Is this Tesla CEO Elon Musk's latest short-term brainchild to make some cash or could it be a viable enterprise.
Tesla. SpaceX. The Boring Co. Teslaquila? In late spring, Tesla CEO Elon Musk poked fun at Tesla critics in a playful tweet suggesting he had seen the writing on the wall and drown his sorrows in several bottles of “Teslaquila.”
That soon could be reality. Not the passing out part, but the tequila named after the company could after he filed an “intend to use” trademark application Monday for a tequila called Teslaquila.
Neither Musk nor Tesla officials have elaborated on the filing, but the application implies a “good faith intention” to use the trademark in the future. Now Musk has a history of creating “businesses” on a whim, such as Not a Flamethrower flamethrowers, Tesla surfboards and others.
If recent history is any guide, it may not be the worst idea he’s ever thought up.
(Tesla sales surge past Mercedes; but loss of fed tax credits could hit future demand. Click Here for the story.)
Teslaquila wouldn't even be the first "automotive" tequila on the market as Richard Rawlings' Gas Monkey Cinnamon Tequila hit the market a couple of years ago.
Tesla’s founder and CEO has come up with odd ones, but tequila companies have a strange – and profitable – history for some famous folks. Perhaps first and foremost is former Van Halen lead singer Sammy Hagar, who created the Cabo Wabo brand of tequila more than two decades ago.
Hagar began selling a house brand of hand-made tequila he commissioned from a family-owned distillery in the state of Jalisco at a bar he owned in the early 1990s. In 1999, a wine importer fromNapa Valley began to import the tequila into the United States. Sales rose from 37,000 cases the first year to 140,000 cases in 2006. It is the second-best selling premium tequila in the United States.
Perhaps even better known that Hagar’s special brand is another named Casamigos. That brand was created by actor George Clooney and his business partner Randy Gerber, who’s wife is former supermodel Cindy Crawford.
(Click Here for details about Tesla’s surfboard sales.)
Apparently Clooney and Gerber were building vacation homes next to one another in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in 2013 and trying a variety of tequilas, none of which was to their liking. Clooney suggested commissioning a distillery to create one they both liked and the brand, which allegedly means “house of friends,” was born.
George Clooney's "house of friends" tequila was more than friendly when he and two partners sold the business for $700 million.
The end result was that in 2017, the pair along with another business partner, sold Casamigo to Diageo, a British firm, for $700 million with another $300 million possible depending upon the performance of the company in the future. However, if he does go forward, he wouldn’t even be the first famous automotive “personality” to develop a tequila.
Richard Rawlings, owner of Gas Monkey Garage and star of the television show “Fast N Loud” on the Discovery Channel created a new tequila, Gas Monkey Cinnamon Tequila, which debuted on one of show’s episodes.
(To see more about Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk saying James Murdoch isn’t taking chairman’s role, Click Here.)
Given the success of his other pet projects, the legions of loyal Musk supporters and his impetuous nature, that logo may be affixed to bottles very soon. FYI: Rawlings sells his tequila for $19.99 for a 750mL bottle, but it’s 69 proof, not “40 proof” like the label on Teslaquila.