De las raíces al brote. Fidel Serrano bottled seven years of resilience in an artisanal tequila from Wichita
Wichita, Kansas | November 13, 2026
By Claudia Amaro | Planeta Venus
Fidel Serrano, an advertising agency owner originally from Jalisco, is about to launch Tequila Brote (which means sprout), an independent artisanal brand in Wichita, Kansas, after seven years of effort. His goal is to honor his migrant family's hardworking roots and show that Mexican culture can shine elegantly on the most select tables.
From his study in Wichita, Fidel Serrano remembers the path that led him here. He grew up in Jalisco, surrounded by the aroma of freshly baked bread and his father's cattle, who took advantage of the immigration amnesty to work for six months in the United States and another six months in Mexico. In 2002, the family moved to Garden City, Kansas, first living with an aunt and then in a mobile home. While his older siblings worked in bakeries and Tyson's meat processing plants, Serrano was the first in his family to continue his studies, despite his parents' fear that a young Latino would leave home. He overcame English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, jobs like the one he had in Wichita while in college, at the Exploration Place museum, and student debt. Eventually, he earned two bachelor's degrees from Wichita State University in Graphic Design and Marketing, and then a master's degree in Global Management from Friends University.
The story of Tequila Brote is more than just the launch of a new tequila in Kansas. It represents the effort and dignity of the Latino community, turning nostalgia and immigration challenges into high-impact international projects. Serrano did not want tequila to be seen only as a party drink or a symbol of excess, but to restore its value as an ancestral distillate made with traditional processes in Mexico and legally distributed in the Midwest of the United States.
Tequila has had a Denomination of Origin protected by law since December 9, 1974, meaning it can be produced only in Mexico. Legal production is strictly restricted to 181 municipalities in authorized areas of five Mexican states: Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas. Likewise, the United States is the main destination for its exports: according to data from the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT), in 2024 Mexico exported 400.3 million liters of tequila, of which 84% went to the U.S. market. For this reason, the commercial and fiscal guidelines of agencies such as the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) precisely establish that the brand is designed and managed locally in Wichita, but the liquid is made exclusively in authorized Mexican territory and enters the country in accordance with formal import and distribution regulations.
The project formally began at Friends University, where Serrano completed a Global MBA with a focus on supply chains and logistics. As part of his graduation, after an academic stay in the port of Montreal, Canada, he had to design a cross-border import model. "Since I come from Jalisco and I like tequila, that's where the project came from," Serrano says. Although the 2019 pandemic halted his initial plans, he used that time to strengthen his design portfolio and, at the end of 2020, traveled to Guadalajara with appointments written down on paper to visit distilleries.
The road was full of obstacles and financial lessons. On his first search, a company asked him for a $1,000 advance without guarantees. Serrano consulted a Mexican lawyer, who spotted irregularities and kept him from losing his money. With that lawyer as an ally, he found a distillery that shared his values regarding the product. To finance the start-up, Serrano made an important decision: he postponed buying his house and reinvested his savings and agency income in the project. "There were nights when I thought about whether to buy a hamburger on the street or put gas in the car (...) I sacrificed Christmas and New Year's Eve to work or travel to Mexico," he confesses.
Unlike big brands that use additives, chemical accelerators, or artificial sugars, Serrano opted for a clean profile designed to be enjoyed slowly (sipping tequila). For Tequila Brote, agave plants between 4 and 7 years old are chosen, allowing them to accumulate natural sugars. The pineapples are slowly cooked for 34 to 37 hours in traditional brick ovens to ensure even cooking and then sit for another 12 hours before moving on to grinding, fermentation, and distillation. It took Serrano two years and five different tests to adjust this profile together with the master distiller in Mexico.
The current name also came about because of an administrative problem. At first, Serrano called the project "Alma Negra," referring to the "black sheep" or the rebellious spirit that didn't follow traditional family paths and still achieved something positive. But trademark registration complications and administrative delays, such as the federal government shutdown, prevented him from using that name and halted the process for months.
From that setback came the final concept: Brote. "A sprout is something that is reborn and grows, like the offshoots that sprout from the agave plant after a year and a half, the size of an orange, which are cut and replanted to give life to a new plant," Serrano explains. For its first production, it chose a controlled batch of 5,000 liters, accepting higher costs for bottles, caps, and labels to ensure a handmade product with attention to detail. To distribute throughout Kansas, it formed a strategic alliance with Standard Beverage, based in Lenexa and operating in Wichita, allowing the tequila to reach local liquor stores, bars, and restaurants.
With the trademark tagline "a tequila with soul," Fidel Serrano's story is set to celebrate his inaugural reception in Kansas and spearhead the bilingual campaign The Roots Travel («Las raíces viajan»).
This initiative is based on a poignant metaphor: just as a plant can be transplanted from its homeland to another place, people can also put down roots anywhere and grow in the discipline of their choice, without forgetting where they come from. More than a business achievement, Tequila Brote represents the collective triumph of the peasants in the agave fields, the workers on the bottling lines in Mexico, and each migrant family that demonstrates in the Midwest that honest effort always bears fruit of excellence.
El Tequila Brote goes on sale this month, and you can follow the process by visiting their website and social networks: Instagram and Facebook.
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