Hand-cutting agave in Jalisco, Mexico

HACIENco-founder Seb and Ashley, our business development manager, just returned to the UK after a week-long trip to Mexico to visit our distillery and bottling facilities. We caught up with Seb to find out how it went. 

“It was a busy week — we had loads on the schedule,” he explains, “but it was great to be back in Jalisco and meet up with the team out there.” Having flown into Guadalajara, their first stop was the distillery in Tequila, where Seb and Ashley reviewed recent improvements to the bottling process and the expanded ageing rooms, with more oak barrels added to allow for greater production of añejo (aged) tequila. 

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“We also met with the master distillers to test out some new flavour combinations,” Seb added, “which we’re excited about announcing soon — although we can’t go public yet, we’re still refining some new additions to the range.” They were also on-site to inspect the next shipment of HACIEN tequila, with 10,000 bottles set to cross the Atlantic in the next few weeks, each clad in newly designed packaging, which was being finalised during Seb and Ashley’s trip. 

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Later in the week, they managed to find time to head up into the Los Altos hills and visit the agave plantation where our tequila originates. “I actually had a go at cutting some agave while I was there,” says Seb. “The jimadores (agave farmers) use a coa. It’s a long-handled tool like a hoe but with a wider, sharper blade. You cut the leaves from the agave and then separate the heart — the piña, which we use to make tequila — from the roots,” Seb explains, “The jimadores make it look easy, but they’ve been doing it a lot longer than me. Still, Ashley and I managed a few, so your next bottle of HACIEN tequila might have been made with some of the agave we harvested personally!”

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