Taylor Steele, Founder of Solento Tequila, and legendary filmmaker sits down with Carolyn for an inside look at the creativity and community behind building a premium Tequila brand.

How do you express your creative voice through your Tequila?

Solento has given me a platform to share my creative passions. We have a great community of art and design friends behind the brand, so it’s allowed us to work on this project together - whether that be the design of the bottle or the films and photography I’ve helped produce for the brand. 

You visited over 30 distilleries. How did you make the decision to work with Tequila Las Americas?

When I started building Solento, the first, and honestly, most important step was finding the right Tequila producers to partner with. There were a few factors that were non negotiable, the first was an undeniably high quality Tequila, the second was a production process that respected the land it was grown in.After visiting over 30 distilleries, the one that hit all of these marks were our friends, the Montes Family. They’ve been producing small batches of Tequila for over 60 years and they practice a production process that respects the environment: harvesting sustainably-maintained, organic, blue agave.

Solento is certified Organic, why this is important to you and the brand. 

Sustainability is core to our beliefs as a business and we take great care in making sure we respect the environment every step of the way - from what materials we use for our bottle to how we produce our product. By being certified organic, we are ensuring our production methods stay in line with this philosophy by avoiding the use of pesticides - it’s better for the farmers, the local communities, and for the person sipping Solento. Not to mention, it results in a great tasting Tequila.

You hosted an amazing series with guests and friends through Covid lockdown, what inspired you to make that happen?

Solento was founded as a way to help people slow down and connect. After lockdown happened, everyone was forced to slow down yet it was scary and also lonely. So it made us want to find ways to help people feel connected and share some positivity.

We have a lot of wonderful folks behind our brand, who we like to call our Solento Family and I thought it would be great to connect with everyone during this time. Cultivating this group of people who value the important things in life, like being mindful and present, having deeper connections, and having a curious, open mind - has been my biggest joy since starting the company, and I’m glad to have this community at a time like now.

Favorite way to enjoy Solento?

Keep it simple to enjoy the smooth and easy flavor by sipping over ice with a slice of lemon.