Charles Durazo has been popping up on my LinkedIn feed for a few years now, and it’s always been intriguing. He posts constantly, and not the usual founder content.
A rant at FedEx for delivering three bottles “red hot to the touch.” A slightly desperate pitch to get into a rum festival after striking out on email. A full trend forecast calling Cristalino tequila a fad and predicting nobody will say “non alc” by 2030 because “the word Non to start your category name is a deal killer.”
It’s some of the most entertaining content in the category.
Dare I say - a bit unhinged.
On the phone, he told me about his new thing - Blended Blue Spirits and its debut release, Maravilla, a 50/50 blend of añejo and reposado tequila that launched at the end of June. Durazo and his partner Beto both worked at Clase Azul before striking out on their own.
Durazo sent me a bottle after we talked, and it’s nearly gone. I don’t normally buy expensive tequila. My interest is officially piqued.
The whiskey story, replayed in tequila
Durazo’s pitch starts with a category comparison. “It’s very much the whiskey story,” he told me. American whiskey started out straight because that’s what distillers had. Decades later, over 80% of aged whiskey is a blend of different whiskeys.
He thinks tequila is heading the same direction as it matures, and he wants Blended Blue to be first through the door as a dedicated blending house rather than a brand that eventually adds a blend to its lineup.
There’s also a pricing thesis underneath it. Blended Blue priced Maravilla at $125 MSRP on purpose. “Our research shows that people have a hangover from these very expensive bottles,” Durazo said, “even a $500 or $600 bottle. Most people, myself included, that’s out.”
In a category where the biggest houses have spent years pushing prices up toward collector territory, he’s betting there’s real room in the middle for something that’s clearly premium without asking people to justify a four figure bottle to themselves.
It’s a crowded room to make that case in. Durazo estimates a back bar in California now carries ten or more luxury tequila brands, on top of what buyers describe to him as a glut sitting on off-premise shelves already.
Standing out on price and category alone only works if the brand can also get the bottle into someone’s mouth, which is the strategy question underneath everything else he’s building.
Equity is the new rule, not the perk
The most pointed thing Durazo told me wasn’t about tequila at all. It was about what he learned watching Clase Azul’s Arturo Lomeli, build a company that size without bringing other people along as owners.
Blended Blue is being built as the opposite bet. Everyone doing meaningful work for the brand, whether that’s production, design, or sales, gets a small equity stake, generally in the one to three percent range, with room to earn more over time. “You turn people into owners by giving them some equity,” Durazo said.
It’s also how he’s kept the team small: production is handled by Beto and a partner on a few contracted hours a week, a distillery in Mexico handles compliance and fulfillment, and until a few weeks ago Durazo had exactly one other full time contractor. Everyone is compensated in ownership as well as cash.
Win locally before you ask anyone for help
Blended Blue’s entire go to market plan for the next year is contained to California, on purpose. The goal is 250 reordering on-premise accounts and 1,300 cases shipped by the end of next year, roughly 15 months from when we talked. Durazo isn’t interested in expanding the footprint before that, because he’s run this play before.
At Clase Azul, the team built roughly 80 reordering accounts in San Francisco before approaching Southern Glazer’s for distribution, and the accounts did the talking. “What have you done for me lately? Oh, you have 80 accounts. Let’s talk,” Durazo said, describing that pitch. “Southern wants to make money. If you can show them a direct line to that money, they’re going to like you.”
He’s running the identical sequence with Blended Blue: prove the demand exists on-premise first, then go to a national distributor from a position of strength instead of asking them to take a bet on an unproven brand.
That discipline extends to where the company doesn’t spend money. Durazo says most young luxury brands burn cash on things that feel necessary but aren’t, competition medals, expensive festival booths, early retail pushes into accounts like Total Wine that can’t yet make them money. “Ten grand is just a bridge too far, especially in the beginning,” he said.
Tequilas Premium, Inc. had Juan Sanchez when it came to asking if we could spend money. “We used to call him Dr. No. We just stopped asking him to spend money because we always knew the answer was inevitably going to be no.”
He said the quiet part out loud, and his feed backs it up
Durazo was honest that some of his online persona is strategic. “If you’re trying to do a point of view or disagreeing, it seems like engagement goes up,” he told me, describing the advice he gets from social media consultants he says the brand “can’t afford” full time.
His comment history is its own genre. On a tequila founder’s post soliciting investors, he wrote, “Things are going so well yet you’re raising money. I thought it looks bad when you advertise on a social media post for your fundraising activities.” On another founder’s fundraising misstep, he offered, “Let me guess they were a crypto company.”
Getting people to taste it beats any ad
If there’s one thing Durazo keeps coming back to, it’s that none of the positioning matters until someone actually tastes the product. “We’ve been really successful once consumers taste it, converting them into behavior,” he said. “It’s hard to get them to do anything without tasting it.”
That’s shaping where Blended Blue is putting its energy day to day. The brand is running roughly an 80/20 split between on-premise and off-premise, with direct to consumer counted as the off-premise slice.
DTC has quietly been the most productive channel so far, around 100 bottles shipped in the first 60 days, mostly to friends, family, and investors. Paid DTC acquisition starts soon, with the hope that direct sales can help fund the on-premise push rather than the other way around.
NEW RULES FROM BLENDED BLUE
Make the category bet your whole reason to exist, not a line extension. Blended Blue isn’t a tequila brand that also does a blend. Blending is the brand.
Turn contributors into owners from day one. “You turn people into owners by giving them some equity.” It’s also how you keep a team small and loyal without payroll.
Win one market completely before you ask anyone else for help. Prove the accounts exist first. Then a national distributor isn’t taking a bet, they’re taking a deal.
What you post when no one is editing you is the real brand voice. The LinkedIn feed doesn’t match the phone call, and the feed is more honest.
Blended Blue Spirits is currently sold in California, with Maravilla as its debut release. Follow along on Instagram.
The New Rules is a labor of love by nihilo.agency
Need design support for your brand? Reach out! hi@nihilo.agency
And support our work by:
Subscribing
Sharing
Inviting us to speak at your conference or event on branding/bev/alc/fun
Cheers.