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Iván Saldaña eyes Latin America for NPD

We caught up with the co-founder of Casa Lumbre, Iván Saldaña, on his plans to move beyond Mexican spirits, and working with Lewis Hamilton.

Casa Lumbre
Saldaña hopes Almave will open interest for other Mexican companies looking to make non-alcoholic ‘spirits’

When it comes to Mexican spirits, and ingredients, there is one man who knows all. Iván Saldaña Oyarzábal, who even has a PhD in plant biology, is the co-founder and master distiller of Casa Lumbre, one of Mexico’s more well-known spirits producers. Known for his adventurous approach to agave-based products – and not just limited to Tequila – it was he who Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton sought out to create non-alcoholic agave ‘spirit’ Almave, which could act as a substitute to Tequila.

Hamilton, who doesn’t drink, came up with the idea and wanted something where he would be “proud to scream the name of the product on the other side of the room”, Saldaña says, speaking to The Spirits Business. “The anecdote he was telling us was ‘look, I go to a bar or a friend’s party and want to drink something without alcohol, and it ends up being ginger ale. It could be so much better. I wanted to create a brand for people like me, who value the option to not suffer the effects of alcohol, but can drink something for adults that’s rich, complex and authentic.”

Saldaña says “we are not trying to mimic Tequila as such, we are an agave-based product that has the same sensorial content as Tequila as it’s made from real agave – but it doesn’t taste identical when you drink it neat”. To draw the non-alcoholic non-believers in, he thinks Almave’s ability to work in Tequila cocktails will boost its appeal. “The beauty of this is that it can really bring the flavours of agave, and it can work in a Margarita or Paloma,” he adds. Almave is a distilled spirit and the challenge was repeating the distillation process multiple times (seven or so) before “things started to appear”.

It’s not just about the aroma, Saldaña makes clear. “You need other sensations, you need the mouthfeel, you need a certain pungency, so when extracting aromas from agave, the question was how can we build something that keeps those in front of the experience but that gives more structure to it too.”

Main markets

Almave is available in two flavours; Blanco (recommended for non-alcoholic cocktails) and Almar (recommended for sipping neat). Blanco is said to have agave’s vegetal aromas and herbal green profile, while Ambar has a darker amber hue and cooked notes of caramel, vanilla and cacao. The two launched in the US last year, and both have now made their way to the UK.

Casa Lumbre
The most important countries for Almave are the UK, US and Mexico

Marketing-wise, Saldaña and team are carrying out something they call the ‘Almave circuit’ where they tour bars with Almave, and the spirit was also in the public eye at Silverstone last weekend, helped along by Hamilton’s presence, and victory of course.

The UK is seen as a fundamental market for Almave, because Hamilton’s British, London is a focal point for the drinks industry and the UK is one of the biggest proprietors of the low-and-no trend. Mexico is also important (where Saldana is from) and the US is the other key market, being the world’s largest consumer of agave. While Europe is in sight for the future, particularly France, the three aforementioned markets are where the focus will lie for now.

“Sometimes you need to open the markets little by little”, Saldana says. “Making successful what we have already launched is a lot of work in itself. I will continue travelling and speaking to consumers, and to the trade about what I do. There’s an enormous amount of energy that has to be dedicated to a product after it is out there in order to make it successful.”

And while that energy is primarily being spent on Almave at the moment, it’s not as though Saldana doesn’t have anything else up his sleeve. In the background, he and Casa Lumbre have much going on, although he remains tightlipped about the finer details.

Future plans 

In terms of adding more to the non-alcoholic sphere, he says: “We will never close the door on putting so much effort into extracting wonderful things out of agave. This time [with Almave] it was with Blue Weber agave right, but yeah, there’s other options.”

When asked specifically about where trends are for Mexican spirits, considering the current popularity of Tequila, he points out that “Mexico is a trend by itself”. “Tequila is very crowded but it’s an enormous space where exploration will continue. Ready-to-drink (RTD) is a space that has gained a lot of momentum and I think we can do things with more quality and excitement that some other people perhaps don’t. Raw materials are so interesting, like coffee for example, and juices… the natural ingredients. Mexico is a place rich in ingredients.

“I think the world has been looking for authentic propositions coming from Mexico – and we’ve been delivering them in the last few years.”

Casa Lumbre
Saldaña is open to developing products outside of Mexico

Co-founded with Mexican singer and actor Diego Boneta, the Saldaña-developed Tequila Defrente is set to hit UK shelves soon, having previously just been available to consumers in Mexico. The spirit is a blend of three different Tequilas. Additionally while much of Casa Lumbre’s activity is still focused on its older brands Ojo de Tigre mezcal (which gained investment from Pernod Ricard), and Montelobos mezcal and chilli liqueur Ancho Reyes (Campari Group owns a 51% stake in the two brands) Saldaña hints that he will be returning to his Tequila roots (he started out in Tequila and was in charge of new product development for brands like Altos Tequila), and Defrente is the first of these projects.

Overall, Saldaña says compared to its own numbers Casa Lumbre is growing and doing well. Gran Malo, a Tequila liqueur with flavours such as tamarind and horchata, is seeing a lot of success and Alma Finca, an orange liqueur designed for Margaritas and a new product launch from last September, is another being pushed, as is a liqueur called Nixta, which has a bottle in the shape of a corn on the cob.

In 2021, Casa Lumbre partnered with Neil Sands and Tim Herlihy to launch Lost Irish whiskey. At the time the collaboration was described as Casa Lumbre’s first move beyond Mexican spirits. This train of thought, Saldaña says, has not been lost. “It’s open, we’re exploring. I’m in Peru right now and I’ve been discovering more of Colombia. I don’t know if that will help you to guess or know what I’m doing. You probably won’t get it even if you think you can. But we believe we can put things into action and have the ability to bring flavours from different geographies, mostly Latin America. But we are always open to partner with people that are similar minded and have a pure passion for what we consider important.”

Exploring Mexican spirits is still the main mission and one with a lot of life left. Saldaña notes that consumers can expect a lot more from the company in 2025. What that might be, though, is only to Casa Lumbre’s knowledge. “We don’t want to show the movie before it’s actually made”, he says.

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