Lobos 1707, a Lebron James-backed Tequila company, recently took home the best reposado tequila award at the 2022 San Fransisco World Spirits Competition. Dia Simms, CEO of Lobos 1707, joined Cheddar News to talk about the uniqueness of the award-winning spirit that made a basketball superstar invest after just his first sip. "He's been a phenomenal partner, and he's made the brand obviously grow faster by having access to his engaged and loyal audience," she said about LeBron.

Between Bells

LeBron-Backed Tequila Lobos 1707 Wins Big at San Francisco Spirits Competition

Oh yes, Happy summer Friends. That's our signature cocktail here at cheddar. It's called Worth a shot. Very simple for you to make describe some ice cubes, four ounces of watermelon juice, one ounce of ultra premium lobo 17 07. Hoving tequila. A splash of seltzer, squeeze a lime stir and you're done. There's the recipe right there. And by the way, if you haven't heard of lobos 17 07, well you're definitely missing out. Lobo 17 07 is an independent spirits producer, blending heritage and innovation all with their ultra premium tequila and mescal. Now, the company launched in 2020 that backed by the duo of Diego Osorio and Dia Simms and one guy by the name of Lebron James. Yeah, he was one of the early investors in this company, Two years on Lobo 1707. A major force in the spirit space. So joining us now is Dsm's Ceo of Lobo 17 07 D. A good to have you here on shudder news. People love this Tequila. The company's reposado Tequila recently took home the best reposado Tequila award at the 2022 san Francisco World spirits competition. Congratulations. So what's it mean? They will receive such a coveted honor here. Oh my gosh, first of all, thank you for having me on today and I love the worth the shot. I'm quite jealous that I'm not toasting with you live person. It was, it was a huge deal for us. Our reposado beat out hundreds of really some of the top brands um, in the country. Even in the world san Francisco is like the Oscars for spirit. So when I got the call I was like literally like almost near tears. Like I don't even cry, like my husband says I don't have tear ducts. So that shows you how special it was. That's amazing. By the way, I have the drink right here, worth a shot right here that I'm drinking as well, which is really good and really refreshing when it's 900 degrees outside. Like it is right now now for DEA, those that don't know about the brand, Tell us a little bit about what makes Lobo 1707 unique and and how the company is sort of building a bigger table in this space here. Yes. Um so Lobo 1707. The thing that's so incredible about the brand is it's really just based on the true story of our founders family and history. Lobos means wolves in Spanish and everything that we do about this brand, every like commercial you see is kind of inspired by the way the wolves move like like a pack and they take care of each other and if one is sick they actually take care of that wolf and there's an alpha female, right? Um leading the pack which I like to be inspired by as well and then um we're really fortunate to have these big luminaries like Lebron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger behind us but really the big superstar of Lobos is our liquid in the last 12 months, we've won 40 awards, including the prestigious one we just discussed for lobos reposado but our Hovan, our extra en yay ho, our mescal is just beautiful. So you just, you can't go wrong and you, you can taste better than I can tell you. But the reason why I came on board was the truth and the inspiration of the actual liquid and by the way, the taste of this stuff is absolutely amazing. That list, by the way of the celebrity, you know, people that are working with you guys is incredible. I mean those are some top names in this industry and let's talk about Lebron because he was an early investor with you guys. How is his involvement really boosted Lobo 17 07 here. Oh, he's been such an incredibly savvy partner. Um he sold business forward, he's so thoughtful about the brand integrity. Um he was a real, you know, tequila enthusiast before and the reason why he was like, put me in, I'm writing a check is literally when he had his first sip of it um and he's just great to work with a real gentleman shows up early, does his research. He's been a phenomenal partner and he's made the brand obviously grow faster by having access to his engaged in loyal audience. So Dia, what's been the response from customers so far and consumers, I mean, we were just talking about the reposado, but what products are consumers loving the most here? Well, the response has been incredible from, from the mixology community, which is incredibly important, right? Like you want the people who live in this space who have tasted, you know, responsibly, lots of tequila when they are like, oh damn, you got something good here. That is the biggest compliment. And then we're, we're doing well. Like we, we tripled our plan in the first year. We're growing the whole agave spirits market is growing. We're thrilled to be a part of that trend. And I think, you know, the response has just been, has just been amazing. Yeah. We showed the celebrity backers with you guys, the Tequila market in general is flooded with celebrity offerings. George Clooney's in there. The rock is in there, Kendall Jenner and that's just to name a few. So how does lobos, 1707 continue to stand out in this very crowded market here. Yeah, listen, we are the good news is our founder start this brand for himself in Spain. Um, using sherry cask, which is very different and actually was quite innovative in this space. Right, so all of our liquids are aged in sherry barrels from Spain and then obviously all the liquids from Mexico and it really shows up in how terrific the liquid is. The other pieces when we talk about building a bigger table, Our model, there is, there isn't enough room at the table. We will build a bigger table and we mean that and we walking like we talk and it's the reason why we're where majority owned by minorities, why were women led and everything down to our commercials showcases and shows off the majorities in Mexico and every single person who touches this bottle, we know we can't do it alone. Um, but we invite our consumer to participate, not just in the brown, we even invite them down to our offices and the Lower east side, if you ever want to come through, you have a really sort of amazing history and backstory in this industry. You started off working for Didi, you ran combs enterprises. Talk about that journey, working with him and how that sort of helped shape your career and where you're at now as a leader here. Yeah, it was an incredible run, worked for 14, almost 15 years with sean puff. Daddy, Diddy brother love combs, whatever you may do whatever you may know him as start as his executive assistant and then ended up going to become the first president of combs enterprises. And while working there, we together collaborated and launched a brand called Roc vodka which we built from not doing that. Great to what is today now, multi billion dollar retail value brand. Um and that experience is invaluable. It just, it just showed give a real front seat to when you curate and go after an audience in a cultural way and meet them where they are in a requited and respectful, understanding what that kind of 21 plus with that young with a diverse audience is looking for um how they're gonna pay you back in spades, right? People do vote with their wallets and it's important that when you're building any brand, whether it's, you know, tequila or Kleenex that you are respectful for the strength of your, your, your customer brains and that's why I'm trying to build every brand I've been involved with. Well obviously you've made your mark in the spirit space just on that history right there. But it's only fitting because you're on this show on between bells. We play a little drinking game with you. We're gonna play a little game called this is that cocktail edition? So we want to know which one. Dia. Are you ordering? A dirty martini or an espresso martini by the way. Both of these. My drink of choice here. I'll say dirty martini. Yes, always dirty martini. Always do you take yours with vermouth by the way? Sometimes they'll be like on a saturday evening. Yes, just a spritz justice spritz. Alright, this one this, is that the a frozen margarita or you go in a spicy margarita. Oh spicy. What aren't without Hovan spicy pineapple margarita off the chain. Absolutely. And by the way, spicy margarita when you add it with men's cows. So good. Alright, next up. Oh yes. All right, next up this or that. I'm mojito Or you get in the Moscow mule? Dia. Hmm this is a hard choice is actually a hard choice. I love them both. I've been using are doing like a Hoban mojito which has been incredible. And listen on some Sundays I go for a Moscow mule, I'm not, I'm not, you know, I must say I'm gonna be a little bit spirit, spirit promiscuous. Your spirit curious, you're into all of them. Okay, last one. What are you getting for brunch? This little cocktail one. You grabbing a mimosa or you getting a bloody mary? I'm getting a lobo smoky paloma. Yeah, Alright, and by the way, what is your go to drink? What is, what is the one you're drinking when you're at home? I drink a lot of the reposado, neat just in the glass. Keep it simple. And by the way, this cocktail. Fantastic diaz um Ceo of lobo 17 07, Delicious. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you want to make cheddar signature cocktail worth the shot that I just had with lobos, 1707 Tequila. You can find the recipe on our social channels right now at Cheddar