Hiatus Tequila

Hiatus Tequila

Hiatus was founded by Kristopher De Soto, who spent years living in Mexico and traveling to more than 50 countries before leaving a corporate career — in helicopter sales and marketing — to build a tequila brand. His reasoning was simple: most tequila sold in the U.S. bore little resemblance to what he'd had in Mexico, watered down and cut with artificial flavoring and sweeteners.

Hiatus is produced at La Cofradía (NOM 1137), a third-generation, award-winning distillery just outside the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico, using 100% Blue Weber agave hand-harvested by jimadores after up to eight years of maturation. The agave is steam-roasted in traditional stone ovens, gently milled rather than mechanically shredded, and fermented with the distillery's native yeast — no synthetic strains.

The result is three expressions — Blanco, Reposado (six months in reclaimed American whiskey barrels), and Añejo (one year in reclaimed American oak) — that have collected medals from the SIP Awards, the Agavos Awards, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and a 95-point score from Wine Enthusiast. In December 2023, MMA fighter Michael Chandler joined as the brand's first celebrity investor.