Kevin Hart lives his life as he prefers his tequila: smooth and neat.
Not only has the multi-hyphenate launched his “Acting My Age” stand-up tour this month, today he also debuts Gran Coramino Reposado — the third variety from the best-selling tequila brand he co-founded with 11th-generation tequila maker Juan Domingo Beckmann. And there are also Hart’s recently announced television and film projects through his Hartbeat media company: Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist and his celebrity talk show Hart to Heart, now in its fourth season and featuring such guests as Ben Affleck and Cynthia Erivo that just premiered on Peacock.
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“I’m a firm believer in hard work,” Hart tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m also a system and schedule guy and operate around rules for myself.” It’s this mentality that has propelled Hart to mogul status. Gran Coramino’s ranking as a “top five tequila category growth driver since launch” according to Nielsen xAOC, is no small feat, especially given the deeply over-saturated celebrity wine and spirits marketplace.
“We got here through patience and with an understanding of where we always wanted to be. We said we’re going to make sure we do it right and build off the understanding of ‘Wow, that liquid is good,'” Hart explains. “We started off with a bang with our Cristalino and then we went to the Anejo — a more premium, top-shelf [tequila] and got a great response. Now, we are finally ready, after going through a very, very long period of time of making sure that we got the [Reposado] liquid down to what it should be, got the taste to where I wanted it to be, and that it matched the flow of where the other two are.”
Crafted in Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico, the oldest distillery in Latin America, Reposado is 100 percent blue agave, rested in French and American white oak barrels and delivers that smooth, elevated taste Gran Coramino tequilas are revered for. “We set out to smack you in the mouth with an amazing concept of smooth and attach it to tequila,” says Hart. “When you drink Gran Coramino, you don’t have to make that ugly, scrunched-up face like you just drank gasoline. Instead, you have this shock of, oh my god, it’s not only good, there’s no burn.”
And it’s that sting-free, ultra-suave profile that inspired Hart to create “Tequila Facialitis,” an original medical parody ad accompanying the launch and debuting exclusively on THR, where consumers are stuck with that aforementioned gasoline-flavored tequila face until they get a taste of Reposado and are instantly cured. “The concept is no face/no trace, meaning there’s no trace of anything bad here and your face should be a representation of that,” he adds.
In addition to offering Gran Coramino Reposado at an affordable price point ($39.99 for 750 ML and also available in 375 ML, 750 ML and 1.75 L bottles), Hart is also aiming to create meaningful change through the Coramino Fund, having dispersed over $1 million to more than 100 Black and Latinx small business owners.
“As an entrepreneur, you understand the concept of help and often times reaching out and being an outlet is not only the right thing to do, it’s the best thing to do,” he says. “The world grows with opportunity; it grows with support and that support comes in multiple ways. We’re doing our best to help those in the communities who are looking for the uplift and looking for the springboard to dive off of,” noting, “Instead of talking about change, try your best to be a part of it and that is what we’re doing.”
While Hart rapidly expands his business ventures — which also includes Hart House, his plant-based, fast-food restaurants, along with operating as an investor and face of Fabletics Men — he continues to employ a fervent growth mindset and embraces new challenges, including the possibility of directing.
“I’m a person who is on the move a lot, so being able to navigate and juggle all that I juggle comes with knowing how to make the best of my time. When I do make the decision to direct, I would need to have a lot of time on my hands because it’s a big commitment — not just to the production, but to everything that happens after you’re done making the movie,” he says. “I want to say probably in the older days when I slow down a little more, then I’ll go and engage in that conversation.”
