Two women walk into a bar in Los Angeles in the early 2000s…one with a blunt bob cut, the other with long, wavy, dark brown hair. But instead of getting their buzz on, Swedish artist Lykke Li and chef Gina Correll Aglietti sat at the bar frustrated.
Li turned to Aglietti and said, “There’s not a single bottle on the shelf that represents the type of women we are—or the type of women our friends are. We’re amazing girls who are all powerhouses in our own right. We’re all cool, intelligent, modern females.”
When you imagine a bar shelf, what bottles come to mind?: Jose Cuervo, Jack Daniels, Captain Morgan. For Aglietti, “the only image that comes to mind is some man who’s super suave and successful or a trashy girl in a little dress getting drunk.” These male-inspired alcohol brands are staples across the U.S. and have been around for decades. But in an age of female empowerment—where women are fighting for rights over their bodies and equal pay—the Jacks and Joses have been joined by a female counterpart that is just as strong and punchy: Yola Mezcal.
The three founders of Yola Mezcal. Left: Yola Jimenez; Center: Gina Correll Aglietti; Right: Lykke Li; Courtesy of YOLA MEZCAL Instagram.
Aglietti and Li were friends before they co-founded the mezcal company with Yola Jimenez, the brand’s namesake. Aglietti and Li met Jimenez on separate trips to Mexico City, where she showed them the city’s culture, food scene, and of course—the mezcal. After Aglietti and Li tasted the magic behind Yola’s mezcal, they knew it was something special—special enough to bring to the U.S.
“The high of the mezcal was so particular and special. It made me feel so different from anything else that I ever drank. It’s not just a drink to be drunk, it’s a bigger piece of art,” said Aglietti enthusiastically over the Zoom screen. “It felt like this treasure chest that was so close, and no one that I knew understood.”
Beatrix Thomas, 22, enjoying Yola at Coachella 2022.Caroline Hensley, 21, loves Yola’s unique bottle.
Back in Los Angeles, the women worked with Jimenez to create an artisanal, handcrafted, organic mezcal inspired by Jimenez’s grandfather’s recipe from 1971. Jimenez, 38, grew up in Mexico City and spent summers on her family’s farm in Oaxaca, where Yola mezcal is currently made. There, she was introduced to the art of distilling the spirit, which is made from oven-cooked maguey plants. Jimenez opened her own mezcal bar in Mexico City in 2008, and she still lives there to manage Yola’s operations in Mexico.
Aglietti speaks about the first time she experienced the magic of mezcal in Mexico City….
Aglietti, 40, would hear her friends call Mexico City “dangerous,” “impoverished,” or “sketchy” and was determined to overcome these negative stereotypes. Aglietti grew up in a predominantly Mexican, agriculturally-based community in rural southern California, and “had a very specific perspective on hearing how people thought of Mexico.” After Aglietti traveled to Mexico City and met Yola, she felt like creating a brand based in Mexico “felt like something worth fighting for, in terms of its identity and how it was represented.”
Aglietti hoped Yola Mezcal could be the “one brand that actually talks to women like them.” Years later, they are doing just that. Today, Aglietti serves as the company’s C.E.O. and manages the routine business responsibilities. Yola is also committed to empowering women in U.S. and Mexican communities through sponsorships and charitable giving, something that Aglietti says is “built into the company’s work.”
Header Image: Courtesy of Yola Mezcal
MORE THAN MEZCAL
Giving back to the community isn’t a “marketing ploy” for Yola, it’s ingrained in the company’s values. When Yola launched, “the message was very clear, very sincere, and very authentic—which is not always the case for brands that are touting giving back on social media.” said Aglietti. “It is really the core of who we are. Every single moment we profit from this brand, we also give back.”
Yola hosted pop-up dinners with local restaurants like Gran Blanco, Rossoblu, and Gogo’s Tacos in Los Angeles during International Women’s Month this March to support the Downtown’s Women’s Center (DWC), an organization that provides housing for women experiencing homelessness.
At the end of March, I attended one of Yola’s Women’s Month events. The dim lights and casual vibes of Highland Park’s live music venue ETA were complimented nicely by Lauren Baba’s violin skills. For a $10 cover fee and one drink minimum, young Angelenos enjoyed jazz music and arugula sandwiches for a casual Saturday night. But for the month of March, regulars at the bar could substitute their glass of wine to sip something much stronger: a chartreuse-colored cucumber and dill cocktail made with Yola Mezcal.
The cucumber-dill cocktail made with Yola Mezcal at ETA. Sound from Yola-sponsored Jazz Night at ETA in Highland Park: Lauren Baba (strings), Bryan Mcallister (keys), Max Jaffe (drums), Tristan Cappel (saxophone), Jake Leckie (bass).
Header Image: Lauren Baba on the strings at ETA in Highland Park
MACHISMO, MISOGYNY, & MEZCAL
According to Holly Hight, the Director of Donor Relations and Events at the DWC, their partnership with an alcohol company like Yola is not a conflict of interest because substance abuse and alcoholism “is often a symptom of homelessness, NOT a cause.” The DWC also offers recovery and AA-type groups to help women recover.
Hight said that most of the women at the shelter have been in the workforce before, citing an example of a woman named Stephanie who worked at a bank and was laid off from her job when they found out she was unhoused. The DWC was able to help Stephanie highlight her previously gained workplace skills through a comprehensive career series that offers training on professional behavior in the workplace.
This career-centered female empowerment is also important to Yola. Women are an essential part of the mezcal supply chain, and their work is often hidden in agricultural supply chains around the world (Forbes). Direct payment to women who work at their distillery in Oaxaca is a key success factor.
Aglietti explained that, “prior to the brand, there were a lot of women working [in Mexico], but they didn’t have a place to work that was super safe and they didn’t have child care.” She noted that instead of women receiving direct payment, there is a system where a man or husband in the village collects wages for the work that’s being done. In other words, women are unlikely to see the fruits of their labor even though they invest 90% of their income back into their families, compared with only 35% for men, according to the United Nations.
“So to actually potentially create progress, we need to give people equal and direct pay,” said Aglietti. “It’s not just about charity. We do a lot of charity stuff, but going into a place like [Oaxaca], and just giving them charity doesn’t dignify their work.” She explained the importance of balancing the dignity around work and pay and the autonomy that a title and a position gives women.
Courtesy: World Food Program USA
In Jalisco, Mexico, one woman is doing exactly that. Melly Barajas owns an all-female run distillery that produces La Gritona tequila. She is helping women in Jalisco understand that “el cielo es tu límite” or “the sky’s the limit.” But her journey to becoming a tequila tycoon wasn’t easy in a male-dominated industry. At one of the first tequila events she attended, Barajas was told that “women are usually in the corner of the room and that they should stay there.” Although this made Barajas feel terrible, the misogyny drove her to learn more about tequila, something that fascinated her deeply. Barajas wanted to share this “true piece of Mexico” with the world, so she figured out a way to make excellent, quality tequila—with the help of local women.
“Many of the girls [in the Vinos y Licores Azteca distillery] never thought they could work in an industry like this. They never thought they’d be working with the giant machines we use in this industry like the caldera,” said Barajas. “The truth is that women are somewhat different from men, we are very hardworking. When we want to do things, we do them better than men. I am not saying I’m against men, but they should support the success of women in any industry.”
“Muchas de las chicas [en la destilería Vinos y Licores Azteca] nunca pensaron en que podrían trabajar en una industria como esta. No pensaron nunca en que podrían manejar aquellas máquinas gigantes como la caldera,” said Barajas. “La verdad es que las mujeres somos algo diferentes de los hombres y somos muy luchonas. Cuando queremos hacer las cosas, las hacemos mejor que los hombres. No digo por estar contra los hombres sino para que sepan que pueden sumar una mujer siempre en cualquier jerarquía de lo que sea.”
Barajas and her staff at the distillery. Courtesy: La Gritona
Header Image: Women at Yola Día, a female-focused music festival hosted by the founders of YOLA, in Los Angeles in 2019. Courtesy of Yola Mezcal
AN EMERGING MARKET FOR MEZCAL
But when it comes to funding the businesses these women run, female entrepreneurs usually face greater difficulties and are subjected to more scrutiny than their male counterparts (Kuadli). Luckily for Yola, the early-stage venture capital fund Crush Ventures, was excited to invest in the mezcal brand because they believed they could help grow its business. The venture capitalists already managed co-founder Lykke Li, 33, when she came to them with the idea for Yola mezcal around 2014.
But getting the liquid into a bottle, across borders, and onto shelves wasn’t easy. In the beginning, the three women didn’t have a “hardcore business plan” because there was no mezcal category for sales and marketing that they could pull data from, according to Aglietti. Some of the prospective distributors urged them not to focus the brand on women because it would “alienate men.” This pushed the founders to talk about how they could show people they cared about the female focus and its impact on Mexico.
However, the political climate of America in 2016—when Yola bottles first crossed the border—was enough to get the conversation started. The Trump Administration’s immigration policies and the uptick in the “Me Too” movement gave Yola founders a unique avenue to prove that mezcal was relevant in cultural media. This climate steered how people were thinking, and more importantly, it made consumers aware of the products they were buying.
Courtesy: Yola Mezcal
By 2017, the demand for Yola was high in the U.S., but the business was not foundationally prepared to sustain the production. The COVID-19 pandemic gave the women a lot of time to re-think because a lot of production was screeched to a halt when restaurants and bars were shut down. The founders used that time to build up infrastructure, including a new distillery in Mexico. On the creative side, they were able to talk about repacking and taking the brand to the next level while maintaining its integrity.
More exciting things are in store for Yola’s future. They launched a new limited Wild Agave series in Mexico City on February 4th. The line highlights how art can create cultural influence and positive change and features 400 newly designed bottles by different artists like Barbara Sánchez-Kane. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to organizations supporting women and girls in Oaxaca because Yola wanted “to focus on having a small production and making most of the profits go to specific costs” in the state.
Yola is a testament to “doing well by doing good.” When Aglietti, Jimenez, and Li walk into a bar, good things happen for themselves, for female entrepreneurs, and for women in communities abroad. The magic of mezcal bought these three, strong women together, and they continue to share this magic with others in hopes that it does the same for them. “Salud!”
