Creator’s Blog: Making Monita Tequila Independent
Tequila, Jalisco, MX, June 2021
When the idea to create Monita Tequila first came to my mind I had no idea how to get started but due to the personal nature of its creation it was important for me to build the brand independently. Three and a half years later I’ve reached a milestone that I didn’t even know was possible back then. These past few years I’ve taken the growth of this brand one step at a time, each step providing me with the information I need to make the next. This labor of love has not come without challenges but the strides that I’ve made by year two on the market have made it all worth it.
If you’re not familiar with the spirits industry let’s start with a few insider insights! The regulation of alcohol-based products—including beer, wine, and spirits—has remained largely unchanged since the end of prohibition in 1933. (Fun fact: The end of prohibition and I share the same date of birth, December 5.)
When prohibition ended it gave control of liquor laws, sales, and regulations to the states. Even though prohibition was officially repealed, not every state regained the freedom to purchase alcohol on the same day, or even the same year. Mississippi didn’t end its prohibition until 1966 (the same year my mom was born) and in 2004 half of its countries remained “dry”. Dry means no alcohol sales are allowed at all.
Many states have different liquor laws within them, for example Montgomery Country is the only one to exclusively operate county-run liquor stores within Maryland. So with all of these different layers to liquor laws it makes making moves in different states that much more complicated. The major markets in the US, starting with California, New York, and Florida, have liquor laws that make it easier to enter the market—which also makes them highly competitive.
Due to the three-tier system regulations, those who produce alcohol products are required to have a middleman in order to sell to consumers. This is where distributors come in. They’re the essential component to getting your products on the market. As a new brand and someone who was new to the industry I had to find a distributor the same way I found a distillery: searching around online.
I found the main distributors that carry all of the big-name brands throughout the US. You know, like all of those celebrity brands that keep popping up. I reached out to each of them several times over months. Sending queries through their contact forms, searching LinkedIn for direct contacts, and putting feelers out with people that I’ve met within the spirits industry. What I came to understand is that as an emerging brand starting out with smaller orders, the large distributors aren’t interested in taking you on.
The best alternative available to me at the time was signing up with a smaller distributor that was emerging in the industry as well. Smaller businesses know how to look out for smaller businesses, right? I’ve come to understand that not all businesses that claim to serve small businesses actually care about the success of those businesses, they just want you to have a card on file to keep the tab running.
It’s a rule of business that the first year is the hardest. Not only are you learning, trying, and testing new processes and marketing strategies you’re also investing mentally, emotionally, and financially in a business that you’re not sure is going to grow. It makes things that much more challenging when your only avenue to the market is dependent on egregiously high monthly payments. As they say in the biz, I needed to stop the bleeding.
During events and throughout conversations I was having in the first year of business with people who have been in the spirits industry longer than me I began to hear a reoccurring theme: go the independent route with distribution if you can. Early on I was introduced to the company LibDib (Liberation Distribution) but it would take me months of preparing, applying, and awaiting approval to receive all of the licenses I needed in order to add Monita Tequila to their portfolio. Now when you purchase bottles of blanco your support will actually reach the brand.
When I started researching ‘how to start a tequila brand’ in November 2020 or went to Mexico to develop the tequila with Tequila & Spirits Mexico in June 2021 or when the online shop launched in November 2022 I didn’t know it was possible to independently distribute Monita Tequila but look at what this journey has brought me.
I recently shared on my personal social media that what our ancestors really wanted for us was freedom. Freedom to make our own choices. Freedom to walk our own paths. Freedom to build our own legacies. I’m excited to see what milestones year two will bring for Monita Tequila. I know that mom is out there guiding my path forward. It is truly a dream come true to bring you an independently owned spirits brand that is also self-distributed.
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