{"id":844195,"date":"2025-11-24T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=844195"},"modified":"2025-11-24T14:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:19:00","slug":"the-man-creating-a-new-tequila-competitor-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/844195\/the-man-creating-a-new-tequila-competitor-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The man creating a new Tequila competitor in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sebastian O\u2019Keefe returned to South Africa after 25 years abroad to create a new liquor, Inzalo Agave Spirits, which competes with Tequila.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Keefe grew up in South Africa but spent the last 25 years in the United States and Europe where he worked as a corporate executive for top global companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two decades, he has held numerous top positions at companies such as Foster’s Group, Gartner, and Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has vast experience in the beer, wine, and spirits sector, having served as Amazon\u2019s category leader in this department for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he worked in wine and spirits for a long time in entrepreneurial-type roles, he never had something truly his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why he decided to return to South Africa two-and-a-half years ago to do something unique that he could call his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His passion was agave spirits, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the agave plant, a succulent native to Mexico and the southwestern United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heart of the plant, called the pi\u00f1a, because it resembles a pineapple, is harvested, cooked, crushed, fermented, and then distilled to create the spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best-known agave spirit is Tequila, which is made from the Blue Weber Agave, which is found in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other popular agave spirits include Mezcal, Raicilla, and Bacanora, which have their own unique flavour profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Keefe told Biznews<\/a><\/strong> that South Africa is home to numerous agave plants, and they have a rich history in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest concentration of agave plants in South Africa is in the Graaff-Reinet area, which was perfect for what he wanted to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started noticing all these different agaves and thought: South Africa is an agricultural powerhouse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe produce some of the finest wines in the world from some of the oldest soils on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we already have agave growing here in this incredible terroir, surely there\u2019s an opportunity to create something truly special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inzalo Agave Spirits is born<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Keefe and his partner Diego\u2019s first ambition was to make the greatest agave spirit outside Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that quickly evolved into creating an entirely new category of agave spirit. Something completely unique to South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They spent a year driving the length and breadth of the country looking for the right plants. By accident, they found the perfect fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This plant, a unique species they call their \u201cred agave\u201d, grows at high altitude on an ancient seabed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once they discovered these plants, they established production on the farm itself. \u201cWe even converted a huge old stainless-steel milk tank into our steam oven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They set up a production facility in Somerset West and opted for gentle steam cooking instead of the traditional pit ovens typically used for mezcal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that they would not call their spirit Tequila or Mezcal as it is illegal, similar to calling sparkling wine Champagne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proudly calling ours an Agave Spirit. Our unaged version will simply be Batch One, and the barrel-rested versions will be Barrel One,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They settled on the brand name Inzalo Agave Spirits, and their first official bottling is expected to occur before the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although they have ambitions to introduce a new category of non-Mexican agave spirits to the international market, they will begin with the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting right here in Cape Town, which has an incredible fine-dining scene, world-class bartenders, and millions of international tourists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll build the local market first, then expand into the rest of Africa, and later dip into selected European markets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Inzalo Agave Spirits differs from Tequila as it is smooth, with no burn or harshness. \u201cIt is soft and complex enough to sip neat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, it works in cocktails and pairs beautifully with food, but it\u2019s made for slow sipping,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inzalo Agave Spirits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sebastian O\u2019Keefe returned to South Africa after 25 years abroad to create a new liquor, Inzalo Agave Spirits, which competes with Tequila.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":844215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[657,24209,24208,24210],"class_list":["post-844195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-amazon","tag-inzalo-agave-spirits","tag-sebastian-okeefe","tag-tequila"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844195"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844346,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844195\/revisions\/844346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}