Authentico Voices:
Written By Ryne Iseminger Freshie Imports & Authentico Founder
Authentico Organic Tequila is founded by Paige Iseminger, Ryne Iseminger, and Timm Martin in partnership with the García family of Tequilas Del Señor - Nom 1124. This brand is a story of legacy, innovation, disruption, and most importantly two families coming together to create high quality organic tequila products while being stewards of the earth in every step of the process.
When we created the Authentico brand together, our goal was to create a better brand rooted in fairness. We want to be fair to our farmers, distillery workers, to the earth, and ultimately to you... the customer by offering a high quality organic tequila at a fair price. Everything we do is family style and Authentico is not meant to collect dust on your shelf as a collector item, although we hope you do collect your favorite batches! We want Authentico to be your workhorse whether it's behind the bar as a mixologist or your at home serving your family and friends cocktails or tasting flights. No stress about your guests or crew grabbing a bottle from the shelf and exploring the whole line up!
Timm Martin, Paige Martin Iseminger, & Ryne Iseminger
This was our first time going to the fields with the García Family. Yes that rainbow is real. No AI or Photoshop. And Yes, this was probably one of the last times I had a real haircut! We were seduced by the majestic blue agave growing beautifully in the rugged landscape of the Jalisco Highlands. Blinded by the beauty, we embarked on this crazy journey of starting our own organic tequila company with no turning back.
Timm Martin, Paige's Dad, has been a long time aficionado of Mexico since he was 18 traveling from University of Arizona to Puerto Vallarta and a magical island called Yelapa. As a young college kid his travels were not plush. He slept on the beach during his travels with buddies and may have been poked by the federales a few times to wake up. He played music on the streets with his friends for cerveza money and a warm meal. As a musician and entrepreneur he fell in love with the feeling of Mexico, the pace of life, and the peace it brings him. Eventually he had three daughters and Mexico became a special place as a family for them to visit long time friends, enjoy the culture, food, music, art, and ocean life. No he did not make them sleep on the beach!
In contrast and parallel, fast forward to University of Kansas in 2007. Paige and I are 18 and meet each other for the first time in our co-ed dorm Naismith. We were two kids from Chicagoland area and although we had many mutual friends, it wasn't until she got off the elevator on the wrong floor... my floor that we saw each other. It was a pleasant surprise, but brief passing that started our eventual love story. We quickly became an inseparable couple, combining friend groups and enrolling in all the same classes together. This led us to finding our passion together in entrepreneurship, as we began taking classes from Wally Meyer who was on the team who invented the Life Saver candy for Nabisco after his niece choked on a hard piece of candy. Life Saver... get it now? :) That guy inspired us to the max. Paige and I got hooked on the program and helped KU to create an actual ENTR degree that we could achieve and were the first two students to complete the program. Stick with me I like to give details and this story is a lil bit of a cruise, but don't worry I'll get us to the destination!
Alright, so like I said Timm has three daughters, so when I started coming around I think he was pretty pumped to have another guy around. Even if it meant I was dating his youngest, babygirl daughter Paige. I made it through initial phases of zingers and Dad tests until we became buddies too and grew a bond with him just like I did with Paige. He began bringing me to their enlightening trips to Mexico that I always heard about and treated me just like I was a part of the family already.
Now Fast Forward to 2015, and we are in Puerto Vallarta having a lot of fun! Maybe a lil too much fun and the crew of our friends who joined were on the struggle bus, including myself. Timm is totally fine, he did his normal morning hill hike and enjoyed breakfast. I needed a hair of the dog cocktail, but wasn't feeling a cerveza or marg. I needed something light, refreshing, and crisp that could get me back in the game and ready for another day in paradise. I saw a bottle of tequila blanco, fresh limes, Pellegrino sparkling water, and agave nectar in the kitchen and made a cocktail that would revive me but also be the catalyst to this whole journey. The cocktail revived the whole crew that day and I kept making them the rest of the trip. I kept making them when I got home and quickly this cocktail became called a Freshie. Similar to a ranch water, but like I said we are from Chicago not Texas so therefore its a Freshie to us. We made Freshie for friends and family at music festivals, parties, bbq's, pool hangs, or wherever. It literally bubbled up to become a cult favorite amongst our big friend and family group in the midwest. It got to the point, we knew something was happening around us by seeing beer, bourbon, wine drinkers all preferring Freshie and ultimately realizing they do like how tequila makes them feel at our gatherings and the next day.
Now it's 2017, brands like White Claw, Truly, and eventually High Noon were popping up creating what we call the Seltzer Revolution. Nobody was doing it with tequila and nobody seemed to care to be organic, so we went to work trying to can up Freshie for our wedding in Mexico. Mainly because I can't be behind the bar making everyone Freshies and although it's a simple cocktail, you do need to nail the ratios. We had no idea how to get limes, tequila, cans, etc. to actually do this but we trademarked the name and were doing our due diligence. That's when a miracle happened and friends of friends had relatives who own a tequila distillery that specializes in organic agave and sustainable production. That's where the García family at Tequilas Del Señor enters the picture and although we did not get it canned up for our wedding, this connection is the greatest wedding gift of all time. We flew out to meet them and made them their first freshie. They thought we were crazy..."You want to take our delicious tequila and mix it with sparkling water and put it in a can?" That's like breaking all the rules of tequila, but something was happening in the US and we wanted to be the disruptors of the tequila RTD space. Together we went to work and through trial, tribulations, insanely difficult certification processes to be organic, can shortages, and oh yea COVID... we got it done and launched Freshie - the world's first organic tequila seltzer™ in 2020.
Paige Iseminger, Juan Manuel García, Santiago García, Ryne Iseminger, Don Manuel García, Gabriel García, Timm Martin
The journey did not stop there, in fact we were only getting started. We launched two more flavors and our variety packs while growing the brand in IL, TN, and FL. We learned a lot about the industry, importing, tequila, and the evolving trends in alcohol. We always knew we wanted to also add a tequila line to compliment Freshie. When I made Freshies by hand they were not 4.5% and if you used a vanilla blanco (you know what I mean) for example to boost your Freshie, it totally ruined the taste. We needed a nice neutral blanco with fresh agave and residual sweetness, so we went back to the drawing boards with the Tequilas Del Señor family to create an organic tequila to compliment Freshie. Instead of a beer and shot, we do a Freshie and a side sipper. Tequilas Del Señor already had an unused trademark under the name Authentico. After seeing what we did with the Freshie brand from scratch, they were gracious enough and trusting to offer the name to us for our next big project. Nobody is more authentic than Don Manuel García and it was the biggest honor for us to have the opportunity to build a brand to honor his legacy, his father's legacy, and ultimately the Gracia family's legacy. We worked hand in hand on tasting profiles and what we wanted to offer to the American market and beyond. We trust them with their craftsmanship of some of the finest tequila in the world and they trust us with the vision and feel of the brand. As we continued down the path to create Authentico, we quickly learned that Organic is important, Sustainability is even more important, but to be the cleanest tequila inside and out we need to be 100% transparent and confidently make Authentico with only three ingredients: organic agave, yeast, and water. That's it, no sweetners, no secrets.
From day to day Timm handles business and operations as our CEO. Paige and myself as the founders, have our hands in everything bringing the brand to life through our creative vision, storytelling, social media, and connecting with the industry and community in person. We are also founders of Festy Besty which is a music festival clothing and footwear brand that made a big impact in the scene at festivals all over the world and online. This is where we learned the power of community, social media, events, marketing, and blossomed as designers. That's a whole other story but totally connected to our journey.
In Mexico, the García family works in tandem just like our family. Located in Tlaquepaque right outside of metropolitan Guadalajara, Tequilas Del Señor is the oldest distillery in the area and over time became engulfed by the growing community around them. Founded in 1943, they are one of the oldest continually family owned distilleries in all of Mexico. Don Manuel is the Gran Tequilero of TDS and worked hand in hand with his father and founder Nace Don César García. They have been creating tequila for over 80+ years as a family! Now, Don Manuel works with his three sons Juan Manuel, Santiago, and Gabriel. Don Manuel is focused on the juice, the flavor, how it makes him feel and how he wants it to make you feel. He won't bottle anything that he is not proud to share. One of my favorite things he ever told me was the meaning of Tequilas Del Señor. It means tequila of the lord, he believes his craft is not his, it's coming from the source so therefore it's free flowing and meant to share. His knowledge, unique processes, and craftsmanship isn't a secret but an open book to show the power of the Lord. He has graciously shared lots of his techniques with his friends who are master distillers of much bigger and more famous brands. I like to say Don Manuel is your favorite master distiller's favorite master distiller. He is truly one of a kind and his energy is some of the most special I have encountered in my life. Juan Manuel manages distillery operations day to day. Santiago manages the fields and the incredible compost site. Thats a blog post in it's self, so stay tuned for that. They are a neutral carbon certified and solar powered distillery. Their goal is to be zero wasted by taking all leftover piñas, liquid, and materials to their organic compost site. That compost or soil is used by many farmers and agave growers all over Mexico. Gabriel is our point guard. He handles business operations and without his belief in us and support none of this is possible. He travels the world representing Tequilas Del Señor as they mainly distribute their other brands in Mexico, Europe, and Asia. In the history of Tequilas Del Señor they have been honored by the president of Mexico for their commitment to sustainability, they have had royalty like Queen Elizabeth II sip their tequila, they were the original Reserva Del Patron, and many more iconic moments since 1943. Our biggest mission as the Authentico brand is to honor their heritage, legacy, and commitment to tequila, as well as the Earth.
