Origin
Loco Tequila was born out of the passion to create one of the purest possible spirits in the world, rescuing a legacy of more than 120 years and honoring the original essence of the agave azul.
Loco Tequila is an homage to the great pioneers and visionaries throughout history; the geniuses and innovators who inspired generations because they were in search of the extraordinary, focused madly on the details and wanted to create something incomparable in their field.
With an impressive heritage and bespoke artisanal craftsmanship, Loco Tequila seeks to inspire and ignite the human spirit with the launch of the first-ever ultra-premium Terruno Tequila from the region of El Arenal in Jalisco, Mexico, which is the historical and geographical gateway to the “Paisaje Agavero,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Loco Tequila is made in small batches honoring the historic artisanal processes from the XVIII century and aims to bring back the art of tequila-making with uncompromising quality standards at every level.
When the team behind Loco Tequila set out to create the first Terruno Tequila from the El Arenal region, they did so in order to create a tequila that would demonstrate the strength and character of the original essence of the agave. Loco Tequila’s three signature tequilas are the Loco Puro Corazón, Loco Ámbar, and Loco Blanco. Through these three spirits, they hope to honor the art of celebrating life while proudly carrying the culture of Mexico through Loco’s history, legacy, craftsmanship, and innovative spirit.
The Loco Tequila story is composed of the following main pillars: the locura, which is the celebration of the forward-thinkers who are often considered society’s crazy geniuses; the impeccable quality of the product that honors heritage and melds tradition with innovation; the history and the legacy that guides every aspect of Loco’s process; and the art which is the uniqueness, beauty, and purity of the tequila, bottle, and brand.
Locura
Loco Tequila is a celebration of great thinkers and risk-takers throughout history who were in search of the extraordinary and set out to create something incomparable in their field. The team of friends and family who started Loco Tequila in Mexico more than 10 years ago, did so with the goal of making an artisanal beverage unlike any other from their country, and share this unique and special tequila with the world. When the co-founders Gabriel Roqueni and Pedro Padilla began to do things differently with Loco Tequila, many in the industry thought it was crazy. “Not only were we starting an ambitious project in a very complex market, but we were seeking to do it without compromising quality on any level” says Juan-Pablo Torres-Padilla, Managing Partner of Loco Tequila in the USA. “But we continued with the certainty that this madness would lead us to achieve something out of the ordinary.”
QUALITY: THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF PURITY
From the beginning, Loco Tequila has aimed to recover the artisanal processes that were used in El Arenal and to maintain tradition throughout the process. For this, the team sought out agave expert Jose Antonio Sanchez Lopez, who has inherited a multi-generational family knowledge to understand the the agave’s growth, and to discern their optimum point of maturity. Jose Antonio spends much of the day walking through the fields of agave azul for which he is responsible, and manually selects, one by one, the plants that are going to be used for the production of Loco Tequila.
Loco owns and controls its own plantations, which means that the team can guarantee the utmost quality agave that is sourced in a two-mile radius within El Arenal. Drawing on the rich pre-Columbian heritage of the terroir, the Loco team is inspired by Los Guachimontones, the unusual 2,0000-year-old conical pyramid structures found in the area of the Valleys of Tequila. The ancestral practice of circular planting and double separation planting aids in avoiding soil erosion and ensures a nutrient rich soil. They also use only the purest well water located inside the Hacienda La Providencia, and derived from the Bosque de la Primavera. The water undergoes a natural and lengthy process underground in which it is purified and imbued with undertones of limestone, minerality and volcanic rock.
Once the seven- to nine-year-old agaves are hand-selected, they go through a double Jima or shaving process — unlike most other tequilas on the market that only do it once — and then they are taken to a masonry oven to continue the traditional craftsmanship of this emblematic liquid. After almost three days in the ovens, the cooked pinas are taken to the Tahona, an ancient grinding stone, weighing approximately two tons, which slowly macerates the agave to obtain the agave juice. It is then fermented in wooden pipones rescued from the old production facilities from Hacienda La Providencia, and along with native yeasts this provides character in the fermentation while transforming the sugars into alcohol. Finally, the double distillation is carried out in small copper stills that ensure the highest levels of purity, while the size allows greater control in obtaining the purest essence of the agave. Once each batch is finished, the entire process begins anew.
Alberto Navarro, Loco Tequila’s Maestro Tequilero, believes that in order to distinguish Loco’s tequilas from other high-quality spirits, the key is transparency and traceability. “The essence of Loco represents the essence of agaves, not oak or any other added flavors,” he says. “But, for this drink to become the artistic expression we know, the intervention of man is needed and it is in this careful process that lies – to a large extent -– the difference between a good tequila and an exceptional one.”
History
Loco Tequila is dedicated to keeping the 18th century traditions and ancestral knowledge of tequila-making alive when they otherwise might be lost in time. Loco’s home is the legendary Hacienda La Providencia, in the Valle del Arenal, Jalisco, which is the gateway to the “Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila,” declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. Jalisco’s tequila region was classified with Denomination of Origin in 1974 – a recognition only found within five regions of Mexico. La Providencia has been recognized as a part of the Ancient Industrial Installation of Tequila by UNESCO, honoring its centuries of tradition and ancestral knowledge in its production of tequila. With a lineage of more than 200 years, La Providencia’s agave plantations produce plants that result in an incomparable and rare tequila of significant heritage from the original birthplace of tequila production.
Art
Loco Tequila focuses wildly on the details, from the harvesting of the agaves, to the production of the tequila, to the creation of a unique bottle for each tequila by the artist Jan Hendrix. Hendrix, a Mexican Dutch-born nature lover, takes inspiration from the origin of agaves as his main element in creating the bottles and packaging in a thoughtful and inspiring way. He also uses Cochineal Red and Silver in the logo because they are meaningful and emblematic colors in Mexican history and intimately linked to the culture, which gives the brand both avant-garde and traditional touches. Cochineal Red comes from the cochineal insect originally domesticated in pre-Columbian Mexico, and was used as a natural dye that produced a red so intense that European artists quickly embraced it as their own, generating a whole set of new trends in the European painting landscape of the 16th and 17th centuries. In the colonial days it was one of Mexico’s great contributions after silver, since it was exported from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala to Spain, from where it was traded around the world.
The crown jewel of the Loco family is the Loco Puro Corazon, which is made of the purest essence of tequila, separated drop by drop. This tequila is rare and scarce and each 750 mL bottle is numbered and delivered in a unique case designed by the artist Jan Hendrix. It is distinguished by its transparency, purity and clarity. The smell is extremely fresh with notes of mint and eucalyptus followed by distinctive notes of cooked agave and piloncillo and pumpkin. The flavor is light and harmonious, well-balanced with sweet notes of agave and almost saline minerality.
About Loco Tequila
Loco Tequila has the distinction of being the first and only ultra-premium brand established as a Terruno Tequila from the famous El Arenal region of Jalisco, Mexico. Loco Tequila was launched in Mexico in 2019 and has since been the fastest-growing ultra-premium tequila brand in Mexico. Available expressions are Loco Blanco, Loco Ambar (Reposado), and Loco Puro Corazon. Our mission is to promote the art of celebrating life by creating a better present and future, proudly carrying the culture of Mexico through its history, legacy, craftsmanship, art, and innovative spirit with exceptional tequila.
