Pantalones Organic Tequila, the brand co-founded by actor Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila, launched a custom cocktail program on October 14, 2026, at Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve resort on Costa Rica's Peninsula Papagayo.
The tie-up, announced jointly by the brand and the resort, introduces a menu called The Cowboy and Mermaid, built around Pantalones' three expressions, Blanco, Reposado and Añejo. The collection ties McConaughey's Texas background to the sabanero cowboy tradition of Costa Rica's Guanacaste province and to the country's surf culture, and it rolls out across five of the resort's bars and restaurants.
What drinks are on the Cowboy and Mermaid menu
According to the companies' joint announcement, the menu spans Puna, the resort's signature restaurant helmed by chef Diego Muñoz, a treetop bar called Ámbar, Niri Beach Club, a speakeasy named Cooper's, and the lobby lounge La Casona. Listed serves include the Guacachile, a spicy riff on the margarita made with Pantalones Blanco, mezcal, mandarin lime, agave, avocado, jalapeño and Tajín, and the Goiaba, a guava margarita built from Pantalones Reposado, pink guava, agave, citrus and a guava salt rim. A third drink, the Tixos Old Fashioned, pairs Pantalones Añejo with cacao distillate, Costa Rican cold brew coffee and spiced chocolate bitters. Matthew and Camila McConaughey said in a statement distributed with the announcement that tequila had been part of their relationship from the start, and that Nekajui offered a fitting place to introduce the brand to the country. Nekajui general manager Cristian Albacar said the collaboration let the resort put its own interpretation on the pairing.
Who makes Pantalones and where it comes from
Pantalones Organic Tequila launched in October 2023, with Matthew and Camila McConaughey as co-founders. At launch, the brand described its liquid as made from 100 percent blue Weber agave grown by fourth generation farmers and distilled at a family owned, certified organic facility in Amatitán, Jalisco, according to coverage at the time from Robb Report and InsideHook. The launch followed McConaughey's split from Campari Group's Wild Turkey Bourbon, where he had served as creative director and co-creator of the Longbranch line, a partnership that ended at the close of 2022 after roughly six years, as reported by Robb Report. Pantalones says it donates one percent of revenue to environmental nonprofit partners through the organization 1% for the Planet. In materials tied to the Costa Rica launch, the company cited more than 55 award wins to date, including Double Gold medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and scores of 93 and 94 points from Wine Enthusiast, figures that come from the brand's own release rather than from an independent registry.
What Nekajui is and why a resort brand matters here
Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, opened on Peninsula Papagayo on Costa Rica's Pacific coast in March 2025 as the first Ritz-Carlton Reserve property in Central and South America, the eighth in the global Reserve portfolio, and a 107 key resort set within a 1,400 acre gated development that also includes a Four Seasons and an Andaz, according to Travel Weekly and Luxury Travel Advisor. The property's name derives from a Chorotega word for garden, a reference to the indigenous people of the region. For a tequila house still only three years into its existence, a placement across a new ultra luxury resort's full beverage program functions as a distribution and visibility play as much as a cocktail story, putting Pantalones in front of a high spending international guest base before the brand has built out a wider retail or on premise footprint abroad.
What this means
The organic and award claims attached to Pantalones here come from the company's own release rather than from a certifier's public register or a named contest's results page, which is the distinction this desk draws between a producer's marketing copy and a verifiable credential. Pantalones does not currently carry an entry in Tequila Watch's bottle database, so no comparison to a scored expression applies.