November 12, 2024Inspiration

Behind The Collaboration: Interview with Azteca Margarita

Today we’re shaking things up with our beverage besties, AZTECA Margarita to celebrate the exciting launch of our AZTECA MARGARITA X NINE LIVES BAZAAR new Passionfruit flavour! It’s been seriously YEARS in the making and we’re so excited for you to get your hands on the Passionfruit Margi mix that is guaranteed to transport you straight to paradise!

Now available to purchase via Azteca Margarita online store HERE with free shipping for our Bazaar Babes.

Enter code at checkout: NLBXAZTECA

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELVES - WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU'RE FROM AND WHAT SETS YOUR SOUL ON FIRE?

Hi, we’re Jessie & Tom - the lovers, makers and founders of AZTECA Margarita.

AZTECA is made in Byron, inspired by Mexico. We’re both into food and booze and friends which definitely presents some Monday to Friday challenges, but having fun is so important in life and we try to bring that into our business as well.

IT’S NO SECRET THAT AZTECA IS OUR BEVERAGE OF CHOICE! WHAT INSPIRED YOUR JOURNEY INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MARGARITAS AND BUSINESS?

We met 13+ years ago in Thailand and spent the first half of our relationship travelling. When we decided to pause our world galavant we started AZTECA, which at the time was a Mexican food catering business. Tommy’s a chef from Mullumbimby and Jessie grew up in a town in California - together we spent a lot of time in Mexico, it just felt right.

A LOT OF WORK GOES INTO CREATING THE FLAVOURS OF YOUR MARGI MIXES, CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE PROCESS OF FINDING THE PERFECT FLAVOUR?

Creating is the best part of any business. For us it often starts on a Friday night with a heap of friends over for dinner and a faint memory on Monday of a really delicious margarita… Then the wizardry moves to "Margaritaville', our HQ in Billinudgel, 10 minutes north of Byron. The test tubes, droppers and small scales, Each vile an iteration of a recipe - a pinch of this, a drop of that; microns of extracts, oils, salts and botanicals and then a heap of blind tastings. It's a bit like Goldy Locks but eventually the porridge is just right. Then the challenge of scaling the recipe... have you ever tried to cook your specialty dish but for like 69,217 people? That moment right before you pull it all of when you think... 'is it too late to cancel?'

WE’VE JUST LAUNCHED OUR COLLABORATION MARGI MIX WITH YOU, WHICH IS A DELICIOUS PASSIONFRUIT FLAVOUR AND IT WAS A LONG TIME IN THE MAKING, CAN YOU TALK US THROUGH HOW WE LANDED ON THAT PERFECT FLAVOUR?

We met Rose & Ness at the Billinudgel Hoedown that we host together with Fallen Broken Street. We immediately wanted to be in their orbit - we’re cut from the same fabric! We’re kinda ‘Fuck Yeah, Colourful!’ people, so we decided to collaborate the day we met. About 18 months ago, we rocked up to NLB head office in Chinderah NSW, we sipped some AZTECA & free-flowed our favourite potential future Margi collab flavours.

We landed on Passionfruit - but we’re stubborn bitches and a lot of time had passed between then and now, so we thought - lets brew up a 1000 different flavours and see what happens…surelyyyyy theyre not THAT ahead of their time! Buttttt, surpriseeee! The girls had their fingers (tongues) on the dial ONCE AGAIN, they nailed it - Passionfruit was the clear winner! This flavour just screams Aussie summer - quality fresh lime juice, fresh passionfruit, salty, sweet and with a touch of Mexican vanilla for added pizzazz which both brands are all about - it just works!

When I sip this margy - a PASSION (scuse the pun) project between NLB & AZTECA - it reminds me of what it means to be a woman - we’re sweet (caregivers - mothers, sisters, daughters - sweet & nurturing) & salty (sassy & sarcastic,) but we also have these deeper, more nuanced layers, the hint of vanilla at the end of your sip - the ‘something more’ you cant quite put your finger on that makes it THAT GOOD. This collab tells that story and were so happy to share it with our besties at Nine Lives Bazaar.

WE’RE PRETTY OBSESSED WITH THE EXCLUSIVE LABEL THAT WE WORKED ON TOGETHER FEATURING OUR CALIFORNIA DREAMING PRINT AND PHOTO SHOT BY YOU GUYS, CAN YOU TELL US THE BACKSTORY OF THE IMAGE?

All our labels pay homage to our manyyyyy trips through Mexico - all of them personal photos from our travel diary, so when we started conceptualising the look & feel of the new flavour with Rose & Ness, we took a romantic dive into the photo archives and this image stood out to us. We took it in March 2020 (on an iphone, just the 2 of us), COVID travel restrictions were just taking hold, we were out the front of one of our favourite distillers in Tequila, Mexico (yup! Tequila is a real place! (some sort of adult heaven) And like Champagne, tequila is origin protected, so if you're sipping tequila, you're sipping from this tiny region in Mexico! Otherwise it’s an ‘agave spirit’ or ‘Mezcal’…and Tequila (the town) is just a 3 hour direct flight from where Jessie grew up in Fresno, California (in fact it's the ONLY international direct flight from the Fresno ‘international’ airport). Growing up in a town in rural California - you grow up Knowing what tacos, tequila and margs shouldddd taste like, and that’s what AZTECA brings home to Australia.

DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS OR TRICKS FOR SHAKING UP THE PERFECT MARGARITA?

Shaking a marg is easy and our bottles tell ya exactly how to do it. However, nothing upsets us more than no rim jobs and bad rim jobs. So here are the tools to be the best rim job giver on the planet:

Pour included Badass AZTECA salt onto a chopping board (warn friends it is only salt)
Run a wedge of lime around the outside of the glass (don't use water, it’ll turn your Badass AZTECA salt into sludge and make future rounds suck)
Roll glass in Badass salt at 45 degree angle
Pour shaken marg into glass AFTER saltin