10 Dec With Mara Imports, Every Day is a Tequila Sunrise

For the December Issue of BIN Magazine, I had the pleasure to write a profile story about Mara Imports, a family business that specializes in the distribution, marketing, and sales of Tequila. With more than a thousand registered Tequila brands on the market, many small batch distilleries can easily fall under the radar. Nevertheless, Mara Imports was founded in 2016 by Maricela Martinez and Rafael González, focuses on small batch distilleries throughout Mexico. Targeting what Martinez describes as “the small guys that no one paid attention to,” Mara Imports specializes in the distribution, marketing, and sales of agave Tequila originating in the Tequila regions of Mexico that bear the registered AOC-Appellation of Origin. Moreover, in only four years, Mara Imports has grown into a prominent importer of Tequila. Martinez and González were both born in Jalisco, one of Mexico’s premier Tequila regions. Therefore, you can say that Tequila is in their blood. Martinez came to the United States in 1987 and worked in the fields picking strawberries. She later opened a Latino supermarket where she learned the role of the retailer. For twenty years, she worked as a Tequila specialist for a major liquor distribution company in California. González also worked in the industry as a sales representative and a route driver. While working as a Tequila specialist, Martinez discovered the many small distilleries throughout the region producing amazing products. Unfortunately, the major importers ignored most of those products. Knowing the passion and quality of these small distilleries was the inspiration to create Mara Imports. “When you meet the owners of these distilleries, you can feel the dedication and artisanship that they put into their tequilas,” Martinez explained. Read more about Mara Imports in the December Issue of BIN Magazine.