June 18, 2024 – As long as Crystal Mercado Murphy has been immersed in the world of tequila, she has been a risk-taker and a rule-breaker. It started with a love and appreciation for agave spirits, made in a tradition that can be traced back thousands of years in Mexico, and spread to her desire to bring tequila culture and community to a wider audience.
Her tequila tasting events “are very similar to wine tasting,” says Murphy. “When you know how to taste and what to look for, it’s a completely different experience.” Add to that the small family-owned and Mexican-owned brands that she supports, and tequila becomes something not to merely shoot, but to savor.
Murphy and her brother Omar Mercado began hosting small events in 2009, out of which grew Monterey Bay Tequila & Cuisine, an event to sample and learn about the pleasures and complexities of fine tequila. The annual event raised tens of thousands of dollars for local nonprofits including Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, North County LULAC and a locally veteran owned fitness facility in Castroville.
Now, Murphy is shaking things up by turning over her beloved festival to HYS Inc. LLC, while she focuses on other aspects of her multi-faceted business.
The official announcement came on social media recently that the festival will continue under new management with a new name—Monterey Tequila Festival—and a new website, montereytequilafestival.com.
However, much about the event will remain exactly the same, Murphy says—it will still be held at the Monterey Hyatt Regency (this year slated for Oct. 26) and will continue to feature premium tequila tastings, chats with master distillers and brand owners, and delicious food. Part of the proceeds will continue to support Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, which trains at-risk youth for careers in culinary arts, construction and other trades.
Even though it’s bittersweet to let the festival go, Murphy is now concentrating on her collective, The Tequila People, which hosts private tastings both in the Monterey Bay area and further afield—with requests coming in from other states and even from as far away as England.
Jordan Caballero, Media/Marketing; Shauna Ratliff, Event Logistics; Connie Cortez, Registration/Logistics; and Micah Murphy, Ongoing Moral and Event Support.
She also is working diligently to open a tequila tasting room on the Monterey Peninsula to give further opportunities for locals and tourists to try well-made brands. Although she’s wanted to open a tasting room for the past five years, the problem is finding a full liquor license for such an enterprise—right now none are available in Monterey County. Murphy is hoping to find someone who is willing to sell theirs.
Murphy, born in Watsonville and raised in Castroville, got her degree in international studies at CSU-Monterey Bay and joined the Panetta Institute after graduation. There, she honed her event-planning skills, and on the side, she and her brother began working on tequila tasting events.
The response to their first tasting was overwhelming—a networking event for young professionals that ended up attracting a crowd of 200.
“It was a major hit,” recalls Murphy. “We knew we had something there.”
More people are now open to the idea of finely crafted high-end tequila and smaller, less well-known brands: “There’s an acceptance and an appreciation for tequila as a complex spirit,” Murphy says. “There’s been a shift.”
The events were something she did on the side while working day jobs in the nonprofit and hospitality sectors. But in 2021, she went full-time into tequila, after her brother decided to move back to San Diego. Murphy then took over the reins of the tequila festival, rebranding and enhancing it, with the help of The Tequila People, a collective that includes Ralph Jimenez (tequila brand partnerships), Janna Lopez (public relations/marketing), Bibi LaMere (silent auction chair), Leon Gomez (mezcal brand partnerships), Jordan Caballero (media/marketing), Shauna Ratliff (event logistics), Connie Cortez (registration/logistics), and Micah Murphy (her husband, who provides ongoing moral and event support).
As if all that weren’t enough, Murphy also organizes and leads 12-person tours to Mexico to give people an up-close-and-personal look at tequila operations, from growing and harvesting blue agave to making and distilling the spirits.
This latest addition grew out of her relationships with the master distillers and brand ambassadors who she got to know through the tequila festival. “They are so excited for me to go to them,” she says of the tequila makers. “Mexican hospitality is top notch, and the people who go on the tours get the VIP treatment.” She’s been leading one tour a year for the past three years, but has added a second tour this year because of demand.
The intimate tour of the tequila-making facilities is paired with the history of tequila, which is interwoven with the history of Mexico itself. The fermented juice of the blue agave, called pulque, has been imbibed for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the late 1500s that distillation was introduced, leading to the tequila that is being made today.
Learning where tequila comes from, and the labor of love that it takes to make a great tequila, further enhances the experience for those who enjoy it. “It is like a sacred spirit,” Murphy says. “When you’re there (in Mexico), you feel it.”
She’s keeping her fingers crossed that she’ll be able to get that elusive liquor license and create her tasting room somewhere in or near Monterey. The cool foggy weather of the bayside cities is perfect, she says, for sipping fine tequilas: “It’s like a warm hug.”
The Tequila People • @thetequilapeople • thetequilapeople.com
About the author
Kathryn McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about the environment, sustainable living and health for numerous publications and websites. She is the co-author of “Humbled: How California’s Monterey Bay Escaped Industrial Ruin.”
