Meet Lost Lore, the Tequila Brand Fighting for Immigrant Rights in the US

(Photos: Lost Lore)

Lost Lore is a Mexican tequila brand. On its face, that might sound like an obvious, if not reductive, descriptor. After all, tequila can only be called “tequila” if produced in one of five Mexican states, where the agave spirits boom of the past two decades has given birth to an export economy of multi-billion-dollar proportions.

But much has changed over the past 20 years. The market is industrializing on both the production and ownership side, consolidating into a small handful of international firms that own the lion’s share of agave spirits sold on American shelves. Tequila — the spirit of Mexico — has had its proverbial spirit plucked elsewhere.

Lost Lore, founded by wife and husband Sarah Lamas and Arturo Lamas III in 2021, is a quiet rebuke of the status quo. The brand’s glass is made from broken and melted shards of Coca-Cola bottles; its over dozen bespoke labels created by an artist in Guanajuato. It’s at the forefront of a new tequila boom, one that spotlights additive-free recipes and old-school production methods like the volcanic stone tahona. The brand has released a staggering number of bottlings in a staggeringly short window of time, garnering much fanfare from the die-hard tequila community along the way.

Lost Lore’s latest move will see it partner with non-profit Hasta La Raíz to support immigrant rights organizations in the United States. We sat down with co-founder Arturo Lamas III to understand why.

Tequila for a Cause

A forthcoming release from Lost Lore that will donate a portion of proceeds to a Mexican foundation dedicated to breast cancer awareness and early detection education for women.

“The story begins in the 1920s with my great-grandfather,” Arturo says. “He was a distiller of tequila; it was a tradition that was passed down from him to my grandfather to my father, and my father moved to the U.S. in the mid-1970s for opportunity.” 

Arturo’s father was a migrant farm worker. He worked in California, picked oranges alongside Arturo’s future mother in Florida, and later traveled north to the Chicagoland area, where they continued harvesting produce. Eventually, his father grew tired of the constant movement and took a job at a factory. It was during this period, in Illinois, that Arturo was born.

“I’d always hear my father talk about distilling with my grandfather and aunts and uncles. It really interested me because I wanted to be like my dad. I still want to be like my dad,” Arturo adds. “I found it sad, in a lot of ways, that we had this tradition in our family for fifty-plus years, and it kind of just went away when my father moved to the US for opportunity. Not only opportunity for himself, but for my sister and me.”

Hence, Lost Lore: Reclaiming a lost tradition, reviving a family trade that may have eroded, but not vanished, over the centuries.

Arturo traveled to Mexico and partnered with Sergio Cruz of the Feliciano Vivanco y Asociados distillery, among the upper crust of tequila makers leading the additive-free renaissance of the past few years. The facility is a who’s who of beloved names, home to a bevy of recent favorites including Alma del Jaguar and De Nada. Arturo had founded Chicago’s Soundgrowler Brewery a few years prior, and saw an opportunity to combine his beer expertise with the fast-growing — but in many ways creatively stagnant — tequila space.

“I brought that whole ideology to tequila,” Arturo says. “Breaking down process, breaking down ingredients. Coming out with a lot of different profiles. We’ve come out with maybe 16 or 17 different tequilas so far, and we probably have another four coming out in the next couple of months. We like to keep innovating the tequila space; it’s something that you don’t see too often.” 

That passion for experimentation has earned a dedicated following in the agave community. While most brands are content to launch a blanco, reposado and añejo, Lost Lore has plumbed truly nerdy depths — the kind of niche category creation that mishmashes words rarely, if ever, found alongside one another on a tequila label.

Its Reposado Rested series has made use of everything from stout to barleywine casks, while single barrel releases have run the gamut from ex-Buffalo Trace to jackfruit wood (tastes like licorice, lime and sweet potato, or so we’ve heard).

Lost Lore’s latest release marries its limited-edition strategy with a good cause. At the end of May, the brand will collaborate with Hasta La Raíz, founded by beer industry veteran and first-generation citizen Jessica Salas in 2025. The group connects beverage makers with Freedom for Immigrants, a non-governmental organization dedicated to abolishing immigration detention centers across the U.S. To that end, the organization has tackled a swath of issues, launching a national immigration detention hotline, documenting civil rights abuses and connecting incarcerated voices with opportunities to share their stories in the media. Freedom for Immigrants has helped raise $3.6 million to pay the immigration bonds of over 460 people, and in 2023, helped reinstate social visitation rights at detention centers nationwide.

A collaborative beer label design between ISM Brewing and Hasta La Raíz. (Photo: Hasta La Raíz)

Hasta La Raíz has partnered with over 50 breweries, each of which has released at least one beer that donates a portion of proceeds to Freedom for Immigrants. Lost Lore will be the organization’s first collaborator in the tequila world.

“The idea behind the collaboration is to highlight immigration here in the United States. Raising funds for a non-profit organization that helps with advocacy, helps people in detention, and helps educate immigrants about their rights in the society we live in now,” Arturo says.

Lost Lore isn’t the first tequila brand to support immigrant rights in the United States — though it is one of surprisingly few in recent memory.

In 2023, Episcopal priest Lorenzo Lebrija launched Sanctus Aquam, an agave spirit that donated 100% of proceeds to a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to assisting refugee children along the US-Mexico border (the project was short-lived, though bottles are still available for purchase online and have thus far raised at least $7,000). Corporate-owned players have pitched in as well. Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, Hornitos launched its “A Fair Shot” program to empower aspiring Americans toward citizenship; months later, Ilegal Mezcal joined forces with Team Brownsville to provide humanitarian assistance for asylum seekers.

Beyond that, however, examples are hard to come by. Lost Lore is the sole tequila brand to partner with Hasta La Raíz, and no equivalent organization has cropped up to connect immigrant rights NGOs with spirits makers. There’s no infrastructure encouraging agave brands to donate to the cause. And it’s easy to speculate why.

Successful as it may be, the agave spirits market of 2026 is fraught with headwinds. Tightening margins; a swell of well-funded competitors; a head-to-head battle with the cannabis industry and the omnipresent threat of tariffs. Legacy distillers and promising upstarts alike are fighting harder than ever to stay on liquor store shelves. Partnering with a nonprofit is the last priority on most brands’ agenda — particularly when that partnership may ruffle feathers in the current political climate.

“This isn’t left or right to us,” Arturo adds. “This is something that’s more tied to me, my personal thoughts and ideas. My parents were immigrants in this country and they worked very, very hard. So we’re here to support immigration.

“This tradition was lost when my father moved to the U.S. for opportunity. But it’s back now. This is a story that’s not only about our family, but also about a lot of immigrant families here in the United States. It doesn’t matter if you’re an immigrant from Mexico, a European country or whatever it may be; everyone was a maker in some shape or form. I think it’s cool to bring back heritage and what our families used to make.”

If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to check out Lost Lore, Hasta La Raíz and Freedom for Immigrants on their respective websites.