you know, just certain ingredients, doing
it this way, making you with this, and then you know,
it seems like you're really learning and nerding out more
(17:43):
on the process of everything, which is great because there's
so many different ways now, especially with technology the way
it is, and also the way we're almost going backwards
sometimes just to see how distilling in the old way
really was as opposed using all the new and fun technology.
You know, you have people that you know, it's like
(18:05):
chefs going out into the woods and just cooking with
fire and that's it, and they're fun with it. So
I think we're having a fun technology like renaissance and
also nostalgia situation where we a lot of people are
going old ways of doing things. And then also we
have so many people going forward and like discovering all
these new different ways to make things faster or more
(18:27):
effective or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, agreed, And I think that's really what
happened to Tequila. Let's say twenty years ago, you know,
when there was an introduction of you know, different processes
of you know, using the diffuser to you know, cook
your tequila and stuff like that, because you know, a
diffuser is not traditional by any means. Is it efficient, absolutely,
(18:53):
but I think that when you use a diffuser, your
your quality suffers a little bit. The yield is awesome,
you know, and that's what a lot of these big
companies want. They want, you know, as much profit as
possible for what they're selling. But for me, it's just
not what what tequila is and it's not what lost
law is. And I have total respect for those companies
(19:13):
that do that. I think a lot of those companies
paved the way for us to you know, more of
introduction and marketing to the category, and they've helped you know,
brands like us, the smaller brands to be where we're
at today, where we actually have a platform. So I
appreciated of them, But again, it's just not what lost
law is. That's good.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
So owning a business with you know, your wife is
probably a rather interesting situation. Is there a safe where
y'all have or where you can turn off work in
personal time or is it kind of just always inter blending?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, I think that for us, you know, we we
work together obviously, but we work in different departments. So
you know, Sarah, she does a lot of the compliance
work for a company we do self import, and she
sets up you know, all the licensing state the state.
We're in just about thirty states at this point. So
(20:10):
I never go into Sarah's world and try to do
anything over there because she'll just kick me out. So
like it when it comes to my world, you know,
she she pretty much respects what I do. But at
the end of the day, Sarah's the boss. So like,
you know, if she wants something, she's gonna get it.
So I just I've learned. Man. I've been with with
Sarah since I was fifteen years old, so yeah, we've
(20:34):
been together for for a long time. It's been twenty
five years now, so yeah, I kind of just I
know how she works and at the end of the day,
she's the boss. So I just kind of listen to her.
So happy wife, happy life. There you go.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
What's so, what's the secret twenty five years that's in
the sanity?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, long time, long time. Yeah, I just you know,
just learn how to work with people, you know, and
you know, when comes when it comes to Sarah again,
I just you know, I think this is in a
lot of marriages and you just you kind of, you know,
figure out how people tick and learn what to do
(21:12):
and what not to do, and you know it's something
not to do, you learn pretty quick and you don't
do it again and you just kind of moved on. Yeah,
it's so true. Yeah, but she's fun. She's fun to
work with. Sarah, She's got a really good sales background
and she's she's pretty smart. So like she's come up
(21:33):
with a lot of a lot of cool ideas and
a lot of cool innovation stuff too. With with with tequila,
She's kind of brought some ideas to me and like, hey,
can we try this and check this out? And I
think they're great. So yeah, we have some tequila stuff
coming up next year that's kind of more related to
her and her thoughts and ideas. Well.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, what so let's I mean? So I want to
go back and ask when you create brand? Obviously the name,
the brand, the logo, what kind of bottle you as
you're going to use, those are obviously all huge factors,
especially in the Spiritus world. How did some of those
decisions kind of come together?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yeah, so we we have you know, some friends and
industry just because we're from the beer industry, right, So
you know, the friend company that worked on over packaging
for beer was in charge of working on the packaging
for for Lost Lore. So he started putting everything together
for us and just showed us, Hey, this is where
(22:33):
I think the identity should go and what the branch
look like. And it's something that both Sarah and I
looked at. You know, Sarah has a really good eye
with design, so you know, she had a lot to
say about it. I'm kind of more of like the
relaxed person who's like, all right, yeah, let's just do it,
let's move forward. But yeah, she had she had like
a lot of feedback. I think overall, you know, we
(22:57):
really didn't deviate much from what the original concept was,
and we're really happy with how the packaging was handled
and how it came out. So you know, our packaging
is important for us. Of course, what's going to be
most important is going to be the juice in the tequila,
but we think that packaging is important. You know, we
invest a lot to develop everything, but you know, every
(23:21):
single expression that we have has a different artwork on it.
So like this is the high proof that we released. Uh,
this was last year, so you could see it's got
one of the larger still which we distill attle first
at the distillery with the Vivancos. You know, this is
our Anieho so Anieho has the town on there and
(23:44):
you know this is more of like explaining the story
of like where my family came from. And that's what
they used to use. They used a big towel on
a rock with just a WHRSEO mule, just you know,
having it go in circles over and over and over again.
And this right here is is the oven. So like
these ovens right here, this is what my family used
all those years ago. You know, we went to where
(24:06):
my father and my grandfather were distilling and suka thikaus
and they're still there and they're carved into the earth.
So it's really interesting to see that type of stuff.
But package is important for us. It's not cheap. The
way we go about things is you know, again getting
you urt work every time. Our artist is not cheap,
(24:28):
but he puts a lot of work into it. He deserves,
you know, what we pay him. So you know, it's
just something that makes Lost Laura a little bit more unique.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I love that. Yeah, you're telling the story with the bottles,
and you know, obviously collect them all and you kind
of get a lot of the story. And that's really
fantastic that you guys doing.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
It that way. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's there's
a lot of people on social they send me messages
and they're just like, yeah, they're like Pokemon Collective, I
want this one and that one in this one and yeah.
We have a hovend that's going to be releasing the
next month and that's got Sergio Cruz on it. And
so I talked to Sergio. I'm like, hey, you're obviously
(25:07):
a very important person to our company. You're a master deciller.
You know, what do you think about having your face
on here? You know what drawing out and he was
super excited about it. So, you know, we worked with
our artists and he drew out, Sergio and he looked
pretty good. So I think he's excited about this release
and you know, having his face on that bottle all
(25:28):
over the US.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, So you talked about you know, obviously that's coming
out in the next couple of months, and you have
some worse things happening. What is the next three to
five years look like? For you guys, because I imagine you
guys are not only just thinking the next year, you're
thinking multiple years down the line.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Now. Yeah, you know I've done this before with with
other businesses, and you know, everything changes so quickly. You know,
I'm not I'm not looking five years on the line.
I'm kind of looking more like, you know, one to
three years down. So obviously we're going to continue our
innovation with different types of tequilas. You know, I really
(26:07):
like different different packaging. I think that there's a small
market for you know, formats that are a little bit
smaller that you know, maybe you can have lost lore
in you know, a little one hundred millimeter or fifty
millimeter bottle or three seventy five something along those lines.
So that's going to be important for me. Of course,
(26:28):
our bottles, all our bottles are artismally made in Mexico
and Tono, Lahlisco, and they use recycled glass bottles. A
lot of them are Coca Cola bottles, so you know,
we have to get a new mold made. And you know,
we just didn't use a bottle that's out there in
a market, you know, a mass produced bottle that's imported
from China. You know, we we we use bottles that
(26:51):
are made there in Mexico and if you look at them,
they're they're very they're very unique. Every every single bottle
is different. You know, it's kind of probably hard to see,
but there's there's a lot of little bubbles and imperfections
in there. And yeah, it's because it's it's all artisically made,
you know. It's if you go to the factory, there's
(27:11):
a lot of people and they're all doing it by hand.
So yeah, I think that different formats, different models, stuff
like that, and then you know what, we'll see what happens.
I mean, we have a lot of friends in the
beer industry, and we're starting to get some friends in
it's silly industry. I think collaborations are pretty important. That's
something that I'm taking from the beer world. So you know,
(27:32):
we have some already in a pipeline, some collaborations that
we're going to do for twenty twenty six. But yeah,
I think that as long as you know, I'm having
fun with it, you know, we'll just kind of keep
moving along with the innovation and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's awesome. Yeah, I think we need more innovation when
it comes to the Spirits world because obviously there's so
many just brands that just do the one thing and
that's it, and that's fine, but you know, yeah, you
ever know, it's also like a weird social media thing.
You never know what's going to hit and what's going
to land with people.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
So if you do a.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Collaboration with somebody and they're like, oh, I know this person,
but I've never heard of this, so let me go,
you know, try this out, and then then they start
talking more about you, that's fantastic because that crossover is
so great. It's worked out so well in every format,
you know, whether it be entertainment or even the Spirit's
Brewery world. So that's always great. And then, like you said,
(28:27):
in the different sizes and like the different packaging and
all that, you know, people were like, oh what is
you know, you never know what's going to catch somebody's eye.
Otherwise you're just that static bottle that's on the shelf.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah. Yeah, and everyone is different, right, Like, you know,
we have these legacy brands that they just focus on
on a core. You know, some of them don't even
make an an yeho. You know, they may just have
one tequila and or a lineup, and that's totally fine.
There's nothing wrong with that. Again, we're just we're built
a little different, you know, because our background and what
(29:01):
we've been through. So, you know, I think for us,
innovation is is definitely key. And you know, I think, yeah,
the general consumer right now, what we're seeing is, you know,
they want to try different things, you know, and it's
not only in tequila. You may have someone you know
who drinks tequila today, drinks beer tomorrow, drinks whiskey the
(29:23):
day after that, maybe they take a week break and
they go back to something else like wine. You know,
they're they're they're kind of all all over the place.
And you know, I do the same thing. I still
drink beer. You know, I like beer. I drink it often.
You know, I drink tequila and I like whiskey and bourbon.
So you know, I'm not you know, I think the
(29:45):
days of a consumer being loyal to hey, I'm only
drinking this category or only this brand, I think those
days are over. I think that people are looking more
at quality right now. They want quality products. So when
it comes to tequila, know, I had a conversation with
Sergio Levanco the other day, and you know, we're talking
about just overall quality of tequila and where it is
(30:08):
now compared to where it was. And he's telling me
that when he gets together with his friends, Philippe coming
in or Carlos coming in, or whoever it is, you know,
they're not just drinking G four. They're not just drinking
Viva Mexico. It's like, all right, we're going to drink,
you know, whatever whatever we feel like drinking today, as
(30:28):
long as it's quality. So sometimes it is Viva Mexico.
Sometimes it's Stapatillo, sometimes it's G four. It just changes.
I think what they're most focused on right now is
the quality.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, as people should be. Yeah, well I have a
second Mona show. I call it the five Countants, just
five random questions. Yeah, you can do a Ted talk
on anything.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
What would it be? I think communication. I think that
a lot of issues that we see within our company,
our industry, with marriages, with you know, dating, a lot
of issues come from from communication. So I think it's
(31:11):
always good to understand where people are coming from and uh,
you know, communicate with them and you know, just just
just not be an asshole, you know, just just be,
you know, very understanding of people. You don't have to
agree with everything that people say, but I think that,
you know, at the same time, you know, you got
(31:31):
to communicate what you're feeling and the reasons why they
should see it that way too. Not fight with people,
just communicate. And I think that if if that happened,
you know, they'd be probably a lot less conflict in
this world. So I think communication is key.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, and most of communications listening.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
So yes, yep, exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Uh, if you were a progress or MMA fighter, what
would your name be?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, I love this one. So I think that I'm
a big fan of uh. So, I think I think
Lucha Libre is awesome. I'm a big wrestling fan. You know,
a w W W w W back in the day.
(32:19):
We have a huge fan who's a wrestler, Dax Harwood
of a fan of y'all, huge fan.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
He loves he.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Loves to kill that. So we're always chatting and stuffing.
So I think that, you know, for me, it would
be something more related to the Lucha Libre world, probably like, uh,
something with my name, so, something crazy. I have no clue,
but let's let's say R two D two kind of like.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
If there's a way, Yeah, if there's a way to
do it to where you don't get sued, I think
that's a fantastic pit.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Yeah right, the whole Dak's thing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
They're in Chicago for a while, I think the whole
almost month of August, so I got have a feeling
something happen.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah. Yeah, No, there's gonna be some some cool things
coming up that I can't release right now, but between
you know us and up t R, so keep on
the lookout.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Well, if you all want to come on the show,
I am obviously more than welcome back.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I think that's so cool. Yeah, we'll definitely, you know,
next time I chat to and chat with Dex, well,
we'll definitely bring it up and try to make it happen.
That would be fantasy. I would love that.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I've been trying to get him in tequila and something
involved for for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Esome.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, what was your favorite band when you were a
kid versus now?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Uh? So, I'm very I guess different and weird when
it comes to music. You know, I grew I'm a
Mexican American. You know, I grew up in Chicago. That's
where I was born, So My background was a lot
with with Cordegueo's right, So bands like they get is
(34:10):
the North Day and you know, artists like Chadin Ma
Sanchez and you know, when I was growing up, I
listened to that because of my parents, but I listened
to a ton of hip hop too and then metal,
Like I love metal, a huge metal ad. So I
would say like right now at this moment, you know,
(34:34):
I really like a band that's called Municipal Waste. So
they're kind of like a new age thrash band. So
I listened to a ton of their stuff. I'm a
big thrash fan. Uh. So you know there's even like
you know, crossover thrash and stuff like that that I
listened to. Uh There's there's a band actually from Texas,
(34:55):
power Trip, you know, and they have.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
A oh I feel like I've heard that I've heard
of them.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Yeah, yep, So they have a new lead singer. You know,
the original league team are unfortunately pass away, but they're
going on tour again and you know, I was supposed
to go see them in Vegas something happening that was
bummed out. But yeah, I think that thrash thrash bands
in Missival waste is probably what I'm listening to to
most right now. So that was that was, that's now.
(35:21):
And yeah, when I was a kid, I think man,
Bone Thugs and Harmony. I'll throw it out there, listen
to a lot of hip hop and man I own
their albums, and I would listen to that, you know,
for hours every weekend. So i'd say bone thucks.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, if it's not the first of the monthing, you're
not blasting that, then I don't know, Yeah, right, who
are what inspires you?
Speaker 3 (35:47):
M M. You know, my Dad's really important to me,
and so I think, you know, you can have all
these people that you know, you look up to and
that you may not know. Obviously, I know my dad.
He's my dad, right, and you know my dad is
always you know, taking care of us, so you know,
(36:07):
obviously he came to the US to give himself more opportunity.
You know, my mom and me and my sister, and like,
my dad's always taken care of us. So you know,
this whole project is a tribute to him. You know,
he's he's always worked his ass off for us. So yeah,
I think that he's he's my superhero for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I love that and what would you tell your seventeen
year old self?
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Oh, man, what wouldn't I say? I think there's a
bunch of stuff. So yeah, I think, Uh, I think
when I was seventeen, like I I always focused on
kind of like what people thought of me, right, like
when you're in high school, you're you're there's you're you're
(36:55):
very impressionable and this and that. And you know, now
that I'm forty, like I give two ships about what
people think of me. I think I think you're great, John,
you know, thanks, man, appreciate that. But like you know,
there's there's a lot of yeah, people out there that
(37:16):
just are aren't going to be fans. And that's just life.
That's how life is, you know, whether it's friends, families, people,
you don't know, whatever. Maybe, And I think if you
get caught up in it, like you know, you you
kind of get down on yourself and feel like bad
for being yourself and then you shouldn't you know, you're
yourself for a reason. Yeah, So I think for me
(37:36):
is yeah, just just just be yourself, man, you know,
don't listen to other people and be yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, you're one of a kind for a reason.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yeah, exactly, now, but people want.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
To find out more about y'all, follow you online obviously
by lost lower Where can they do all the things?
Speaker 3 (37:53):
I think the best thing is going to be social media,
So I ru on the Instagram at Facebook account. You know,
it's a ton of work for me. I really haven't
been active on the TikTok account. Now that I have
a little bit more calm here, I probably, you know,
do a little bit more stuff on TikTok, But I
would say Instagram definitely, Instagram, Facebook, and you can figure
(38:13):
out what's going on with our brand. Of course, our
website to lost Wortequila dot com. There's information about the
brand there, there's places where you can buy, it shows
you where we distribute. It's a lot of good information.
But between those two, the website and social media, I
think that it's probably gonna be the best place awesome start.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
I've loved this so much. I can't wait to see
where you guys go in the future. And then obviously,
please let me know what's going on at the FTR
because I was. I saw them live this past Saturday
at all In, and I can't wait to see what
they're doing with Tequila in the future.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Hell yeah, man, they're super entertaining, so we'll definitely keep
in touch with this this whole thing. But yeah, man,
thank you. I really appreciate the invite. I mean this
was super fun. You know. I think I like the
conversations that you're at or awesome. Man. Yeah, I really
appreciate you. So thank you, John, thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Thank you so much Arturo for being on the show again.
Make sure you get your hands on some Lost Lord
tequila if you can when you can, because even the
special editions are selling out very quickly. And as he
talked about, I'm very much looking forward to this FTR
collaboration and seeing what's going on with that. So we'll
find out on social media. While you follow them, and
make sure to follow us. It is bruisers Pod. That
is b R E W S C R S p
(39:38):
O D on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter.
If you want to send us an email, it is
Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you want to follow
me directly, it is Roddy John. That is R O
D I E j O N. Roddy John is the
name on the Twitter and an untut in case you
want to find on I'm drinking, Maybe me and have
a beer together. If you want to follow me on
the threads or the Instagram, it is official Ordy John.
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink
(40:00):
local and cheers
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Three two one
Welcome to Bruisers podcast about beer, coffee, booze and Bruisers.
I'm your host, Rody John and today we talked to
Arturo with Lost Lower Tequila. We talked about the over
one hundred year old story of Lost Lower, what the
future holds, and so much more. This is such a
great conversation with Arturo is the fourth generation tequila maker
and observation. So but you don't want to hear from me,
(00:42):
you want to hear from him. So without further ado,
here is our Turo with Lost Lower Tequila. I would
(01:04):
like to welcome the show Arturo with Lost Lord Tequila.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I'm pretty good man. How about yourself doing well?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So for those listening, kind of penis a word picture,
where are you at? What's going on around you?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
So I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. So just wrap it up
my day right now. Just did a lot of tequila
stuff and we got some pretty cool things coming up
in the pipeline. So today was a big day to
kind of get prepared for what's coming up in the future. Nice.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
is your earliest memory about Bahol?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, so when it comes to the whole tequila story,
it's pretty interesting. It's very unique where this whole tradition
starter with my great grandfather. So he traditionally made a
gadvia spirits in the nineteen twenties and would see us
I can take us in Mexico. So this is a
tradition else passed on from my great grandfather to my
(01:57):
grandfather and then to my father. And my father was
doing this in the sixties and seventies and he decided
to go to the United States for the American dream.
And he was a migrant farm worker, so completely left
distilling and went into something completely different. And that's where
our name comes from, lost laws, lost tradition. So he
(02:18):
was a migrant farm worker. He worked in California, he
worked in Florida. He picked oranges with my mom, I know,
Orlando area, and then pick produce in the Chicago land area.
And that's where I was actually born, was in Chicago.
So I would always hear my dad talk about God
his spirits. He talked to his dad about it, you know,
(02:40):
my aunts and uncle. So it was something that really
intrigued me because you know, I want to be like
my dad, right, I still want to be like my dad.
So you know, I knew it was something that I
wanted to bring back at some point in my life. So,
you know, I went into some different industries. I went
into manufacturing and went into the beer industry, but I
still had that itch too to bring this tradition back.
(03:01):
And this is something that my wife, Sarah knew that,
you know, I wanted to do, so you know, she
kind of spearheaded the project and just made sure that
that it came to life. And you know, I'm happy
that that happened because we were at an age where,
you know, we had four kids and it was going
to be very difficult to do if we didn't do
it right then and there. And this was in twenty
(03:21):
twenty one. So once to my father, talked to him,
told him about the project. I thought he'd be super
excited about it, but he really wasn't. You know. My
dad's yeah, I know, my dad's at retirement age. You know,
he doesn't want to work anymore. But I kind of
convinced him, talk to him over and over and over again,
and he finally came along for the ride. And I
needed him there for that because you know that that's
(03:43):
where his background is. You know, he still remembers profile
techniques and stuff like that. So we went down to
New Mexico and we teamed up with the Vivanco family
and our message distiller Sergio Cruz and law Sport tequila
was born.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So when you were growing up, how much so your
dad worked in the in the in the industry obviously,
and then, like you said, moved up to America. How
many of his brothers and sisters stayed back and actually
continued working there.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, so, so my dad was the oldest, so you know,
a couple of his brothers, two three of the brothers
kept doing it for a short period and my grandfather
got sick and they all kind of moved to different places.
So my grandfather moved to Walajada, and you know, he
kind of left the industry behind too.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Right now, I was curious because I'm I was always
wondering how much of it it was still coming back
to you and in your even though like you guys
weren't there, but you may have come and visited and
maybe took some back with you or maybe you know.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's a that's a really good
question because like when my great grandfather started all this.
He had multiple sons and he taught all of them
how to do it right. So you know, my grandfather's
brothers made a godave of spirits and they taught their
sons and they taught their sons. So I have kind
(05:08):
of like, you know, distant cousins that are still making
a gove spirit. So that's where we would get kind
of like our family A gave Spirit from was from
you know, my dad's cousins, and they still make it
till this day. You know, it's it's been in production
now for one hundred years or so. And yeah, it's
very traditionally made and some pretty good juice.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's so crazy to think about, like you know how
many generations back we're doing this and again you can't
get I mean, you can make a gave spirits from
getting it from anywhere, but calling it obviously you have
to get it from this one region. And it's just
so fascinating too, because it's such it's still such an
old process of doing things. But then you have this
(05:54):
new like label of added to free and it's like
it shouldn't have had added to begin with, Like, yeah,
why are we doing what are we.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Doing just correctly? Yeah, yeah, and that's where we pride
ourselves on. Like, you know, when we wanted to make
this profile, you know, my father wanted to make it
as traditional as possible, kind of like what he used
to do in the sixties and seventies. So three ingredients.
The gave wada yeast. Of course, the yeast that they
used at that time was a natural yeast. It was
(06:25):
just open you know to ambient you know, ambient air
and whatever yeast was in the air would get attached
to you know, the fermentation and you know, kick off
the fermentation process. So yeah, very very clean, not a
lot of ingredients, and that's good, you know, I think
that for me at least, you know, that's how the
way tequila was and it should.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Be right exactly. Yeah, I mean there's too many people
really kind of just mucking it up and adding too
much stuff. Like at we said, like obviously there's something
doing additives because you have to have a craze of
no ada it is. So yeah, again, just make it
the clean way that we need to and like that,
just do.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That, yep, agreed, Yeah, yeah, for sure. You see, you know,
the the bigger brands trying to get more consistency out
of tequila. And you know I get that too, but
you know, at the end of the day, that's just
not what lost law is. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Well, also, when we're looking at the alcohol sales, we've
seen such a trend now obviously beer and wine are
going down, even though medello now is the number one
beer in America. But then you know, whiskey, bourbon, and
tequila are the only ones really growing when it comes
to the you know, the market in general on the
growing side of it. Where do you kind of see
(07:44):
that you guys are kind of leading the pack when
it comes to innovation or I mean, you guys have
three different kind of blancos, So like what when it
comes to building this brand, how do you guys kind
of spearhead everything.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, So I come from the beer industry, and innovation
is really be at a beer industry. And so we
we still run a brewery in Chicago, Chicago Land named
the brewery is Sombrella Brewering. We're in Tinley Park, Illinois,
and what we do there is we come up with
new beers every two weeks or so, so you know,
we have to. It's it's not something where you know,
(08:19):
we we can just as a newer brand or as
a newer brewery. You know, we've been there for eight
nine years now. But you know we have to you know,
keep up right. We have to come up with new
things pretty often, and innovation is super cute to us.
So what I decided to do was to you know,
bring that whole idea to the tequila world. So you know,
(08:42):
we do have our core a blancover, psalo and onyo,
but you look at the ingredients and you look at
the process and there's so many different directions that you
can go to come up with a different profile. You know,
that's why we came up with, you know, different blancos.
We have a high prooved blanco that's a forty nine
percent ABV. We have a still string blanco that's at
(09:02):
fifty five percent ABV. So you know, different cuts you
know for a little bit of that different ABV, just
a little bit of a different process, but you know,
you get totally different tequilas. And same thing with the
repisados that we do. There's different barrels that we can use,
and you know, with that we come up with totally
(09:22):
different tequilas.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, you guys had a limited edition the Repisodo that
you guys give out online recently in a beautiful bottle.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
By the way, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Walk us through that Repisodo, And like you said, you
guys are doing different things. And then also how important
it is obviously to engage your fans online because if
they could actually you know, just repost something and tag
you guys and win a bottle of something is very
limited like that, Like who doesn't yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, right, yeah, So it was a pretty special release
for me. I again, I'm from the beer industry, but
I like a lot of you know, different other cause
you know, whether it's tequila, bourbon, whiskey, whatever it may be.
So I'm a big fan of different bourbons. And you know,
(10:10):
probably about a year year and a half ago, I
was in Chicago and I was visiting a bottle ship,
a bottle shop that a friend owns, and you know,
the guy there at the time, the bartender was like, hey,
try Arturo and it was a bourbon that was with
Ambroana wood and it just like totally blew my mind.
(10:33):
And you know, I started thinking, They're like, all right,
what food brought this? A tequila? You know, I don't
know if anyone had done it at that point. You know,
it's We're a small, nimble company, so why not, you know,
take take a chance, right, Let's see if we can
can do this. So, you know, we kind of put
a plan together and yeah, we took our base REPISODEO.
(10:53):
We finished it with Ambarana wood and it came out
to be a really good release for us, so we
didn't make too much of it. It was about two
thousand bottles by the time it came to the US.
It was already sold out, and you know, to get
it sold out at the distributor is one thing, but
to have it sell out at the stores really really quick,
it's a total of the thing. So you know, what
(11:13):
we've seen in the market is it pretty much sold out,
you know, everywhere. So I really don't know many accounts
that have it. I do know a couple of places
here in the Phoenix area that have a little bit
of it. You know, there's stores, there's a lot of
dry through liquor stores over here. So if you know
it's there, like, you get it. If you don't, you know,
(11:34):
there's you can't really walk inside and see that's on
the shelf. So that's kind of like my my honeypot
over there whenever I need a bottle of that limited
repos out, so that's where I go afterwards.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We're the ones in Texas are and I'm gonna try
to find one of myself.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Well I love that you are from the beer background
in the in the you know, the brewery background, because
they that business model is so interesting because of the
fact that you have to buy so much equipment up front,
and then you know, even if there's another brewery that
opens down the street, like, you've got to be on top.
(12:13):
You've got to have your niche. You can't just be
making good beer all the time. Well yes, obviously we
all want to make good beer, and everyone should be
making good beer. But you need to find a reason
why people go to that brewery, which is always so
and that's unfortunately that landlords and you know, sometimes other
things just happen where the breweries don't you know, actually
(12:36):
be able to stay open where they should be. But
the innovation, like you said, is something that really has
been prominent in the beer world, which it's always blending
and morphing. And I love now that we're seeing that
more with the spiritual world as well, because of the
fact that, yeah, we all want tequila, but we all
want this, this and this, but now we can actually
(12:57):
maybe add this to it to where if he makes
this in a drink or you know, whatever you want
to do, it adds even more as opposed to you
even trying to add add even more. How does it
work when it comes to like making cocktails or having
the idea first for the tequila, like what do you
want to do with it? And then maybe afterwards kind
(13:19):
of be like, oh, how do I insert this here?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Does that make sense? Yeah? Yeah, for sure. So I
think that, you know, for different releases, kind of like
the the method that I go through. All right, we have,
you know, three simple ingredients in tequila, right, so we
have the agave, we have the water, and we have
the ease. So the process is different too, depending on
(13:46):
what tequila you make. We're very traditional process, so we
use mature gave, we cook and stoe brick events. We
use a roller met to extract. We fermat with certain
use blends and with those ye's you know. We use
the Mozart method, you know, which is kind of playing
(14:06):
classical music while it's going through fermentation. Then we go
into decilling and we have all our different cuts. You know,
there's the heads that we use, the hearts, the tails
and stuff like that, and then the corres, bottling and aging.
So like, you know, we look at the ingredients first
and we say, okay, well what can we change because
(14:27):
with the agave, you can only use blue Weber agave
in tequila. But you know you could use a mature one,
one that's super ripe. We could use one that's maybe
a little bit younger. It just all depends what we
want to do the hema shave. So like when we're
taking the leaves off, like there's some brands out there
that do a very very close shape where they shape
(14:48):
the pina and it looks almost white because they take
all the green matter off. In our case, it's a
little bit longer. But what if we leave it even longer,
you know, we'll get even more vegetable character. You know,
when we cook, we cook for fifty hours. What if
we cook longer, What if we cook a little bit less?
You know, when it comes to extraction, we do use
a roller mill. We have a town other versions that
(15:11):
it's going to be coming out here soon, which is
a big volcanic wheel that squeezes all the juices out
of the agave. But like, yeah, what if we use
the town What if we use you know, the roller mill,
but we don't pass it through as many times? And
then fermentation, like what yeas are we using? Are we
going to be using a wild yeast? Are we going
to be using a champagne or we're gonna be using
(15:32):
a rum yeast, or we're gonna be using something something
completely else. Is going to be a combination of yeast?
You know, right now we're open, it's ambient temperature when
it ferments, so you know, we can't temperature control anything.
But hey, what if we have a tank there where
we are able to temperature control like we do with beer.
Then from there we could use different types of yeast,
(15:53):
you know, a l east or a logger yeast or
something along those lines. And then when it comes to distillation,
the equipment is very important. We use one hundred percent
popper pots. But you know your cuts man, You know,
for us, since we use a longer pinachhepe, we use
pretty much all the hearts for our cuts. But you know,
if we use a little bit more of the heads
(16:16):
to kind of give it a little bit more superior.
Alcohol is a little bit more flavor and stuff like that.
So there's just so many many variants with this and
permutations that if you make one little change, it could
come out completely different. So that's kind of like what's
going through my mind day in and day out. You know,
I have a brewer background, so you know, I really
(16:39):
really dig deep into ingredients, but I do dig a
lot into process because there's a lot of different things
that we can do. The tequila industry is very traditional.
You know, we're very fortunate to have our massive distiller,
Sergey Cruz, who is kind of like a maverick Inness industry,
and you know, he is am afraid to, you know,
(17:01):
take chances, and they're all calculated chances, but it's still
a chance that they're things that people haven't done before.
So you know, we're very fortunate to have him as
a massive hostiller to kind of support this. You know,
I want to say craziness. It is a little bit crazy,
but just kind of like the overall innovation of what
we're doing.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, I mean, you're I always think that brewing, distilling,
whatever it is, it's a beautiful marriage of like the
science and art together. And so obviously the scientific method
is like you said, you know, just certain ingredients, doing
it this way, making you with this, and then you know,
it seems like you're really learning and nerding out more
(17:43):
on the process of everything, which is great because there's
so many different ways now, especially with technology the way
it is, and also the way we're almost going backwards
sometimes just to see how distilling in the old way
really was as opposed using all the new and fun technology.
You know, you have people that you know, it's like
(18:05):
chefs going out into the woods and just cooking with
fire and that's it, and they're fun with it. So
I think we're having a fun technology like renaissance and
also nostalgia situation where we a lot of people are
going old ways of doing things. And then also we
have so many people going forward and like discovering all
these new different ways to make things faster or more
(18:27):
effective or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, agreed, And I think that's really what
happened to Tequila. Let's say twenty years ago, you know,
when there was an introduction of you know, different processes
of you know, using the diffuser to you know, cook
your tequila and stuff like that, because you know, a
diffuser is not traditional by any means. Is it efficient, absolutely,
(18:53):
but I think that when you use a diffuser, your
your quality suffers a little bit. The yield is awesome,
you know, and that's what a lot of these big
companies want. They want, you know, as much profit as
possible for what they're selling. But for me, it's just
not what what tequila is and it's not what lost
law is. And I have total respect for those companies
(19:13):
that do that. I think a lot of those companies
paved the way for us to you know, more of
introduction and marketing to the category, and they've helped you know,
brands like us, the smaller brands to be where we're
at today, where we actually have a platform. So I
appreciated of them, But again, it's just not what lost
law is. That's good.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
So owning a business with you know, your wife is
probably a rather interesting situation. Is there a safe where
y'all have or where you can turn off work in
personal time or is it kind of just always inter blending?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, I think that for us, you know, we we
work together obviously, but we work in different departments. So
you know, Sarah, she does a lot of the compliance
work for a company we do self import, and she
sets up you know, all the licensing state the state.
We're in just about thirty states at this point. So
(20:10):
I never go into Sarah's world and try to do
anything over there because she'll just kick me out. So
like it when it comes to my world, you know,
she she pretty much respects what I do. But at
the end of the day, Sarah's the boss. So like,
you know, if she wants something, she's gonna get it.
So I just I've learned. Man. I've been with with
Sarah since I was fifteen years old, so yeah, we've
(20:34):
been together for for a long time. It's been twenty
five years now, so yeah, I kind of just I
know how she works and at the end of the day,
she's the boss. So I just kind of listen to her.
So happy wife, happy life. There you go.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
What's so, what's the secret twenty five years that's in
the sanity?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, long time, long time. Yeah, I just you know,
just learn how to work with people, you know, and
you know, when comes when it comes to Sarah again,
I just you know, I think this is in a
lot of marriages and you just you kind of, you know,
figure out how people tick and learn what to do
(21:12):
and what not to do, and you know it's something
not to do, you learn pretty quick and you don't
do it again and you just kind of moved on. Yeah,
it's so true. Yeah, but she's fun. She's fun to
work with. Sarah, She's got a really good sales background
and she's she's pretty smart. So like she's come up
(21:33):
with a lot of a lot of cool ideas and
a lot of cool innovation stuff too. With with with tequila,
She's kind of brought some ideas to me and like, hey,
can we try this and check this out? And I
think they're great. So yeah, we have some tequila stuff
coming up next year that's kind of more related to
her and her thoughts and ideas. Well.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, what so let's I mean? So I want to
go back and ask when you create brand? Obviously the name,
the brand, the logo, what kind of bottle you as
you're going to use, those are obviously all huge factors,
especially in the Spiritus world. How did some of those
decisions kind of come together?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yeah, so we we have you know, some friends and
industry just because we're from the beer industry, right, So
you know, the friend company that worked on over packaging
for beer was in charge of working on the packaging
for for Lost Lore. So he started putting everything together
for us and just showed us, Hey, this is where
(22:33):
I think the identity should go and what the branch
look like. And it's something that both Sarah and I
looked at. You know, Sarah has a really good eye
with design, so you know, she had a lot to
say about it. I'm kind of more of like the
relaxed person who's like, all right, yeah, let's just do it,
let's move forward. But yeah, she had she had like
a lot of feedback. I think overall, you know, we
(22:57):
really didn't deviate much from what the original concept was,
and we're really happy with how the packaging was handled
and how it came out. So you know, our packaging
is important for us. Of course, what's going to be
most important is going to be the juice in the tequila,
but we think that packaging is important. You know, we
invest a lot to develop everything, but you know, every
(23:21):
single expression that we have has a different artwork on it.
So like this is the high proof that we released. Uh,
this was last year, so you could see it's got
one of the larger still which we distill attle first
at the distillery with the Vivancos. You know, this is
our Anieho so Anieho has the town on there and
(23:44):
you know this is more of like explaining the story
of like where my family came from. And that's what
they used to use. They used a big towel on
a rock with just a WHRSEO mule, just you know,
having it go in circles over and over and over again.
And this right here is is the oven. So like
these ovens right here, this is what my family used
all those years ago. You know, we went to where
(24:06):
my father and my grandfather were distilling and suka thikaus
and they're still there and they're carved into the earth.
So it's really interesting to see that type of stuff.
But package is important for us. It's not cheap. The
way we go about things is you know, again getting
you urt work every time. Our artist is not cheap,
(24:28):
but he puts a lot of work into it. He deserves,
you know, what we pay him. So you know, it's
just something that makes Lost Laura a little bit more unique.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I love that. Yeah, you're telling the story with the bottles,
and you know, obviously collect them all and you kind
of get a lot of the story. And that's really
fantastic that you guys doing.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
It that way. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's there's
a lot of people on social they send me messages
and they're just like, yeah, they're like Pokemon Collective, I
want this one and that one in this one and yeah.
We have a hovend that's going to be releasing the
next month and that's got Sergio Cruz on it. And
so I talked to Sergio. I'm like, hey, you're obviously
(25:07):
a very important person to our company. You're a master deciller.
You know, what do you think about having your face
on here? You know what drawing out and he was
super excited about it. So, you know, we worked with
our artists and he drew out, Sergio and he looked
pretty good. So I think he's excited about this release
and you know, having his face on that bottle all
(25:28):
over the US.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, So you talked about you know, obviously that's coming
out in the next couple of months, and you have
some worse things happening. What is the next three to
five years look like? For you guys, because I imagine you
guys are not only just thinking the next year, you're
thinking multiple years down the line.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Now. Yeah, you know I've done this before with with
other businesses, and you know, everything changes so quickly. You know,
I'm not I'm not looking five years on the line.
I'm kind of looking more like, you know, one to
three years down. So obviously we're going to continue our
innovation with different types of tequilas. You know, I really
(26:07):
like different different packaging. I think that there's a small
market for you know, formats that are a little bit
smaller that you know, maybe you can have lost lore
in you know, a little one hundred millimeter or fifty
millimeter bottle or three seventy five something along those lines.
So that's going to be important for me. Of course,
(26:28):
our bottles, all our bottles are artismally made in Mexico
and Tono, Lahlisco, and they use recycled glass bottles. A
lot of them are Coca Cola bottles, so you know,
we have to get a new mold made. And you know,
we just didn't use a bottle that's out there in
a market, you know, a mass produced bottle that's imported
from China. You know, we we we use bottles that
(26:51):
are made there in Mexico and if you look at them,
they're they're very they're very unique. Every every single bottle
is different. You know, it's kind of probably hard to see,
but there's there's a lot of little bubbles and imperfections
in there. And yeah, it's because it's it's all artisically made,
you know. It's if you go to the factory, there's
(27:11):
a lot of people and they're all doing it by hand.
So yeah, I think that different formats, different models, stuff
like that, and then you know what, we'll see what happens.
I mean, we have a lot of friends in the
beer industry, and we're starting to get some friends in
it's silly industry. I think collaborations are pretty important. That's
something that I'm taking from the beer world. So you know,
(27:32):
we have some already in a pipeline, some collaborations that
we're going to do for twenty twenty six. But yeah,
I think that as long as you know, I'm having
fun with it, you know, we'll just kind of keep
moving along with the innovation and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's awesome. Yeah, I think we need more innovation when
it comes to the Spirits world because obviously there's so
many just brands that just do the one thing and
that's it, and that's fine, but you know, yeah, you
ever know, it's also like a weird social media thing.
You never know what's going to hit and what's going
to land with people.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
So if you do a.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Collaboration with somebody and they're like, oh, I know this person,
but I've never heard of this, so let me go,
you know, try this out, and then then they start
talking more about you, that's fantastic because that crossover is
so great. It's worked out so well in every format,
you know, whether it be entertainment or even the Spirit's
Brewery world. So that's always great. And then, like you said,
(28:27):
in the different sizes and like the different packaging and
all that, you know, people were like, oh what is
you know, you never know what's going to catch somebody's eye.
Otherwise you're just that static bottle that's on the shelf.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah. Yeah, and everyone is different, right, Like, you know,
we have these legacy brands that they just focus on
on a core. You know, some of them don't even
make an an yeho. You know, they may just have
one tequila and or a lineup, and that's totally fine.
There's nothing wrong with that. Again, we're just we're built
a little different, you know, because our background and what
(29:01):
we've been through. So, you know, I think for us,
innovation is is definitely key. And you know, I think, yeah,
the general consumer right now, what we're seeing is, you know,
they want to try different things, you know, and it's
not only in tequila. You may have someone you know
who drinks tequila today, drinks beer tomorrow, drinks whiskey the
(29:23):
day after that, maybe they take a week break and
they go back to something else like wine. You know,
they're they're they're kind of all all over the place.
And you know, I do the same thing. I still
drink beer. You know, I like beer. I drink it often.
You know, I drink tequila and I like whiskey and bourbon.
So you know, I'm not you know, I think the
(29:45):
days of a consumer being loyal to hey, I'm only
drinking this category or only this brand, I think those
days are over. I think that people are looking more
at quality right now. They want quality products. So when
it comes to tequila, know, I had a conversation with
Sergio Levanco the other day, and you know, we're talking
about just overall quality of tequila and where it is
(30:08):
now compared to where it was. And he's telling me
that when he gets together with his friends, Philippe coming
in or Carlos coming in, or whoever it is, you know,
they're not just drinking G four. They're not just drinking
Viva Mexico. It's like, all right, we're going to drink,
you know, whatever whatever we feel like drinking today, as
(30:28):
long as it's quality. So sometimes it is Viva Mexico.
Sometimes it's Stapatillo, sometimes it's G four. It just changes.
I think what they're most focused on right now is
the quality.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, as people should be. Yeah, well I have a
second Mona show. I call it the five Countants, just
five random questions. Yeah, you can do a Ted talk
on anything.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
What would it be? I think communication. I think that
a lot of issues that we see within our company,
our industry, with marriages, with you know, dating, a lot
of issues come from from communication. So I think it's
(31:11):
always good to understand where people are coming from and uh,
you know, communicate with them and you know, just just
just not be an asshole, you know, just just be,
you know, very understanding of people. You don't have to
agree with everything that people say, but I think that,
you know, at the same time, you know, you got
(31:31):
to communicate what you're feeling and the reasons why they
should see it that way too. Not fight with people,
just communicate. And I think that if if that happened,
you know, they'd be probably a lot less conflict in
this world. So I think communication is key.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, and most of communications listening.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
So yes, yep, exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Uh, if you were a progress or MMA fighter, what
would your name be?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Yeah, I love this one. So I think that I'm
a big fan of uh. So, I think I think
Lucha Libre is awesome. I'm a big wrestling fan. You know,
a w W W w W back in the day.
(32:19):
We have a huge fan who's a wrestler, Dax Harwood
of a fan of y'all, huge fan.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
He loves he.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Loves to kill that. So we're always chatting and stuffing.
So I think that, you know, for me, it would
be something more related to the Lucha Libre world, probably like, uh,
something with my name, so, something crazy. I have no clue,
but let's let's say R two D two kind of like.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
If there's a way, Yeah, if there's a way to
do it to where you don't get sued, I think
that's a fantastic pit.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Yeah right, the whole Dak's thing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
They're in Chicago for a while, I think the whole
almost month of August, so I got have a feeling
something happen.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yeah. Yeah, No, there's gonna be some some cool things
coming up that I can't release right now, but between
you know us and up t R, so keep on
the lookout.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Well, if you all want to come on the show,
I am obviously more than welcome back.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I think that's so cool. Yeah, we'll definitely, you know,
next time I chat to and chat with Dex, well,
we'll definitely bring it up and try to make it happen.
That would be fantasy. I would love that.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I've been trying to get him in tequila and something
involved for for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Esome.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, what was your favorite band when you were a
kid versus now?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Uh? So, I'm very I guess different and weird when
it comes to music. You know, I grew I'm a
Mexican American. You know, I grew up in Chicago. That's
where I was born, So My background was a lot
with with Cordegueo's right, So bands like they get is
(34:10):
the North Day and you know, artists like Chadin Ma
Sanchez and you know, when I was growing up, I
listened to that because of my parents, but I listened
to a ton of hip hop too and then metal,
Like I love metal, a huge metal ad. So I
would say like right now at this moment, you know,
(34:34):
I really like a band that's called Municipal Waste. So
they're kind of like a new age thrash band. So
I listened to a ton of their stuff. I'm a
big thrash fan. Uh. So you know there's even like
you know, crossover thrash and stuff like that that I
listened to. Uh There's there's a band actually from Texas,
(34:55):
power Trip, you know, and they have.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
A oh I feel like I've heard that I've heard
of them.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Yeah, yep, So they have a new lead singer. You know,
the original league team are unfortunately pass away, but they're
going on tour again and you know, I was supposed
to go see them in Vegas something happening that was
bummed out. But yeah, I think that thrash thrash bands
in Missival waste is probably what I'm listening to to
most right now. So that was that was, that's now.
(35:21):
And yeah, when I was a kid, I think man,
Bone Thugs and Harmony. I'll throw it out there, listen
to a lot of hip hop and man I own
their albums, and I would listen to that, you know,
for hours every weekend. So i'd say bone thucks.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, if it's not the first of the monthing, you're
not blasting that, then I don't know, Yeah, right, who
are what inspires you?
Speaker 3 (35:47):
M M. You know, my Dad's really important to me,
and so I think, you know, you can have all
these people that you know, you look up to and
that you may not know. Obviously, I know my dad.
He's my dad, right, and you know my dad is
always you know, taking care of us, so you know,
(36:07):
obviously he came to the US to give himself more opportunity.
You know, my mom and me and my sister, and like,
my dad's always taken care of us. So you know,
this whole project is a tribute to him. You know,
he's he's always worked his ass off for us. So yeah,
I think that he's he's my superhero for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I love that and what would you tell your seventeen
year old self?
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Oh, man, what wouldn't I say? I think there's a
bunch of stuff. So yeah, I think, Uh, I think
when I was seventeen, like I I always focused on
kind of like what people thought of me, right, like
when you're in high school, you're you're there's you're you're
(36:55):
very impressionable and this and that. And you know, now
that I'm forty, like I give two ships about what
people think of me. I think I think you're great, John,
you know, thanks, man, appreciate that. But like you know,
there's there's a lot of yeah, people out there that
(37:16):
just are aren't going to be fans. And that's just life.
That's how life is, you know, whether it's friends, families, people,
you don't know, whatever. Maybe, And I think if you
get caught up in it, like you know, you you
kind of get down on yourself and feel like bad
for being yourself and then you shouldn't you know, you're
yourself for a reason. Yeah, So I think for me
(37:36):
is yeah, just just just be yourself, man, you know,
don't listen to other people and be yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, you're one of a kind for a reason.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yeah, exactly, now, but people want.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
To find out more about y'all, follow you online obviously
by lost lower Where can they do all the things?
Speaker 3 (37:53):
I think the best thing is going to be social media,
So I ru on the Instagram at Facebook account. You know,
it's a ton of work for me. I really haven't
been active on the TikTok account. Now that I have
a little bit more calm here, I probably, you know,
do a little bit more stuff on TikTok, But I
would say Instagram definitely, Instagram, Facebook, and you can figure
(38:13):
out what's going on with our brand. Of course, our
website to lost Wortequila dot com. There's information about the
brand there, there's places where you can buy, it shows
you where we distribute. It's a lot of good information.
But between those two, the website and social media, I
think that it's probably gonna be the best place awesome start.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
I've loved this so much. I can't wait to see
where you guys go in the future. And then obviously,
please let me know what's going on at the FTR
because I was. I saw them live this past Saturday
at all In, and I can't wait to see what
they're doing with Tequila in the future.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Hell yeah, man, they're super entertaining, so we'll definitely keep
in touch with this this whole thing. But yeah, man,
thank you. I really appreciate the invite. I mean this
was super fun. You know. I think I like the
conversations that you're at or awesome. Man. Yeah, I really
appreciate you. So thank you, John, thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Thank you so much Arturo for being on the show again.
Make sure you get your hands on some Lost Lord
tequila if you can when you can, because even the
special editions are selling out very quickly. And as he
talked about, I'm very much looking forward to this FTR
collaboration and seeing what's going on with that. So we'll
find out on social media. While you follow them, and
make sure to follow us. It is bruisers Pod. That
is b R E W S C R S p
(39:38):
O D on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter.
If you want to send us an email, it is
Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you want to follow
me directly, it is Roddy John. That is R O
D I E j O N. Roddy John is the
name on the Twitter and an untut in case you
want to find on I'm drinking, Maybe me and have
a beer together. If you want to follow me on
the threads or the Instagram, it is official Ordy John.
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink
(40:00):
local and cheers
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Three two one
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