Tequila Milagro Canada Launch Part 2

Male Hi Ron welcome back to LeGourmet TV. Today we’re here at the Vertical Restaurant in Toronto with Daniel from Milagro Tequila for the Canadian launch of your product, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about your company? Daniel Schneeweiss: Okay, my name is Daniel Schneeweiss I'm coming from Mexico and we’re very happy to be here in Toronto launching Tequila Milagro into the Canadian market. Our company just turned 10 years, and we’re very excited. The company has been in distribution with our tequila in the United States and Mexico, Costa Rica, Russia some other markets but now it’s the time for Canada. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss We are launching the Reposado and the Anejo here in Canada. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: We have a full range of products but we’re starting with these two marks here in Toronto. Male: Just to get started. Daniel Schneeweiss: Yes to get started. Male: So this is 100% agave. Daniel Schneeweiss: Yes this is something very important for viewers to know, 100% agave tequila is very different from the regular mixed tequila or what people are used to drink when they were in college. These tequilas are not 100% agave. The big difference is that in those tequilas the alcohol is not coming from the distillation from the agave plant, half of the alcohol is coming from agave and half of the alcohol comes from regular sugar, molasses or different kinds of sugar. In case of 100% agave tequila all the alcohol that’s in this bottle is coming from the cooking, fermentation and distillation of the agave plant, so it’s 100% natural nothing has been added. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: So this won’t give you a hang-over. This won’t give you headache because it’s really, really natural. Male: So your company has been in operation for 10 years. Twelve years ago what we’re you doing that made you think, “Oh I want to go to and start making tequila?” Daniel Schneeweiss: Well, that’s a great question. Twelve years ago I was drinking tequila. Male; Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: Twelve years ago I was in college and I majored in marketing, my partner majored in finance we’re both in business school and at that time we were drinking tequila, and we knew what we wanted, and we knew that there was a great opportunity to make a great product. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: There was a lot happening in the world, people were shifting the way they were drinking, people were moving and they were starting to drink brands and not categories, and you would find somebody going to a restaurant or a bar, and through the night he would have a martini, then a glass of wine and they will probably moved to tequila. And people were looking for premium brands, that’s one thing that was happening. Another thing happening was tequila got the denomination of origin which means like cognac or like champaign, tequila can only be produced in Mexico, in the region of Jalisco which is the denomination of origin. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: So we put those two things together and we say, “You know there’s an opportunity to make a really, really good product”, this company has been based since day one in quality. We wanted to really come out with a very, very premium product with a product that is 100% agave, and has no compromises in quality we make our tequila the way it was made 200 years ago very slow, very boutique, our distillery is not in a mass production it’s really to get it right. Male: And the agave is all stake product? Daniel Schneeweiss: This is very important if you don’t have agave you can make tequila. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: And you can find some companies that have tried to come up with a good product, but they don’t own their agave, we own all of our agave it is state grown in the highlands of Jalisco which is why we have distillery. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: This region that is in the highlands it provides some microclimate that provides an agave of extremely good quality that provides tequila with a very distinctive profile. It’s very smooth, it goes down very, very smooth and it’s fresh clean crisp taste that’s the kind of product we wanted to create. I’d say that the other thing that gave us this idea is we saw what was happening in the vodka category. We saw a lot of thing happenings in packaging and designs in packaging that communicated more with the people and the consumers, so I think there were a lot of tequila, distilleries a lot of tequila bottles that are the typical square short bottle. Male: Okay. Daniel Schneeweiss: Very Mexican, Mexico is not only that, Mexico is a contemporary country there’s a lot happening in Mexico and that’s why we created this kind of bottle. Male: I now hear tequila referred to in the same phrasing as “Single Malt Scotch”. Daniel Schneeweiss: Yes. Male: It has flavor profiles that there in a super premium brand.