Photography by Julia Cartwright.
Brandon Scott considers himself a nerd.
A nerd about tequila, that is, which is arguably one of the cooler nerd varieties.
But he knows the liquor inside and out, down to details like how to harvest an agave plant and negotiate a contract with a distributor.
It would be expected that Scott, alongside his three lifelong friends, has learned a thing or two about tequila over the years running the company Tequila With Friends.
In his first week of college, Scott got diagnosed with diabetes and turned to research to deal with the diagnosis. It was then that he found out that tequila metabolizes well, making it the best option for a diabetic to drink.
At that time, he was roommates with Roddrick West at the University of Texas, and while their friends Curnelius Arnick and Devin Woodson were in college in different states, the four men had grown up in Oak Cliff together and supported Scott in the way any college student would.
“He switched over to tequila, and his good friends were not going to let him drink alone,” West says.
The group began drinking tequila casually at first, but enjoyed the process of learning about the liquor and discussing the varying flavors of brands.
Eventually, Scott, West and Arnick decided to launch a blog to write about the different brands they tried.
In January 2018, the blog Tequila With Friends was born.
The blog started to get some traction, but it wasn’t long before Scott realized that all the energy the men were putting into writing about other brands of tequila could be harnessed to create something of their own.
“We were like, ‘Why are we telling their story, instead of telling our own story?’” Scott says. “We have our own unique story, our own unique perspective that we wanted to bring folks. Especially for us, where there aren’t a lot of Black men in this space, we can bring folks along for the ride.”
Scott, West and Arnick hopped on a plane to Mexico, where they rented a car and drove out to the countryside to meet with distillers.
Tequila is made from a large, cactus-like plant called agave, which is distilled into the liquor. As the men met with distillers, they were able to see the sweeping fields of agave for themselves.
“You’re driving through, and there are just rolling hills of blue agave, and it’s absolutely beautiful,” Scott says. “You realize, man, for tequila enthusiasts, this is a pretty special place. And I think for us, we got that feeling.”
Scott and West say that as tequila nerds, it was important to them that their liquor be made from 100% agave, which indicates a certain level of quality.
Some tequilas use masking agents like vanilla to hide the flavor effects of a lower agave percentage, Scott says, but he and the other TWF founders were not interested in cutting corners with their product.
On the Mexico trip, the group was also able to build a flavor profile for their tequila and settled on a blend of lowland and highland agave.
“You’re going to get those sweet tones that come from the highland as well as those vegetal earthy types of tones that come from the lowland,” West says.
Right now, Tequila With Friends offers both a blanco and a reposado tequila. The difference, it seems like everything else, goes back to the agave.
Blanco tequila can be bottled as soon as it is distilled from the plant, but reposado is aged from three months to a year, which gives it a more golden coloring. Scott says TWF’s reposado is aged for 11 months, which creates a full-bodied and smooth effect.
Scott, West and Arnick co-founded Tequila With Friends, but they brought Woodson back into the picture in late 2019 to help with product marketing.
A year later, in November 2020, Tequila With Friends began appearing on liquor store shelves. All four men live in Southwest Dallas, so from the beginning it made sense to launch the tequila throughout Texas.
“It’s been beautiful to see over these past two years the amount of support that we’ve had behind our brand, not only here in Dallas, but in Houston and within Austin,” West says.
After starting in Texas, the company expanded to California, D.C. and Maryland.
In 2023, Tequila With Friends sees lots of growth on the horizon.
For one, the company plans to expand into three more states: Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
And they are launching their third spirit, an añejo tequila, which is aged between one and three years.
While things are heading in the right direction for the company, Scott and West say that getting to this point has been a “ labor of love.”
“None of us come from the spirits industry, so there was a pretty steep learning curve,” Scott says.
Learning about things like varying state liquor laws, and working with a distributor have been challenges the company has had to overcome.
And right now, all four men are contributing to Tequila With Friends on top of other full-time jobs and families.
Juggling all that has made it important for the men to prioritize maintaining their friendship — the original corners tone of their passion — as well, West says.
The group comes together to celebrate events like Friendsgiving or major life milestones, West says, to pay respects to each other and the other people in their lives who have helped them, and the TWF brand, grow.
And eventually they hope to get the company to a place where it can give back to Oak Cliff and the city of Dallas.
“And the beautiful thing is that once we can actually make this profitable, we will be able to give back to the city that has given us so much and that raised us,” West says. “I think that’s what excites me the most.”
