REPRINTED FROM WSJ - written by Saabria Chaudhuri
An American couple started a growing business focused on ‘additive-free’ tequila. Mexican authorities weren’t happy.
Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin, founders of an app called Tequila Matchmaker, were at dinner on New York City’s Upper West Side when their phones began to vibrate.
A maintenance worker had sent photos of their house in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, showing the doors barricaded, windows smashed and chains around the property.
“He was really scared,” recalls Scarlet, a former journalist and native of Monterey, Calif. “He didn’t know what had happened, and the neighbors were saying dead bodies had been found.”
The rumors of bodies were baseless, but the drama was otherwise real. The photos showed the aftermath of a search conducted by Mexican authorities based on a criminal complaint by the country’s tequila regulator.
The March raid punctuated a fracas that has affected one of Mexico’s biggest industries: What makes a true tequila?
The Sanschagrins are known on both sides of the border for a program that certifies tequilas as being free of additives. They say Mexico’s regulator, Consejo Regulador de Tequila, filed the complaint—which alleged they were illegally making and distributing fake tequila and adulterating drinks—only to stop them from continuing to highlight additive-free tequilas.
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