When Kendall Jenner announced the launching of her new tequila brand on Instagram two weeks ago, there was almost immediately a sense of outrage in the media.
Jenner showcases her new venture, Drink 818, in a series of photos and videos on Instagram. In one of the videos, she is tasting two different glasses of tequila on ice in a lowball glass.
Experts noticed Jenner commenting on one tequila as “strong” and the other as “less strong” rather than commenting on the real tasting notes in tequila. Many fans and experts cringe at the sight, but this was not the worst of what critics had to say.
An Instagram post by @diet_prada — an account that initially exposed designers who copied one another but eventually became a platform that discusses industry issues — draws attention to the Mexican and Latinx community who are questioning Jenner’s product.
It’s clear members of the Mexican and Latinx community are unhappy with Jenner’s choice to produce and sell tequila.
Drink 818 is being produced in Jalisco, Mexico, and some are concerned whether local workers in Mexico are being paid enough money or if they’re being exploited. Others called Jenner out for cultural appropriation.
“Great, another white person getting even more richer off of our culture,” read one comment from @xandra_vader. “So now our small family owned tequila makers are going to lose business because it will be [a] new trend to buy some from the Kardashians.”
Some are simply amused that Jenner did not know how to properly drink tequila.
“If you really did your homework and poured your heart and soul into this, like you claim, you would know that you’re drinking this all wrong,” said another comment by @_gabriela_gamboa_.
To see if critics were right about Jenner’s improper way of drinking tequila, I asked a close friend of mine who lives in Mexico City how one should properly drink tequila.
“Normally you drink it like slowly in like a shot glass,” she wrote. “Without ice!”
But aside from all the backlash, some think this is just another case of Kardahsian-Jenner haters desperate to criticize the family.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, P Diddy and George Clooney are a few, among other celebrities, who also own tequila businesses. So why aren’t they getting the backlash?
“Here goes cancel culture picking and choosing,” someone commented on Instagram. “At least be consistent.”
In an article from InStyle Magazine, writer Sam Reed talks with Antonio Rodriguez, production manager at Tequila Patrón, and Lucas Assis, a bartender and tequila expert based in Los Angeles.
Reed points out that, unlike other celebrities, Jenner’s lack of knowledge is evident “not just in her cringe-inducing sip of tequila on the rocks … or her extremely vague commentary while doing the tasting … it’s also right there in the branding.”
Assis, as well as other commenters on Jenner’s and Diet Prada’s post, say her labels, “blanco tequila”, “reposado tequila” and “añejo tequila” are grammatically incorrect. Instead, it should be “tequila” first, followed by the type.
“[That] screamed to us tequila people that she didn’t really know what she was talking about,” he noted in the article.
For those who are unfamiliar with the background of the drink, tequila can only be produced in one of five states in Mexico: Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Guanajuanto and Jalisco — the most popular since it’s where most tequila comes from.
Most importantly, making tequila requires a very laborious and time consuming process of baking, extracting, fermenting, distilling and aging the agave tequilana, also known as blue Weber agave –– the only plant from which tequila can be made. In addition, it takes another seven years for the agave plants to grow.
The origins of tequila can be traced back from 1000 B.C. to 200 A.D. in Mexico. In the 1600s, mass productions of tequila began in Jalisco. Tequila is, and has been, a constant and important part of Mexican culture and history.
So if other celebrities own businesses in the tequila industry, why is Kendall Jenner receiving all the backlash?
Unfortunately, the Kardashian-Jenners have a history of cultural appropriation.
Past examples include Kim Kardashian appropriating Japanese culture in her undergarment brand by initially naming it “Kimono” — the Mayor of Kyoto had to ask her to drop the Kimono trademark — Kendall Jenner trivializing the Black Lives Matter movement in a Pepsi ad, Kylie Jenner’s controversial hairstyle and Kim Kardashian, once again, wearing blackface on a magazine cover.
Still, if Kendall Jenner is receiving all the criticism in the tequila industry, shouldn’t we extend that scrutiny to all the other wrong-doers and shed light on other non-Mexican celebrities in the tequila-making industry?
We can’t pick and choose when to hold people accountable for their cultural appropriation.
