How the Founder of JAS Drinks Pivoted from Mezcal to Mocktails

When serial entrepreneur Cecilia Rios Murrieta (MBA ‘22) launched her first craft spirit venture, she was driven by her passion for mezcal, tequila’s smoky cousin. Her latest startup, JAS Drinks, was inspired by her newfound commitment to an alcohol-free lifestyle.

Rios Murrieta’s decade-long journey from mezcal to mocktails began with a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, a region renowned for its cuisine. “I fell in love with being a Mexican woman in Oaxaca,” she said. “I fell in love with the culture and the people, and mezcal was a big part of that.”

To connoisseurs like Rios Murrieta, great mezcal is as distinctive and expressive as great tequila or single-malt Scotch. However, many view it as tequila’s less sophisticated counterpart. To change this perception, she launched one of the first blogs dedicated to mezcal, exploring its history and centuries-old production methods.

JAS was co-founded by Cecilia Rios Murrieta (MBA ’22) and Jaymee Mandeville.

In 2012, Rios Murrieta founded her first company, La Niña del Mezcal, followed by ŌME Spirits in 2018. Throughout that time, she balanced building her brand in the U.S. with traveling to Oaxaca’s remote villages to find the finest producers of mezcal.

Her two brands showcased different expressions of mezcal from Oaxaca. She later introduced bacanora, a type of mezcal made from agave grown in Sonora. As she expanded her distribution network, her portfolio included several bottlings available in California and a few other U.S. states.

In 2016, both Fortune and Food & Wine recognized her as one of the “Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink.”

After eight years of importing Mexican spirits to the U.S., Rios Murrieta made the difficult decision to quit drinking, which meant stepping back from her craft spirits business. “It was time for me to rediscover who I was and to fall in love with myself again,” she said. “I realized that I wasn’t just a person who could sell liquor or create a liquor brand. I was a woman who was business-savvy and could build whatever she wanted.”

In 2020, Rios Murrieta enrolled at Darden, where she was a Batten Scholar. During the summer between her first and second years, she joined a cohort of founders at the iLab Incubator, where JAS, a non-alcoholic cocktail startup, was born. JAS stands for “juntos a saborear,” which means “savoring together” in Spanish.

“I stopped drinking, but I was still this fun person who wanted to go out with friends and party,” Rios Murrieta explained. “I realized there was a gap in the market for beverages that made me feel that way and tasted good, so I created JAS.”

Cecilia Rios Murrieta (far left) numbered among the winners of the UVA Entrepreneurship Cup competition while she attended Darden.

While at Darden, Rios Murrieta collaborated with her co-founder, Jaymee Mandeville, to create JAS’s first product. After numerous experiments with spices and botanical extracts, they settled on a beverage inspired by the classic Paloma cocktail—without the tequila. They dubbed it the Paloma Libre.

Darden’s Damon DeVito (MBA ’94), who taught the Venture Velocity course, encouraged her to create a website and accept pre-orders online. She borrowed a can seamer from a classmate to package the first batch.

After graduation—and a stint at Bain & Co.—Rios Murrieta settled in Dallas, Texas, and dedicated herself to building the JAS brand full-time.

In 2024, JAS launched Mojito Fresco, a refreshing twist on the classic Caribbean mojito. With two beverages crafted from natural ingredients and infused with additions like Ashwagandha and Yerba Mate, JAS faced its most significant challenge yet: distribution.

“Convincing distributors that JAS was a product category wasn’t easy,” Rios Murrieta said. “In the beginning, people didn’t understand why anyone would want a cocktail without alcohol. Fortunately, non-alcoholic cocktails are now appearing on bar and restaurant menus, which has been pivotal for us.”

In 2024, JAS partnered with Faire and Airgoods to make its cocktails accessible to all retailers nationwide. JAS’s Paloma Libre and Mojito Fresco are available in select bars and restaurants in Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, as well as in Dallas locations of DashMart, a convenience store within the DoorDash app.

Rios Murrieta has her work cut out for her to expand JAS’s retail footprint in Texas and Southern California. “I can focus on doing what I do best,” she said. “Creating awareness, talking about alcohol-free cocktails, selling them, and developing more options for people who want to enjoy life without anything that gets in the way of that enjoyment.”