Prickly Mexicans hang tough

Taking a shot at getting the best out of Mexico's fiercely guarded tequila market was a bilingual, bureaucratic, cactus-prickly adventure for Wellington drink makers Oh!Group.

It took the start-up company, which is launching its premixed margarita in the Loud&Lola range of cocktails this month, a lot of half-understood conversing to get what it needed.

Fighting against stringent controls on the export of Mexico's prized agave liquor, the company has become possibly the first New Zealand operation to import tequila directly in bulk.

For Oh!Group founder Neil Fitzpatrick, a lucky phone call and a garbled Spanish-English conversation led to taking on the Mexican authorities when bulk tequila available locally was not of sufficient quality.

"I called a tequila company [in Mexico] but the phone was answered by the guy's mother. The line was crackly and we could hardly understand each other, but she found her spectacles and laboriously wrote down my contact details. I hung up and thought, 'That's it, no tequila'."

A return call came as a surprise and, with translation help, the resulting deal with Productos Finos de Agave gave Loud&Lola the quality drop it needed.

Mexico, which is defensive of the quality and branding of tequila, puts potential bulk importers through the regulatory wringer.

Usually only bottled tequila is exported directly, because only the United States has free access to bulk tequila.

But Oh!Group stuck it out with the Mexicans because it gave it better quality, more control over what it was getting and prices direct from the producers, project manager Chloe Dallaway said.

That meant paper, and lots of it: trademark approvals, cocktail recipes, branding, forms and signatures from freighting companies and distributors, and countless phone calls over 18 months.

"And everything had to be translated into two languages. It was incredibly hard, but it was worth it. Not importing it in bulk would have sent costs through the roof. But more importantly, if you don't have good tequila you will never, ever have a good margarita," Ms Dallaway said.

The new tequila partner's location, Jesus Maria in the state of Jalisco, may have helped along the way, she conceded. "We did need a little divine help."

- © Fairfax NZ News