‘Don’t Talk Into the Mic for a $1,200 Bottle of Tequila!’: TikTok’s Favorite Tequila Finally Hits the Market, but We Have Some Questions
After years of viral antics, Esquisito Tequila is finally available to the public. (Photo: Esquisito Tequila)
Chances are, you already know Esquisito Tequila even if you haven’t tried it.
Over the past couple years, the brand has built a social media empire on the back of quick, grabby content filmed around the streets of Miami. The brand’s most popular video format — a variation on Jimmy Kimmel’s “Don’t Talk Into the Mic and Win $10” routine — has launched it to viral stardom.
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On TikTok, Esquisito boasts over half a million followers, 9 million likes and counting. On Instagram, the brand has 221k followers — over 100,000 more than Jose Cuervo, the largest tequila company in the world.
You’d be easily mistaken to think that Esquisito has been available to the public for years. But looks, especially on social media, can be deceiving. In reality, all the TikTok fanfare has been part of an elaborate pre-launch marketing campaign building up to its limited release on July 6th.
When the Buy Now link went live at 1 pm on Thursday, Esquisito sold out within hours.
In an era of endless hashtags and flash-in-the-pan trends, Esquisito hit a marketing home run. However, here are a few things to know before you buy into the self-proclaimed “Cult of Esquisito.”
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First off, a bottle of Esquisito Tequila doesn’t actually cost $1,200, at least not really. Since the very beginning, bottle prices were planned at $185 a piece, with $1,200 being its “club price.”
Another tidbit of marketing trickery lies in its product description, which describes Esquisito as the “World’s First ‘Repojeño’ Tequila —an extraordinary blend of our best Reposado and Añejo.” While we believe that Esquisito might be the first to use the term “repojeño,” it is certainly not the first brand to release a blended batch tequila, not by a long shot.
None of this should be interpreted as a sweeping condemnation of Esquisito; making big claims in your marketing material is par for the course of every tequila producer on the planet.
The real story here is that Esquisito managed to launch an entire brand on the back of social media presence alone.
Apart from the distillery (Casa Camarena) and the tasting notes provided on its site (hints of toffee, banana and vanilla), we as consumers know nothing about Esquisito. There are no reviews available online, no coverage apart from the videos Esquisito has self-published and no insight into the distilling of the tequila itself.
It is the ultimate viral product.
While many brands spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on celebrity endorsements, high-profile product placements and televised marketing campaigns, Esquisito simply walked into the street with a camera and said: “Look at us!”
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