Cleo Rocos, started her extensive career in television at the age of fourteen. She shot to stardom co-starring on the BBC TV “Kenny Everett Show”. Cleo is the author of the “Gourmand Prize” winning book “The Power of Positive Drinking”, West End Producer and is the creator of our multi award winning AquaRiva Tequila.
Cleo Says: As with most people my first experience of tequila was memorable but for all the wrong reasons. Because of this it was to be many years before I was to drink a shot of tequila again.
I was on a trip to Mexico when, during lunch, I spotted a very elegant and distinguished woman in her early 60’s. She was stylish and discretely dynamic. I noted she was sipping something from a long, blue fluted glass.
Her drink looked dangerously fabulous and I was intrigued. I asked the waiter what this woman was drinking. He told me it was tequila. I said it can’t be because she has had six or seven and would be dead by now. I was curious and asked him to bring me whatever it was that she was drinking. As soon as I sipped it I realised that until that moment I had never tasted a real 100% Agave tequila. From here my passion for tequila started.
My passion and knowledge grew and grew and in 2009 I was invited to Guadalajara by the Tequila Industry to their annual CNIT awards ceremony which was attended by 500 of the leading tequila producers in Mexico. It was here that I received a prestigious award for my role in the tequila industry. And I am now officially titled the “Tequila Queen” by the industry.
In 2011 I decided to create a tequila that I could not find. A high quality premium, well crafted tequila at an affordable price and something people actually wanted to drink. I spent 11 months in Mexico with my master blender to create my AquaRiva® 100%Agave tequila.
I called my brand AquaRiva® from a wonderful childhood moment that I never forgot. We were living in Greece at that time, and we had been invited to dinner on Aristotle Onassis’s yacht. I was 8 years old, the sun was going down, it was a warm beautiful evening and I remember seeing the name of the tender that took us to the yacht. It was called AquaRiva.
In 2012 I launched AquaRiva®. After seeing that Virgin Atlantic were launching their first flight to Mexico, I called up the head of fice and asked if I could come in and show them my tequila. Virgin became AquaRiva’s first customer”.