María Guadalupe wets the rim of her glass with the lime, dips it in the bowl of salt until the rim glitters, then holds out her glass for José Luis to fill with ice and tequila. Its a celebration of life until the drinks begin to take effect, they remain silent. Then they cast off on another dream journey. They’ve been pondering on wildlife management, the transformation of wilderness into parks.

Tequila is more than a party; it’s an important part of Mexican tradition, a tradition that has gradually become one of a global culture.  Tequila is an attitude, tequila makes quiet people bold and best of all, and tequila is Mexican. Like they say. “Take life with a grain of salt and a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila.”

 We spoke to Paul one of the owners at vivirtequila.com a brand on a mission not just to make some of the best tequila out there but to change the way we drink Tequila    

SNM: What is your backgrounds and role at Vivir?
Paul: About 16 years ago I founded a food brand, I was actually one of the first people to introduce the UK to Bircher Muesli. I built and sold that brand about 6 years ago or so. I was very passionate about sourcing local and sustainable ingredients for our Bircher, I literally knew the names of the cows that produced our milk for our yogurt. One thing I refused to use in our products was refined sugar.

Because of that, it was recommended to me to use Agave syrup. I knew nothing about Agave at the time, let alone that Tequila was made from it. Me being me I learned everything I could and before I knew it, I was on a flight Mexico to meet with a number of distilleries to talk about important Agave syrup in bulk to the UK. It was at this point I was introduced to quality 100% Agave Tequila and my love affair with the spirit started. This was a big deal to me as I learned from my teen years (after 18, obviously!) that Tequila is actually the one thing in the world I’m allergic to. But what I didn’t know is I was actually allergic to something added to the cheaper Mixto Tequilas you find everywhere in the UK; I was actually fine with quality 100% Agave Tequila.

Mixtos are only 51% Agave and that was actually where my problem lay. Fast forward to about 4 years ago, my good friend (VIVIR Co-Founder), Nav, and I were in a bar and wanted to get a quality Tequila to enjoy – he’s also a big fan and is one of the reasons we became friends. However, they only served cheap Mixto Tequilas, which I can’t drink, so we literally decided there and then to do something about the Tequila situation in the UK. We had the contacts, we knew the spirit extremely well, knew we could produce something special and were deeply passionate about it – so we decided to create our own Tequila, bring it to the UK and educate the good people of Britain that Tequila is so much more than just that shot you have at the end of a night. It took around 3 years of development before we were ready to launch, it wasn’t a quick process. We launched in early 2019 and haven’t looked back. I’m now the CEO of VIVIR and spend much of my time running the overall business. I do tend to focus on brand management and delivery though as I’m deeply passionate about it and know how important it is to help us educate the UK on what quality Tequila is.


SNM: How long have you been distilling and what made you choose it as a career?
Paul: We actually partner with a distillery in Mexico, that I’ve been working with for many years. They are 5th generation distillers and know Tequila like the back of their hand. We worked very closely with them for 3 years to develop our own range. Tequila is heavily regulated by a governing body called the CRT so you have to have many licenses in place to produce Tequila. Although we’re not distillers, we know quite a lot and what it was we wanted to create so went through every step of the process with a fine-tooth comb.


SNM: What is the inspiration behind the name Vivir Tequila?
Paul: VIVIR means ’to live’ and that is our ethos, as well as just our brand name. We have ‘lived Tequila’ for many years and we wanted to celebrate that and take our customers on that journey with us. It’s all about changing perceptions of Tequila in the UK, away from just a simple shot. It’s so much more than that and in Mexico, it’s a way of life. We wanted to make that front and center of everything we do and hence ‘VIVIR’. Our brand icon is actually the ‘Feathered Serpent’ Aztec God – Quetzalcoatl. Although our design is quite contemporary, we wanted to bring some of Mexico’s traditions into it. The story of Quetzalcoatl is the original story of how Agave and Tequila first came to Earth and we wanted to celebrate that.

SNM: What’s your favorite part of making tequila?
Paul: The history and tradition. It’s a privilege to work with our distillery and create one of the oldest recorded spirits out there. Mexico has so much pride in Tequila and the whole Agave sector, and rightfully so. We are honoured to be able to work with them to produce our range of Tequilas and it makes us very happy and thankful.


SNM: From a flavor perspective, what do you think makes Vivir stand out?
Paul: The flavor of all 3 of our expression really is excellent, and that doesn’t just come from us. We’ve won many awards now and consistently come out on top in blind taste tests with industry experts. All of our Tequilas stay true to their Agave routes, whilst bringing a range of flavorsome profiles.

Our Blanco is fresh, vegetal and one of the best sipping Blancos out there. It is very smooth, whilst maintaining slight peppery notes and hints of cucumber. Our Reposado keeps its Agave flavor but hints of vanilla, caramel, and melted butter come through due to the 6 months of raging. All the flavors are natural and show the quality of the estate owned highland Agave we use exclusively in our Tequilas. Our Añejo is still very much a Tequila but the complexity ramps up and you get notes of coffee and burned chocolate. It’s an extraordinary drink and very unique in the category. This is one of the things that excites me about Tequila so much, it’s so versatile. Our Reposado and Añejo are simply made from aging our Blanco, however, they are all very different and stand-alone expressions.


SNM: How long did it take you to fine-tune your recipe?
Paul: The whole process took over 3 years. However, I’ve actually been working with Agave for over 16 years now so I always feel like we had a head-start anyway! We didn’t want to rush the process and it took us a year to get the Blanco right and we went through about 100 versions of it. We then wanted to wait for our Reposado and Añejo to age before we launched the brand so all in all, it was a 3 years process. If something is worth doing though, it’s worth doing right!


SNM: The perfect way to drink Vivir is..
Paul: It depends on which of our Tequilas you are drinking, to be honest. I’m personally a big fan of drinking them straight, however, they go great in cocktails and even long simple serves. The Tequila & Tonic, and Tequila & Ginger Ale have been huge wins for us and they’re amazing, refreshing drinks to try. Here are my personal favourites for each expression:
Blanco – Tequila & Tonic (simple Indian tonic with a slice of lime), and classic Margarita Reposado – Tequila & Ginger Ale (with a slice of lime), and a Paloma or Tommy’s Margarita Añejo – Straight with a single cube of ice. Also great in an Espresso Martini (replace the vodka) or an Old Fashioned.

SNM: What have been the biggest achievements so far for your brand?
Paul: We are currently the No.1 selling premium independent Tequila in UK retail. Massively proud of that as we only launched just over a year ago. Our Añejo also won the ’Supreme Champion’ award over all spirits at the recent Class Bartender Brand awards, which is a big deal here in the UK. Probably the thing I’m proudest of is the sustainability work we do back in Mexico to support the Tequila industry and environment. It extremely important for the future of Agave and making sure we have Tequila in the future.

SNM: What’s next for Vivir – any exciting plans?
Paul: We are dedicated to changing perceptions of Tequila in the UK away from the ‘shot culture’. We’re very focussed on this and going to continue the education strategy we have in place. We do have some exciting new Tequila expression coming out as well so watch this space!

By Anderson Azugbene