This week I spoke with the Director of Communications for tequila mega-brand, Patrón. Greg Cohen discusses his passion for tequila, the versatility of the spirit and the practices and quality that have made Patrón a permanent fixture on shelves at home and in bars around the world.
Drink of the Week (DOTW): How long have you been with Patrón?
Greg Cohen (GC): For a number of years. I’ve been working with Patrón for at least five or six. I’ve sort of lost count.
DOTW: Why Patrón? Do you have a passion for tequila?
GC: I do have a passion for tequila and like a lot of people I think that ultra-premium tequila, high-end, and high-quality tequila is such a fascinating spirit and is so unlike a lot of other tequilas. The number of cocktails that you can create, the flavor of the spirit, the history and the culture surrounding the spirit, everything about it makes for a fascinating and wonderful product.
DOTW: What would you say the Patrón brand stands for?
GC: Without question, the Patrón brand stands for quality. No matter how big we’ve become, we still are very much focused on a high-quality good. Instead of building bigger ovens and bigger fermentation tanks and bigger pot stills, what we’ve done to maintain the handcrafted quality of the original recipe of the product is replicate our process so that, essentially, we’ve got twelve distilleries all under one roof at our distillery in Mexico. The only way to grow and yet maintain the quality that comes out of here is to make sure that the recipe is never changed — and it hasn’t. It’s a lot more expensive to do it that way, of course, but it’s the only way to maintain the special quality of what made this brand successful.
DOTW: And Patrón is successful. It’s been around for almost 25 years now and Patrón Tequila is the world’s number one ultra-premium tequila. What’s behind all the success?
GC: It really does come down to the quality and consistency that’s in the bottle. We never would have grown to where we are today if we didn’t have a high-quality product that people enjoy.
DOTW: Patrón is known for tequila, but what makes Pyrat Rum and Ultimat Vodka so good?
GC: Again, the philosophy of our company. Everything we do we do with a great care and attention to detail. We only sell premium spirits, that’s the business we’re in. Those are ultra-premium brands that we believe are the best in their class. We believe that we have products that are different, better, and special. Ultimat is the only vodka that is made from a combination of wheat, rye and potato where most other vodkas are made from one or two of those ingredients. Most people drink vodka mixed in a cocktail, and better spirits make better cocktails. I think that’s what people are discovering when they try Ultimat Vodka and Pyrat Rum.
Visit patronspirits.com for more information.
Image courtesy of Patrón.
