You’ve probably never heard of us. Mexico has.
Viva Agave has been made in Jalisco, Mexico since the late 1990s. It started the way many Mexican spirits start, in small cantinas, poured by people who knew the family that made it. By the early 2000s it had moved from those cantinas onto national shelves, Walmart México and Soriana among them.
We didn’t create this brand. We went back to Jalisco to have it made.
You see, at the time, we were building Cantera Negra, a super-premium tequila from Jalisco, in the U.S. That put us in a lot of conversations with bartenders, restaurant owners, and liquor store buyers. Again and again, we got asked for the same thing: an additive-free, 100% agave spirit, made well enough to sip and priced to pour into better cocktails.
So we went down to build it.
What we found was that it already existed. The family had been making it for a generation. In Mexico, it had a past. In the United States, it still had its introduction ahead of it.
Twenty-four years on Mexican shelves before we brought it here.
It was never called tequila
In twenty-four years in Mexico, its label never once said tequila.
The first label ever filed said destilado de agave. Agave distillate. Thirteen years later the brand registered a line of its own, el auténtico destilado de agave, the authentic agave distillate. Same language, chosen twice, more than a decade apart, by the family who made it in Jalisco.
When we asked why, the answer was short. Tequila is a word for the Americans. In Jalisco the spirit is understood through the agave and the people who made it. The word was never the point.
We could have changed it. Plenty of brands would have. But we decided that the name had told the truth for twenty-four years, and it didn’t need our help.
Viva Agave today
100% Blue Weber agave, harvested at full maturity from family farms in Jalisco. Slow-cooked in brick ovens. Additive-free.
One thing did change when it came north. We brought it to 80 proof, the standard on American shelves and the strength bartenders look for when they need a spirit to hold up in a cocktail. The heritage is unchanged.
Silver, Reposado, Añejo. Pour it and pass it around. If we did our job right, the best thing anyone says about it is: I’ll have another.
