Tequila lovers, make some room on your liquor cabinet shelves. Nosotros Tequila, a California-based company started by young Costa Rican native Carlos Soto, is winning over taste buds up and down the west coast with its exceptional recipe for small-batch, socially responsible tequila.

Soto developed his homegrown love for 100% de agave tequila into a business idea during his senior year at Loyola Marymount University, when he was tasked to put together a business pitch that didn’t have anything to do with technology. “My answer was pretty straightforward,” he says. “Nothing gets more rustic than tequila.”

After he completed his assignment, Soto became so fixated with the viability of the concept that he booked a ticket to Jalisco, setting up meetings with several distilleries in Tequila, Mexico. With Spanish as his first language, Soto could easily communicate his vision: to create a tequila that was different.

And that he did. By Soto’s graduation day, not only did he have a company name, prototype and a partner, he also had an incredibly unique recipe. Unlike other brands, Nosotros sources its agaves from both the highlands and lowlands of Tequila, Mexico, adding a layer of complexity to both the spirit’s supply chain and its taste.