Blended Blue Tequila, the luxury agave spirits brand launched this summer by former Clase Azul México board member Charles Durazo, has added a strategic advisor and a head of digital branding as it pushes distribution beyond California, according to The Spirits Business. The trade outlet also reported that the brand has formally named Tierra Cobriza as its distillery partner in Mexico.

The appointments follow Blended Blue's debut of its first blend, Maravilla, in June and a California distribution deal struck in July. The brand has now paired that with a direct-to-consumer arrangement covering most of the rest of the country.

The New Hires

Troy Weber, a co-founder of the chatbot company UnCensored AI, has joined Blended Blue as head of digital branding, with responsibility for the brand's logo, website and broader branding as well as building out the business alongside Durazo in the California tequila market, The Spirits Business reported.

Steve Walsh, who holds the title of mentor-in-residence at the Techstars Boston accelerator and describes himself as a hands-on angel investor, has come aboard as a strategic advisor. Over the past decade Walsh has advised and invested in 69 early-stage companies that have collectively raised more than 1.4 billion dollars, according to the outlet's report. At Blended Blue, his mandate covers fundraising, strategic planning and growth initiatives.

Founders and the Maravilla Launch

Durazo built his standing in the tequila trade in 2003, when he co-founded Tequilas Premium, the company that holds the US import rights to Clase Azul. He spent 14 years with that brand, including time on its board, before starting Blended Blue. His co-founder, master blender Alberto Orozco, spent 2006 to 2018 at Patrón Spirits Company, before Bacardi's acquisition of that brand, and later worked at Clase Azul México until 2023.

Blended Blue's inaugural release, Maravilla, blends a 13-month añejo rested on French oak with a reposado aged two months in American oak. It retails for 135 dollars per 750-milliliter bottle and shipped its first 400 cases on June 1. The company raised 315,000 dollars ahead of launch through a special purpose vehicle, or microfund, arranged with Allied Venture Partners. Durazo has framed the brand's premise around the idea that a crowded luxury tequila category, with roughly 1,200 brands on US shelves by his count, requires a specific reason to exist beyond category growth.

Distribution and Production

Blended Blue named Freebrook Imports as its California importer and distributor in July. Freebrook was founded in early 2025 by Adam Spiegel and has positioned itself as an alternative for independent brands navigating the aftermath of Republic National Distributing Company's abrupt exit from the California market, which left hundreds of suppliers searching for new representation. The firm currently works with roughly 30 brands across spirits categories.

For markets outside California, Blended Blue has struck a direct-to-consumer partnership with Passion Spirits, making the brand available through its own site and the Passion Spirits Marketplace, with shipping open to every state except Hawaii, Alaska and Tennessee, per The Spirits Business.

On production, Durazo described Tierra Cobriza as a double NOM facility, meaning it holds two separate Norma Oficial Mexicana registrations, and said the operation blends what he called ancestral and modern production techniques. Beyond the Spirits Business report and the distillery's own promotional materials, independent detail on Tierra Cobriza's output or client roster was not immediately available.

What This Means

Blended Blue remains a young, small-volume brand built on the pedigree of its founders' Clase Azul and Patrón backgrounds rather than on any independent track record of its own, and Maravilla has not been through this publication's blind evaluation, so it carries no purity status or score in the Tequila Watch database. For context, Clase Azul Plata, the brand both founders left, sits in that database as Unverified at a score of 79. Whether Blended Blue's distillery claims and its blending process hold up under closer scrutiny is not yet established from the public record.