Latest / The Bubble Lounge (Highland Park & University Park Texas) / Celebrating National Tequila Day with Pablo Antinori Co-Founder of Socorro Tequila

Transcript

Celebrating National Tequila Day with Pablo Antinori Co-Founder of Socorro Tequila · The Bubble Lounge (Highland Park & University Park Texas)

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the Bubble Lounge.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Martha Jackson, and today is National Tequila Day.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by sitting down with one of the founders behind one of my absolute favorite tequila brands, Secura Tequila.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_04: These Dallas founders launched their company in 2020, right as the world was shutting down and somehow managed to turn a wild idea into one of the fastest growing tequila brands out there.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_04: You've probably seen Sakura popping up at your favorite local spots and most recently on American Airlines flights.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I ordered it on my flight this week and I felt extremely on brand.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_04: But here's the twist.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_04: This isn't just another tequila story.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_04: With every case of tequila they sell, they donate a case of water to orphanages and nursing homes in Jalisco, Mexico through their case-for-case program.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_04: And while they're not the type of guys to shout about it from the rooftops, trust me, it's a huge part of what makes the brand so special.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_04: Get ready for a fun behind-the-scenes conversation with Pablo, one of the founders of Socuro, who is bringing heart, hustle, and really good tequila to the world one bottle at a time.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: Let's pour a glass and jump in.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: Pablo, welcome to the show.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh, you know, today my purpose, because it's National Tequila Day.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: By the end of this podcast, you're not gonna be Martha, you're gonna be Martita.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: Martita.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like it?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's cute.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I have to tell you how I found out about Socorro because I have been dying to meet you guys.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_04: Two years ago, I think it was, I saw a write-up from my friend Kirsten Redding and Park City's People newspaper about these two local Dallas guys that started this tequila company, and it just really caught my eye.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_04: And then my husband and I went to the liquor store and we bought four different tequilas, including Socora.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_04: We went home and he did a blind taste test for me.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: So I had no idea what I was drinking.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_04: And there's this certain one that I remember smelled really gross, and it came in dead last of our little contest.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yours, however, came in first.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I was so surprised to find out the one that smelled bad and tasted bad was a certain tequila brand that we're all brainwashed to think is the Be All Lindel.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: That is um amazing to hear.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's music in my ears.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Every time somebody talks to me about tequila, and then they say something so cool like that, almost bring, you know, tears to my eyes.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: We put so much energy and time into making our juice.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, the way that you did it is actually how we sell our stuff all the time.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we go to buyers and they're like, just taste it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but taste it against whatever you already have or whatever you already like.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh, I wish I can tell you a hundred percent winning trade, but it's 90%.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm okay with that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: So you know that that's really cool.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I absolutely love your brand so much that you guys did a little sponsorship for our six-year anniversary party last year, and you created two signature drinks for my party, and everyone got such a kick out of it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: They absolutely loved it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: But I want to know how it all started.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_04: How do you even come up with creating your own tequila brand?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: You probably heard this before, but usually, you know, for us it was uh passion, right?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: We had a big passion, Josh, which is my business partner, and myself, we don't have a lot in common.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, obviously, you can tell by my accent, I'm not from here.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but um we had uh one thing in common, which is the love for uh agave spirits and tequila mainly.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I was working for a big distributor here in Dallas, uh, number one in the US, and I was managing the multicultural market for Texas.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Josh was selling tequila for um the central US for another brand.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, we met um this way.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: We met selling.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: He came into our GSM, which is a general sales meeting, uh, and he said, Who wants to work with me?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I raised my hand, I said, I want to work with you, and let's go sales and tequila together.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how it started.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: The friendship, uh, work relationship.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, one night, this was uh early 2018, you know, Josh and I already met for like knew each other for about two and a half years, almost three years.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, we as as uh part being part of the industry, alcohol industry, you get to enjoy some tequilas here and there.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: I would think so.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you go and you one restaurant and have one, and then go to the next next next restaurant and another one or two, and you know, by the end of that day, um, we probably see too many restaurants, and uh which is which is a fun part of selling um alcohol or tequilas in this case.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: I told Josh, I said, How about if we stop selling other people's juice or other and then see if we can start our own?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Within two seconds, Josh went, Hell yeah, let's do it.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do this.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know when you are meeting with friends or having fun and then you daydream about opening a restaurant, open a business, and just stays there on that conversation.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it goes next.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Next day I call him, I said, Josh, um, are you really into this idea or we're just daydreaming?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then he said, Um, I couldn't stop thinking about it since last night.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: It was meant to be.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: That same day we booked a trip to Jalisco and the Highlands of Jalisco mainly to figure out if we're gonna, this dream was doable.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we took another trip and another trip, and then we realized it was doable.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're probably closer to 2019 after many, many trips, finding, knocking on distilleries.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're just two guys from um, you know, not none of us come from money or saying, like, hey, we don't have this three million dollars to open this company or whatsoever.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we uh we find an amazing place to believe in our um our mission and what we want to do.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um, here we are, we just turned five years in April, so in the market.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: I want to share an experience we had with SA oral surgeons because it made such a difference for us.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_04: Last holiday break, my daughter, who's in college, needed her wisdom teeth out.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_04: So we booked with S.A.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oral Surgeons.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: From the very start, I felt like we were in the best hands possible.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: I can't say enough about how comforting it was to know that they don't use opioids.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: It really put my mind at ease.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_04: Walking into the office, it felt so warm and welcoming.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: The staff was fantastic, so kind, patient, and reassuring.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: They just have this way of making you feel like you're at home, which was such a relief for both of us.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_04: Watching my daughter go through the procedure without worry and seeing how smoothly everything went, it was just a huge weight lifted.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: Dr.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: Stewart and Dr.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_04: Orango have such an impressive reputation, and it's clear why they're best in big D winners.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_04: They offer a full range of services from both kids and adults, and they're right here in the neighborhood, located at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest Avenue.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_04: If you're looking for top-notch care and skilled hands you can trust, I really recommend SA Oral Surgeons.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: Just head to sasurgeons.com to learn more or book an appointment.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: That's sasurgeons.com.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: It made all the difference for us.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm curious, with all that tequila drinking that you did and taste testing and all, who handles their tequila better, you or Josh?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Me.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: 100% me.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but um, he's very good at it, too.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I can imagine.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we go very, very happy.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're but very happy drunk people.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_04: So well, what's the proper way to drink Socorro?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: The way that I drink it, the way that I love drinking, I usually drink blanco.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Blanco is my cup of tea.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Is I tell people blanco is the one that I abuse all the time.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: So um, blanco, ice, and topo chico, no lime.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like a lot of lime on my uh tequila.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I like to taste the tequila, so that's how I drink mine.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, socorro is it's so mixable palomas, margaritas, even espresso martinis.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're if you're a tequila drinker and don't want vodka and you're espresso martini, ask for it with tequila.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's delicious.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I've never heard anyone do that.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you get two uppers, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: You get tequila, which is naturally an upper, and then you get coffee.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you're really hyped up.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what's the most unexpected or crazy place you've seen Socora being served?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is a great question.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um now um this year, obviously, this has been uh something that we have grow little by little.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: We actually told you five years ago, um, we launched in April of the pandemic.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: So first month of the pandemic, uh, it was March, and then we launched in April.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it was crazy.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: So um our main story or main plan was to attack restaurants, and that way we can, you know, you know, have people requesting our product in liquor stores and grow that way.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, restaurants were all closed.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we went to mom and pop's liquor stores and you know, try to do that whole like, hey, let me taste these here and there.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: So but you know, going back to the question, um you know, now you find Socorro in so many places.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: I know, I see it everywhere.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's uh, but you know, I was in Houston uh not too long ago, and then I walk into this restaurant um uh and then Socorro was there, and then people loved it, and then it's so um it was it it was a Mexican restaurant with seafood.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's like seafood from Sinaloa, which is even even crazier to think about, right?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then not none of our team members sold it, it was just there.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that was exciting.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was um yeah, obviously I had a couple.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: I would think so.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_04: So when you go into a restaurant and you see it, do you say, that's my tequila?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I try to be quiet.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: I feel I'm comfortable.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to draw attention.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't want I say I'm with socorro, I don't say I own socorro.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: It feels to me like um I'm proud of it, but I'm not just like um I usually say like, oh, I worked with socorro and keep it, keep it on this keep it like on the low.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: I don't blame you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: I don't blame you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when I'm selling it into a liquid store, people ask me, hey, can can you sign my bottle?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I could, I I will, but if like I'm not used to it, so you know it feels like um how you call it imposter syndrome.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Imposter syndrome, yeah.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of people have it.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_04: So so since it's National Tequila Day, let's talk about tequila in general, just the different kinds and the whole process going from plant to our glass.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: How does it all happen?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: One one of the reasons why tequila is so cool, or like any agave spirit in reality, is um because of the process is so long, right?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you plant the agave today, it's gonna take you between five and six years just to harvest it.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's different, right?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you think about wine, you got the plant.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: If the plant grows, it takes about four years, five years for that vine to give you good grapes, but then uh you don't kill the plant.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: You harvest grapes out of the same plant every year.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: For agave, for you to harvest it, you have to kill the plant.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to, you know, grow a new one.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's amazing to think about um only.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: But then that's it starts, right?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: You plant an agave, you use uh tequilana blue weber, which is the only agave plant that you use to make tequila.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you hear blue agave all the time, so 100% blue agave.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then after you harvest this plant, then you gotta transform you take all the leaves out of the plant and then keep the corazon or the heart of the plant called pina, and then you cook that pina.
• 11:50
  unknown: Okay.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then this cooking process um you transform all the starches into sugars, and after that, you separate those sugars from the fibers, and then you use that to start the fermentation process.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um we there's different ways to cook agave.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the most traditional is gonna be um it's called a traditional brick oven, which you think about about this room becoming an oven, so it's made out of bricks or adobe or volcanic rock.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you cook that.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: We cook it in the oven for about 48 hours.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then you have an auto clave, which is same cook the same way, which is steam, but think about a pressure cooking pot.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: So there's no room for the steam to go away, so it cooks faster, so in about eight hours.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last one is um a diffuser.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So you heard diffuser is like the you know, more on the chemical process uh kind of stuff.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So um I would say stay away from diffuser tequilas, but you know, at the end of the day you drink what you like.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you know after that, you know, the fermentation takes about four days, and then you grab the fermentation process and you take that juice and then do a distillation.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: By law, tequila needs to be distilled twice.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you distill this the juice twice and then you get tequila.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: So wow, that's it, huh?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, only yeah, it's it's it's uh it's fascinating.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know it's very fascinating.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you if you really are into tequila and um and want to know more, there's so many good videos in in Instagram or you know, YouTube for you to go look.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And but if you're really, really into it, uh yeah, come to Jalisco.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_04: When it comes to caring for aging parents, families in the park cities want more than just health.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: They want someone they can truly trust.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's why I want to introduce you to someone that I've come to know and respect, Adam Lampert.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: He's the CEO of Cambridge Caregivers, and his team is setting a new standard for in-home care in our community.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Martha.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: At Cambridge Caregivers, we believe that care should feel like an extension of the family.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Our caregivers aren't just qualified, they're truly exceptional.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: And every one of the 300 members of our team are full W-2 employees, which means they're fully trained, they're insured, background checked, and held to the highest standard.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: We never outsource to contractors.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: That should give families real peace of mind and allows us to offer that concierge service that the people of Highland Park and University Park have come to expect.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: I've seen firsthand how much trust and connection matter when it comes to caring for loved ones.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what makes Cambridge different.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_04: They show up on time, treat your parents like their own, and communicate every step of the way.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's the kind of care every family in Highland Park deserves.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: To learn more or schedule a consultation, visit Cambridge Caregivers.com or give them a call at 214-649-9922.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_04: That's 214-649-9922.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: Cambridge Caregivers, exceptional care, just around the corner.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what about the different types?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: You brought a really interesting bottle to me, which I am so appreciative of.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_04: So, and I typically drink blanco, but there's several different types.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you got in by law, again, I'm I'm going back to the law place, but uh you have five different barrels.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: So one's gonna be blanco, which is age an age or age up to 59 days, then you got reposado, which is gonna be age between two months and twelve months.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: After 12 months and before three years, that becomes an añejo, and after three years, an extra añejo.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Also, you got one called joven, which is a blend of blanco and something else.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: So if you grab blanco and then add some reposado or some añejo or extra ajo, then that becomes a joven.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that's um the fifth one.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: You don't see a lot of jovens out there, um, but you know, they're catching up.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: They're people are making more jovens nowadays.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: And tell me about this one that you brought.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this one is our Socorro, um, we call it Reserva de Pablo.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is our five years extraño with it because we turned five years this year, uh, and then we did a special release, only 600 bottles, and then you got one of them.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: Mine is 513.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: I am so excited.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you gotta play that uh five and 13 and next time you're in the casino.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's a great idea.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: Well, so tell me how you will be celebrating National Tequila Day.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_04: What will you be drinking?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_04: Where will you be?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: What are you gonna be doing?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: I would call this my second birthday.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's April 14th is the first one, and then July 24 is my second birthday.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I celebrate like there's no other, um, not only because I'm so proud of the juice we make, and um, I myself, you know, have the chance in this out of the company to have my hands on all the time.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: I go to Jalisco every other week.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I was there this week, I'm going again next week.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, I'll be seeing all my restaurants, my favorites, and drinking tequila, neat, and you know, obviously you have to have some chips and queso and guacamole and all the good stuff that goes along with tequila.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: But um uh I would say that's the best way.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Friends, family, tequila, and great food.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: Well, do you have a go-to toast that you like to say when you're sharing teacher?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you you heard this one before.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like uh, you know, arriva, abajo, al centro, and adentro means to the top, to the bottom, to the center, and you know, inside.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'll probably that's the the translation.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, that's that's what I will say every time.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I love it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: Well, so I was on an American Airlines flight this week and I'd already heard your really big news.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: And it's so exciting that they're now serving Sakuro on American Airlines.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_04: That is really amazing.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's been so fun following you guys on social media and for the past couple of years.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_04: And when I saw that, I was so excited for you.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Small company.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: We could tiny company.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're tiny company from Dallas, Texas, and we got to be in American Airlines.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was taking his 400, no, 4,724 flights a day.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that is insane.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, think about that exposure.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_04: But tell me about that process because I know big corporations like that don't move fast.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: How long did this whole process take?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it took us a couple years.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: So everything starts with a crazy idea.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was um as I go to Jalisco every other week and I'm on the plane.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Usually I fly American.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm on the way there, and I noticed that they don't have a tequila in the menu.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and they haven't had not at all, and they haven't had tequila in a long time.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I reach out to a good friend of mine and I know she used to work for American, and I said, uh, give me a number, give me something that I can contact.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously um we call that person and was like, you know, we happen to start an RFP, which is the process of finding, you know, the item for for whatever they're looking for.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and then we throw our name on a hat, and and happened, that was two years ago, and that person was managing this RFP, uh, went somewhere else and they put everything on pass.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have Lindsay, which is, you know, our one of our you know, she's the best.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: She really is, yeah.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: She's very good at following up.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: So for the next year and a half, every month, she sent an email following up on this RFP.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then we got um, she got an email this January saying, um, hey, we taking this again and uh come and drop some samples tomorrow.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're like, whoa, those out of the blue, amazing.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we dropped some samples.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're in competition with another, I think, seven or eight tequilas, some big brands and big corporations.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: In um early March, uh, we got an email saying that we won.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: We uh we got awarded a tequila, and then you know, we asked the question, how?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we're no one, right?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then they say it was um based on taste profile.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh we have uh, you know, uh we taste all the tequilas and you went to the final, it was between you and another brand, and then we everyone tasted and everyone voted for you.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you got you got the tequila, so it was amazing.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great day for us.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Insane to think about it.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh, that just gave me chills.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm so excited for you, and I love that they picked a smaller company.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_04: I know it was based on taste, but I'm a real big supporter of small local businesses, and I like that they picked, you know, the smaller guy.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Me too.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh every day I, you know, like I say, I'm on a plane quite often and I see it and I order, and then uh it's it's uh I call the American Airlines dream.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, so it's insane to think about it.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: So I know when I ordered it, I said, I know these guys that that made this, and the flight attendant just looked at me like I was crazy, but you know, it's all good.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: It was quite tasty on the plane.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: I enjoyed it.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: Remember when the big freeze happened and it seemed like every house in the neighborhood had pipes bursting, floors ruined, and drywall falling throughout the house.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_04: Well, if this ever happens to you, don't stress.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: When emergencies strike, just call mother.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_04: Mother Modern Plumbing's master technicians are always ready to swoop in, tackle the crisis with precision, and leave your home looking cleaner than they found it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_04: And with their high-end tools, rapid response, attention to detail, and professionalism, you're never left high and dry.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_04: So next time your plumbing throws a tantrum, take a deep breath and remember, call mother at callmother.com.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_04: I highly recommend them.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_04: Well, let's get back to you started your business during an awful time for everyone during the pandemic.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: You literally launched right when that happened.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: What was that like?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: Like, did that end up working to your favor, or was did it make things harder for you?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So picture this.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um in Arandas, which is Halli.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: School bottling our first batch.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Excited as you can imagine, right?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: We put all this work before we got to the place where we bottled our first batch, and Josh calls me and he's like, bro, they just close every restaurant in Texas, and I think the US.
• 22:20
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm like, okay.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: I get we still gonna you know bottle what we have in front of us, but um, you know, we have to grab our like I told you earlier, what we had business business plan to attack restaurants, so we ripped that apart and we went to every mom and pop liquor store, and every day we hustle the we lean on we were a shoulder for restaurants to cry on because I would go to every restaurant every day and you know order lunch and tip a hundred dollars because you know, people are in need of the tips and stuff like that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: So um, and all these people I knew for a long time, and they're all friends of mine.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I gotta go support the people when they need it the most.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: So but in the afternoons, and you know, we go sell to restaurants, I mean to Lakor stores, and we did tastings, you know, so many it illegal tastings.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: You have no idea.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: I won't tell.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: We don't tell anyone.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're in there wearing a mask, kind of like you wanna try something gila, and everyone's like, okay.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it was like, uh, and that's how we did it.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, luckily, I say this is all the time.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: We live in Texas and uh within no time restaurants open at you know 75%, 50%, and uh we back on track setting to restaurants, and it's been a success since um since year one.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's um Josh says something that um I really like.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: It says you never know um who you are until you put you know it's you're back against a corner.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh either you fight or you just go down, and you know, we we saw what we had and we f we fought every day and and we made it happen.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I bet you learned a lot about both of yourselves during that time period.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't easy, it wasn't easy.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm um I'm gonna tell you a secret.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not very good, I'm not very organized.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Josh is very organized, and I was like, we're splitting our things to do, and I was like on charge of doing invoices and this and that, and you know, I dropped the wall a couple of times, and um, that's why Lindsay came into the picture and you know save we can save our marriage, if you can call it that way.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_04: She's very organized, she's extremely on top of things.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: Well, so looking forward, what is next for you guys?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: As we had to open other states because we had to open states where American Ireland is a hub.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, think about Illinois, Florida, California.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna start um, you know, opening states little by little.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a couple of weeks ago we're in Chicago, and hopefully we can, you know, go to Chicago soon enough and um you know put our head down and enjoy this, right?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think the most exciting thing about selling tequila is actually doing it, actually selling it.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't want to open 20 estates tomorrow because then we'll be on all the fun.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I want to have the fun, right?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be in front of people.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: I want to train our team.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if we go, if we grow too fast, then that's not the case.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you can lose track of everything.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_04: And it sounds like you're just kind of, you know, taking it kind of gradually and just enjoying every moment along the way.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's awesome.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: I thank you.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I said right now it's Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and then we opened Tennessee early this year.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then it seems that we're gonna add Chicago soon enough.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_04: Very nice, very nice.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know about you, but when my teenagers started driving, I was a nervous wreck.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: So many things that could go wrong, and God forbid they get into an accident.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: Sure, we have car insurance, but for some young drivers, the monthly insurance can be higher than the car payment.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: That's why we're excited to announce that State Farm is lowering their car insurance rates, and you should call our good friend Kathy L.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: Wall with State Farm on Lovers Lane in Dallas.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_04: You see, Kathy and her team don't just sell car insurance.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: They sell peace of mind.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_04: So if an accident happens, they're actively working on your claim so you can put that accident behind you.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_04: And best of all, Kathy will personally talk with your teen driver with some straight talk that will help them appreciate the driving privilege you have provided them.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're tired of high rates for auto insurance, please call our good friend Kathy L Wall State Farm at 214-350-2692 or visit her website at KathyLwall.com and let her know, Martha from the Bubble Lounge, isn't you?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: So, Pablo, I'm a big cocktail person.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_04: I absolutely love them.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, I will often pick a restaurant based on the cocktails that they have if there's something interesting and unique and different.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_04: So we all know, you know, palamas and margaritas, we make those with tequila, but do you have anything interesting that most of us may not know about?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, I like your style.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I usually choose vacations based on food and beverage more than whatever museum I gotta go see.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, my I'm gonna, and I'm gonna probably give you uh a recipe for a margarita, but I love this recipe because it's simple and it's unique.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's low carbs, low sugar.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's my favorite.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I do it's an easy to remember.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: So two ounces of tequila, usually I like blanco, but reposado would be amazing as well.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Then one ounce of lime juice and half an ounce of agaver nectar.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing else.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, shake it hard.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, make sure that you get a little dilution into the cocktail, and it's phenomenal.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna text me like Paula has six of these already.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why why are they so good?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, but everything else, I I love um you don't want thing that is unusual, and then I I think um it eventually will catch up.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tequila martinis, which is blanco shaking hard on a mart, like a little bit of driver mood and a couple of olives, nothing else.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_04: So good.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I've been drinking martinis all summer long.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: I am gonna order that next time.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, be like, do it with a blanco, obviously, only socorro.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh absolutely, and then shake it hard, and then uh you're gonna enjoy it.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's delicious.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I'm excited to try that.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_04: What about as far as what kind of foods should we eat?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_04: What goes best with tequila?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we're in the middle of the summer, right?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, the summer is about to start.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: July, no.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're July 24th, so middle of the summer.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I will say always seafood.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: I love um a good ceviche with blanco.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Ceviche goes amazing with blanco.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're looking for reposado in a good mole, uh, either chicken with mole or steak with mole would be delicious.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love lamb with a um there's so many different ways that you can you know enjoy tequila while eating.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I will I will concentrate in this time of the year and matching your blanco with an amazing fresh ceviche, even if the ceviche has a little mango or watermelon, even better.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, that sounds amazing.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_04: Is there anywhere here in Dallas that you recommend for that?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Many places.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: You would be surprised.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: We have such a we're not uh too close to the ocean, but our seafood is amazing in Dallas.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then there's so many Mexican restaurants are doing some phenomenal ceviches.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I like Jose.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Jose is always some fresh um agua chile or ceviche in there.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's always good.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be my place usually when I'm trying to eat something fresh like that.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_04: That would be your place.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, I'm a native Texan, and so many of us we don't understand that Tex Mex isn't actually Mexican food, you know.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_04: Is there do you have any like authentic Mexican that you really like?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: So if you notice, I didn't give you any recommendations when it comes to chile con carne or sauerkraut.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: But Mexican restaurants, well, it's there's this hole in the wall that I love.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: Those are the best.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's in uh right on Walnut Hill in 35.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's called El Paisano, and it's it's crazy because you walk in there and it's almost like a cafeteria.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: They give you a tray and they have like you pick two sides and two uh stews, like kind of like guisado.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: They have like pork and green salsa, or then they have like picadillo and all that good stuff that place, and then for I think less than ten dollars, you get a full plate of amazing.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh! I usually go black beans, rice, I love um chicharrón and salsa roja, which you really like, a red sauce, and then I love um the pork with the pork rivelets with the green salsa, delicious.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_04: And do they have cocktails at this place?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: They have beer, so I don't have cocktails, but you know it uh beer is always fun to pair with Mexican food.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sure.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: I say all the time because um when I'm at the distillery some after a long day, you know, I like to enjoy a cold beer.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I said all the time that it takes a lot of beer to make great tequila.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_04: Oh that's a great quote.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: Well, speaking of restaurants, you guys have recently done something really special with someone.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, our very good friends and amazing people from Duro Hospitality.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we launched or they we created between it's a great collaboration between them, myself, and their staff.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we did a uh Joven Tequila just for them.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Joven Duro Hospitality or Duro, and it's in every restaurant, it's phenomenal.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, it's a little bit different for our very close to Socoro, it's just a little more peppered and it has a little bit of Anyho in there as well.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, every who doesn't love duro hospitality?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: All the restaurants are amazing.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, which you have a favorite from their group?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, I really don't.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: You're right.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you can't go wrong with any of them.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, the Charles, you got it, OG, you gotta go in there at least a couple times a year to enjoy their food.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but oh, Mr.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: Charles is it's phenomenal, and I haven't been in a really long time.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like you're you're giving me so many good ideas of what to drink and what to eat.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you gotta go in there.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: And they just open one in Fort Worth called the Ch the Cham Lee, if I if I got it right.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then I haven't been there, but Josh has been there and they told me it's the best one.
• 32:17
  unknown: Yeah.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: So next time you're in Fort Worth, I don't know how often I'm a Fort Worth native, actually.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_04: I have family there.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_04: So next time you gotta go.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: Another reason.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's by the new by the Crescent Hotel.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's a new Crescent in Fort Worth, so um it's in there.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: So wow.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you tell me.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'll go together.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: We know when you're there, we can, you know, do the usual five cocktails before lunch and five cocktails after lunch.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_04: I'm with you.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_04: I knew that we'd be best friends by the end of the show.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, see, now I I can call you Martita now.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: See, we went full full circle with that one.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it has been so fun talking to you, Pablo.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: Like I said, I've been wanting to meet you guys for two years now, and you lived up to all my expectations.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was great meeting you, and um, I wasn't kidding about let's just get together, let's do some some good cocktail training and cocktail drinking anytime.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm I'm outside, out there every day.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you text me, Pablo, where you are, I'll send you my restaurant location, and then you come and join us cocktails.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: I love it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: I am there, I'm all over that.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Martha Jackson, and I'll see you next time.