We Just Sit Around Drinking Tequila All Day

We don’t actually sit around drinking tequila all day, but that’s what a lot of people think we do. There’s a lot of effort behind the scenes that goes into producing content for Tequila Aficionado. One important thing is producing episodes of Sipping Off The Cuff. Let me tell you a little about that.

It’s quite a process so we thought we’d share it with you:

First, we have to get the guys together. Getting Alex and Mike together via Skype isn’t always easy. family commitments, all the things that can go wrong with computers, and then there’s the software, both the recording software and Skype that have a part in whether or not our programs are recorded properly.

If we had roadies, we’d have them do the tech check for us.

Setup

We wash Reidel snifters, ensure we have vodka & melba toast for palate cleansing between tequila tastings, and then set up all the bottles of tequilas and other great agave spirits that must be tasted and reviewed. It takes about an hour just to move furniture, set up the table and then bring everything down off the shelves, dust it off and then set it up nicely for photos just in case Mike & Alex decide to talk about all the brands awaiting review. Setup time is usually when we take photos for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Vine. It is important to us that the brands that send us samples feel it is a valuable proposition. Providing them with social media content that adds to their electronic equity is very valuable in today’s market.

Filming At about 12-20 minutes per brand, it makes for a long night. Mike & Alex will taste several brands in one night and usually spend about 4 hours filming together.

Editing

I take the raw footage and edit it. (Trust me, there are just some things those guys do that you just don’t want to see or hear.) It takes about 45 minutes to review, edit, research, add facts, format, and produce each individual video.

Uploading Then we upload the videos to YouTube. Some days it goes quickly and some days the computer is tied up all day because YouTube is running so slowly.

Posting

With all that done, we’re ready to schedule and post the video on Tequila Aficionado. We want to make each video posting as search engine friendly as possible so the tequila (and mezcal) brands get plenty of publicity. That means digging into websites and Facebook for social media links, images, and details on each brand’s production process. Some tequila brands turn out to be Not Safe For Work (NSFW) and that means wading through a whole lot of bikini images before finding one we can use. (Please take a lesson from mezcal and stop marketing like it’s 1989?)

Then you, the tequila aficionados see the final product. We hope the insights that Mike & Alex provide are worth your time. It is always our hope that the materials we work so hard to produce are as educational as they are entertaining and everyone from the brand owner to the consumer feels it was time well spent.