Before Alex Lacroix co-founded Siempre Tequila, he worked in advertising. So did Monica Sanita, his partner in life and business. They spent their days building campaigns for corporations that, as Alex puts it, "essentially lie to maximize profits." The irony wasn't lost on them. They wanted to build something honest.
The idea for Siempre started as a shared dream: to have something that was truly theirs. A place where they could make their own rules and break them if they had to. It was also a jump-off point. Alex wanted to lead by example for his daughter and do something that didn't rely on his old life.
The early days were exactly as unglamorous as you'd expect. Almost two years of cold calls, faxes, distillery visits, and sketching labels with a pencil, all while working jobs that were supposed to be 9-to-5 but were really 7-to-midnight. When they finally had a product, they loaded up a tequila van in Ottawa, Ontario, and drove it across the U.S. border. Sometimes 36 hours of driving.
They dragged the bag. Hand-selling the brand, tasting people liquid-to-lips, one bottle at a time, one account at a time. No marketing budget. No billboards. Just grassroots hustle and social posts. The single most important marketing tool they had was the packaging itself: the hidden gems, the Easter eggs, the glass engravings, the messages baked into every detail of the bottle.
The name "Siempre" means always seeing the bottle half full. For Alex, the meaning runs deeper. He was once sitting in a jail cell facing 27 charges. Most people in that position double down. Alex used it as motivation to build something better. "We all have bumps, bruises, and scars, but they make us unique. Siempre is the embodiment of that thinking."
The roses on the bottle tell their own story. The first time Alex visited Monica's family home, he brought flowers for her mom. When he went to replace the dead flowers sitting next to photos of loved ones who had passed, she told him not to take them down because they were still beautiful. That moment became the design: roses that are both dead and alive.
Siempre's production journey has its own chapter. They started at a distillery run by a great master distiller, but when he retired, the place lost its soul. "They chose business over craft and quality, and we felt out of place." Through their friendship with Sergio Cruz, they made the move to Viva Mexico, NOM 1414, and the Vivanco family.
"We chose the Vivanco family because going there feels like home. They felt like family, and eventually, they became family. They allow us to do all the crazy, innovative things we do with our product today. Even if it means more effort and making mistakes along the way, that effort creates something beautiful."
Ten years in, Siempre is still independent, still hands-on, and still choosing the hard way. Alex doesn't sugarcoat it.
"You're not paying for a billboard. You're not paying for an advertising campaign. You're paying for exactly what you expect when you pay that kind of money for a bottle. You're paying for liquid made by people who are obsessed with making good liquid."
"If you choose Siempre, you're choosing the road less traveled. You're choosing the hard way. You're choosing people who chose to do it right, even though there was an easier choice to be made. You're choosing love."
Shop the full Siempre Tequila collection on Sip.
