3 Amigos Tequila

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Learn about 3 Amigos Tequila. Owned and operated by an Ariona family, the company distributes homegrown tequila.

José Cardenas: In tonight's Sounds of Cultura, SOC, a family of farmers with roots on both sides of the Arizona-Mexican border has been successful in marketing and distributing their home-grown organic tequila here in the valley. Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez introduces you to the "3 Amigos Tequila Company."

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: After three years on the market, the 3 amigos tequila company has received national recognition for its unique bold taste and marketed in the valley by a family of farmers with deep roots on both sides of the Arizona and Mexican border.

Santiago Gonzalez: Picked by our own people and we distill it ourselves. We're a small company, but quality is our main objective.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: He grew up in Arizona and one of brothers who own the business. The agave farm is located in the state of Mexico. When the Gonzalezes realized they could distill and sell their own product, Santiago and his brothers decided to venture on their own.

Santiago Gonzalez: We decided to make our tequila and make good tequila about seven years ago, but it takes a long time to get everything started and get like for example, and I got the plants between five and seven years to mature and after you harvest, it takes two, three years in barrels. So it's a long process.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: There are various types of 3 amigos tequila, there's the clear, and then the blanco, and aged in barrels for 11 months and there's a darker one aged for two years.

Santiago Gonzalez: We're honest about what we tell people and how we make our tequila. There's nothing going into it that's not supposed to be there. We're all organic. Our practice is growing practice are all organic. So that's what is so special.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: Santiago and his two brothers run G farm, their headquarters in El Mirage, located next to Luke Air Force Base. They're a farming family. They grow alfalfa, corn, watermelon, potatoes and onions. It's the tequila that is their pride and joy.

Santiago Gonzalez: You do what you have to do to succeed. And when I say anything, anything that's done right in the sun, but we're businessmen but we're farmers, you can be both. I happen to love farming, I love the dirt. I love growing stuff and you take pride. You know, I think of the people that eat the onions that I grow or the watermelons that I grow. And it's -- you know, a sense of accomplishment. And -- to know how many people are enjoying what I do. It's a blessing.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: Whether it's tequila.

Santiago Gonzalez: It doesn't matter.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: Or onions.

Santiago Gonzalez: That's correct.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez: Competing with tequila companies has been a channel. Santiago represents a one-man enterprise for his product. He travels the country and gives people a taste of a different kind of tequila, his goal to be the preferred brand right here in Arizona.

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