Santo Tequila
Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and tequila mogul Sammy Hagar was recently kind enough to sit with me for a few minutes to talk about tequila and his journey with the spirit over the years.
In the interview below, I asked him who would on his Mt. Rushmore of Tequila which I found funny because honestly, if there was a proper Mt. Rushmore of Tequila, Sammy Hagar would be the most prominent living figure etched into the mountain. He was the first celebrity to launch their own successful spirit line when he created Cabo Wabo tequila back in 1990 which he would sell in 2008 for $100 million.
Flash forward to present day, and he’s completely engrossed in the tequila world again, not that he ever left. But Sammy Hagar launched Santo Tequila in 2017 and joined forces with Guy Fieri in 2019 has his partner in Santo and they have been making some of the best 100% pure blue agave tequila ever since.
The famous duo recently relaunched ‘Santo Mezquila’ which is a unique blend of tequila and mezcal and if we’re all being honest with each other here, and I certainly am, this might be the best spirit ever produced for making a tequila negroni. I’ve been mixing Santo Mezquila Negronis all month long and this release already received a score of ’94’ from the Beverage Tasting Institute.
An Interview With Sammy Hagar Talking Santo Tequila, His Journey Over The Years, And What Makes Tequila Truly ‘Spiritual’
Santo Tequila
Cass Anderson: “What was your ‘come to tequila moment’ that really drew you to the spirit?”
Sammy Hagar: “Well it started when I was younger with the salt, lime, and tequila shot ritual. That… That’s one of the greatest rituals for drinking on the planet. (Do that) then toast, throw your hands in the air… Yell and scream. Do about four of those and you’re ripping your shirt off, and the next thing you know you’re partying hard.”
“I always liked that but you know, when you start with those mixtos that were popular back then… Well it’s all there was back then, not even popular… But you know, as you grew up, you just said ‘no, no, no, man, I’m not gonna drink like that anymore.’ you know.”
“But I bought the first condo in Cabo San Lucas back in 1977 or 1978. I bought a condo and my friend said, ‘let’s go to Guadalajara and buy some furnitureand whatever you need for the house.’ He said it’s ‘really an artist capital of Mexico and there’s all these great artistic things.'”
“So long story short, we were there a couple of days and he said, ‘let’s go to (the town of) Tequila. Let’s go down to Jalisco and taste some tequila and I go ‘yeah, okay, that sounds like fun.’ And man, I tasted 100% blue agave tequila for the first time and it blew my mind and I just said, wow.”
“Then I decided to build the Cabo Wabo and Eddie and I wrote a song about it. Sold about 8 million records worldwide. And I built the Cabo Wabo and it was strictly going to be a small little palapa roof tequila bar. I was gonna go to Jalisco and just get all those tequilas that I had tasted that nobody knew about had never tasted and probably never would in America. At that time I didn’t think they would ever come to America.”
“I just fell in love with the spirit. You know, we went to these farmers that had their own product. They have hundreds of acres of agave that they would sell to Herradura and Sauza and all the big boys. And then these farmers had their choice agave that they kept for the the 8-year-olds (tequilas). The fattest one… The most beautiful worm free tequila…”
“And they just made their own tequila and they never even took it and put it in jugs. They usually they just left it in the barrels. So you really didn’t even know how old this stuff was when you were tasting it, but it was just so good.”
Santo Tequila
“I mean, I had never had a real añejo. I never had a real anything. So, I went back down and got somebody to make Cabo Wago tequila and they said ‘bring me bottles, and we’ll give you some of ours.'”
“It was honestly that, that, that primitive of a start. And pretty soon I needed to go get real bottles and real manufacturing. But it was always still the farmers that made my tequila and it still is with Juan Eduardo. With Santo. We’re still oriented to make the best tequila we possibly can… And I hate the word ‘additive-free’ because it’s not supposed to have anything in it, you know, it’s real tequila.”
“So we just make the best tequila we can and don’t put anything else in it and use the best barrels we can use. We had to throw our barrels out when we first made our reposado.”
“It was OK. But you know, we started leaving it in there and after about six months of trying to make an añejo it started to get a little musty. So I thought ‘maybe I’ll do (ex)whiskey barrels. And yeah, that’s that’s where my heart is.”
“And Guy Fieri is right there next to me. He does all the yelling and screaming, you know, and I just say ‘no, we can’t do that.'”
Cass Anderson: “I assume you and Guy Fieri did a bunch of tastings together early on and you’ve been a tequila model for a long time. But did he teach you anything cleansing your palate or approaching the tastings differently in any way? Or have a new portal into flavors with his culinary background?”
Sammy Hagar: “Well, first of all, to answer the first part of your question, I am a big fan of using salt first. On your first taste of any tequila even if it’s a cocktail. You know, if it’s a margarita, I like a little bit of salt on the rim. I don’t like a big fat chunk of salt all the way around.”
“It really sets tequila up. It’s kind of like having a martini… How a vodka martini and an olive sets up a steak. You know what I mean? How could you just walk in and have a 28 day dry age border house steak without having a martini first? Right?”
Cass Anderson: “How long into that journey of tasting with salt did it take you before you started making your own sea salt?”
Sammy Hagar: “Oh, man, I started making that right away and it wasn’t just because of the tequila. I was also catching fish out of the ocean in front of my house in Cabo. These nice little sand perch and stuff.”
“And I was wanting to put a pack it in the salt that I made from the ocean where the fish came out of the same water. And Mario Batali, a friend of mine, he told me how to do it on the phone while I was in Mexico in Cabo.”
“So I made this salt and left it a little moist… And I don’t know… There’s something about having the same thing… The same salt from the same ocean, the same fish, you know, and laying out in the sun and, and going in that water yourself. There’s just something about that that’s really special.”
“I think it matters. And the only thing (is)… how can you make food any better than all these great chefs? How can they make food better than somebody else? They gotta have just some little ingredients that just are some symbiotic ingredients where some the chickens were eating the corn and then you’re eating the chicken and you’re making the corn polenta.”
“But I believe in salt before (tequila), especially before a straight shot of Blanco. I mean, absolutely has to be salt.”
“If you’re gonna do shots, and I wouldn’t do it every time but, but if you’re doing shots start off that way and if you eat something then you should eat the salt again before you start eating.”
“Also, if it’s an Añejo then I don’t mind cinnamon and orange instead of salt. Maybe a cinnamon salt. And sometimes even sugar with an Añejo but not a lot of sugar, like an agave syrup and then rub it in orange and put a little agave syrup on it and then dip it in cinnamon. But try that one time and if you get it right it’s really, really good.”
Santo Tequila
“But the thing Guy Fieri has taught me with his crazy palate is because he’s such a food guy and he’s eaten everything on this planet with his TV show. So he’s gotten into making some pretty whacked out cocktails and I like what he does with the Mezquila. He’s a big flavor guy. He’s the Flavor Town man. You know, Mr. Flavor Town. He really is.”
“So when he takes a Mezquila with the Mezcal in it and that smokiness and he starts using chilies and kind of weird ingredients. He’s turned me on some pretty good stuff but I’m a traditionalist so he’s always trying to get me out of my wheelhouse. And I was like ‘man, you know, I’m a purist.’ I just like it simple clean. You know, I’ve been through all that whacked out stuff and I want to taste the tequila. I want to taste the lime. I want to taste the syrup… The sweetness… The orange peels, whatever you’re using.”
“And I want to taste those things. And anything else you add to it, to me, well, it’s interesting but it’s not as good because the original is the best to me. I just like a Blanco. I’m a Blanco Tequila guy.”
Cass Anderson: “What are some misconceptions that people have about tequila that you often find as sort of an ambassador to the spirit?”
Sammy Hagar: “Oh… I think a lot of people still think it’s rot gut, you know, they still think it’s garbage and that it’s their college go-to liquor. I think it’s pretty much understood now by most people that it’s a fine spirit. But most people still remember when it wasn’t and when they taste it, they still go ‘nah.’ Even if it’s pure and great.”
“And it’s really a misconception that it’ll give you a hangover because pure tequila will not give you a hangover more than any other spirit. Everybody knows that. If you start having margaritas with the sweetener in there and all that, maybe you’ll get a little bit of a hangover if you overdo it.”
“But in general, tequila is a pure spirit. It’s so spiritual. The word ‘spirit’ to me is more about tequila than any other spirit.”
“You think about vodka, you can make it out of anything. Whiskey, you can make it out of anything basically.”
“But tequila, it’s got to be made from Agave. It’s a beautiful, beautiful plant that tastes delicious when you cook it. You know, you can’t just scarf it.”
“I like potato vodka by the way because it does have flavor. But you try to eat one of those potatoes they, they put in that, it’s a whole other kind of beast. It is not an Idaho Russet potato.”
Cass Anderson: “You mentioned a few friends and tequila, is Bob Weir a tequila guy? Have you ever turned him on to tequila?”
Sammy Hagar: “Oh, absolutely. You know, Bob’s a funny guy. He’s such a trendy guy. You meet up with him and you hang with him one week, he’s a vegetarian and the next week he’s eating nothing but steak. Then the next week, you know, he’s not drinking saying ‘no, no, no, I quit drinking’ and I say ‘ok.'”
“Then a couple of weeks later saying, ‘hey man, you gotta hit tequila’ and knocking on my door. But Bob, he does like tequila. He appreciates it because Bob likes Mexico like me. He loves Mexico.”
Cass Anderson: “Do you think there’s a coastal divide in any way between East Coast and West Coast appreciation of tequila? With the West Coast’s proximity to Mexico factoring into that in any way?”
Sammy Hagar: “Well, you know, I think, I think it’s all territorial, it’s all regional in some ways. Of course, Florida, especially southern Florida has got to be more of a rum place. You’re right there where the sugar cane is, you know, you go in Tennessee and places like that, Kentucky, you’re gonna get more into the whiskey and bourbons and so California, I could see that how tequila came into California first. That’s for sure.”
“You know, back in the old days, John Wayne and those guys brought and Vern Underwood, brought in Cuervo. And so I think I could see that. But hell, you got a place like New York City…”
“So I would say with Santo, if I took one state that I’d say, ‘I’d like to be the number one tequila’ and I’d say New York because it’s the biggest population this up.”
Cass Anderson: “Who would be on your Mount Rushmore?”
Sammy Hagar: “Absolutely Guy (Fieri). There would be a picture of Guy and I, and a big the Santo Tequila cross, the logo would be, that would be my Mt. Rushmore.”
To learn more about Sammy Hagar and Guy Fieri’s Santo Tequilas, visit the SantoSpirits website which also has a handy ‘locate’ option so you can find it for sale near you.