As a bartender is there one thing that you just really feel actually strongly about in bar tradition? One thing that, given the chance, you wish to change? Due to Altos tequila and the Tahona Society Competitors that’s precisely what you can do. With a rare prize of $50,000 to speculate, in addition to knowledgeable teaching, this could possibly be your probability to make a genuinely constructive influence. And who higher to clarify the way it works than Altos tequila co-creator and the Tahona Society co-founder Dré Masso? We spoke to him about this life-changing cocktail competitors and the way you can be a part of it.
Dré, initially are you able to share just a little background on the creation and the ethos of Altos?
I first met Jesús Hernández, Maestro Tequilero, in 2001 whereas I used to be working at LAB, one of the vital ground-breaking bars of the time, when he got here in to take a look at what we had been doing and discover out extra about our method. Our dialog quickly turned to the significance of 100% agave tequila and that was how the journey started.
Over the following few years I met with him a number of occasions, had a fairly critical tasting of the easiest expressions of 100% agave tequilas from the main distillers, then joined him in San Francisco for six months to be taught extra in regards to the topic.
Along with the late Henry Besant, my curiosity saved on rising. We wrote a ebook known as Margarita Rocks and opened a tequila bar in London known as Inexperienced and Purple. Then in 2007 we had been again in Mexico when Jesús was engaged on a brand new expression. He requested us to be a part of the tasting panel as a result of he needed to grasp what we, as fashionable bartenders, needed to do with the product. After which he requested if we needed to be a part of it. The consequence was Altos, a 100% agave tequila that we might use in our cocktails and had an accessible worth, so we might actually advocate it to our visitors.
Following the creation of Altos how did the Tahona Society Competitors come about?
After we launched Altos I continued to be taught extra about tequila and realised there was numerous incorrect info on the market. So we began the Tahona Society to share data. To be trustworthy, it was fairly intense at first, with a two-day course delving into Mexican tradition. Whereas the accompanying web site contained numerous nice knowledgeable info we realised within the second 12 months that it wanted to evolve and for us to calm down the topic just a little.
Was that the place the competitors got here in?
Sure, in 2010 we began what was principally a Margarita competitors with bartenders from just a few nations such because the UK, Russia and Turkey. The unique emphasis was very a lot on locality and seasonality, and so on. and over the next years because it advanced, we checked out how we might make it extra related. We began working with completely different actions like sluggish meals and meals truck tradition to pair drinks. Then in 2017 we knew we needed to make it considerably completely different.
Feels like a pivotal second within the competitors’s evolution?
The factor was that the sort of cocktails that gained the competitors had been nice however finally most likely didn’t discover their method right into a bar. We felt this was a contradiction to our ethos of constructing a constructive influence in actual life. It was then that I made a decision to introduce a enterprise component into the competitors. So it was now not about making a cocktail recipe, however getting bartenders to place their enterprise hat on, to make one thing which might enhance their scenario and their business in some significant method. Whether or not serving to folks or the planet, it needed to make some sort of constructive influence inside the atmosphere of bar tradition. So in 2018 all of it modified.
Inform us in regards to the winner of the primary new model competitors…
It was a group from Canada who gained with a venture known as Thoughts The Bar. It was a incredible concept that targeted on psychological well being inside the bar neighborhood and with their $50,000 prize cash they began an app. The response from the bartending neighborhood was so constructive as a result of it was one thing that they actually needed. And never solely has the app has been extremely profitable, the group have grown to incorporate talks, seminars and all types of help for folks inside the hospitality business. They used the cash actually correctly to arrange a extremely constructive factor which continues at present.
Which brings us to the Tahona Society Competitors 2023 and the UK kick-off session…
Sure, we had a spot for a few years due to Covid, however got here again in 2021 when a extremely inspirational group from Cuba gained (pictured above). And with the expertise we gained from the final two world finals we’ve continued to refine the competitors, so it’s actually necessary to clarify the format to bartenders, stressing that this isn’t a typical cocktail competitors. Which is why we’re having a UK kick-off session.
And that is when bartenders can actually begin to get entangled?
Completely. Once we come to London on February 14 we hope to have about 50 or so bartenders be part of us. It’s going to be a incredible session, overlaying examples of the sort of initiatives they may develop, and the essential timelines. We’ll even have some very particular visitors, together with Julio Bermejo, creator of Tommy’s Margarita and beverage supervisor at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, as nicely another folks doing cool stuff in London. Most significantly it’ll be stressing to the bartenders that the competitors is all about stepping out of their consolation zones. From earlier expertise this session helps them take a look at their present scenario to see if there may be something that wants fixing. And that’s what the competitors is all about – how they’ll have a constructive influence.
The Tahona Society is a neighborhood to carry collectively bartenders from everywhere in the world, with a superb competitors targeted on constructive influence
Dré Masso
And after this kick-off session, what occurs subsequent?
The bartenders may have a month to submit the concept for his or her venture. Importantly, throughout this time they’ll work with their native Altos ambassadors who’re actually eager to assist. This preliminary collaboration is a vital a part of the method.
As you say, these aren’t cocktail recipes, they’re initiatives, so who will likely be judging them?
All of the initiatives and proposals are submitted to an incredible firm in Mexico known as Agenda 28. It’s an organization based by one in every of our key coaches Valerie Kramis. She and her group are all Harvard graduates and are the panel that can choose the winner from every taking part nation. They are going to be searching for the initiatives which are most related to bar tradition at present, in addition to having essentially the most probability of success ought to they win and take it ahead.
What’s the following step for these chosen finalists?
After being chosen, the finalists from every nation have till the top of June to interact in classes with Agenda 28. These are very important as a result of this can be a firm that advises prime companies, so what they’ll provide the finalists will assist them be as finest ready as attainable for once they head to the ultimate in Mexico. As an example, the Cuban winners in 2021 actually obtained rather a lot from these classes and really requested for extra – so that they actually did all of the homework! Furthermore, it’s an unimaginable alternative to develop a marketing strategy for the long run.
Subsequent cease Mexico?
Sure, and after we take the finalists to Mexico there’ll, in fact, be enjoyable stuff, like harvesting agave within the subject, experiencing the manufacturing of tequila on the distillery, listening to mariachi within the agave fields and consuming the very best tacos. However extra importantly, the time there may be filled with motivational classes. It’s additionally the time once they can actually develop the plans for his or her initiatives.
They’ll have teaching seminars, that are actually inspirational, and in addition one-on-one classes. For instance, Luis Espino, who used to write down speeches for the previous Mexican president, will likely be speaking about public talking, the significance of eye contact and understanding physique language.
I’ve seen previously how the outcomes of those seminars and classes may be actually superb. The finalists get to delve deep into why they’re keen about their venture and why they imagine in it.
They arrive on the primary day fairly inexperienced and by the fourth day they’re delivering Ted Speak-quality displays in entrance of an viewers, the opposite finalists and a panel of judges.
And this 12 months a kind of judges will embrace a lady known as Kiren Miret who can be a key choose on Shark Tank (the Mexican model of Dragon’s Den). She’s an extremely profitable entrepreneur who will rattle their cages however in a extremely great way. That’s the extent we’re speaking about.
It appears like a life-changing expertise?
It’s. On the finish of all of it somebody will take away $50,000, together with unimaginable expertise, to make their venture a actuality and actually make a constructive influence on the world.
Key dates:
The Tahona Society Competitors UK Kick-off Session
Tuesday, 14th February, 12pm-4pm, Juju’s Bar Shoreditch, Ely’s Yard, 15 Hanbury St. London, E1 6QR
- 12.00 – Arrival and welcome drinks
- 12.30-13.15 – Welcome from Dré Masso and introduction to Tahona Society Competitors
- 13.15-14.00 – Panel session with sustainability and duty visitor audio system
- 14.00-14.30 – Julio Bermejo Q&A
- 14.30-15.45pm – Meals and drinks
- 15.45-16.00 – Closing phrases
Please RSVP to lauren.hines@pernod-ricard.com by Thursday ninth February
Cut-off date for venture entries: 20 March
International closing in Mexico: final week of June
Discover out extra at olmecaaltos.com and tahonasociety.com
