In the height of the holiday season, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been opening his proverbial doors with a bicoastal in-person and digital activation called Mana Holiday House, a place where the magic of the season is celebrated with tequila in hand.

In an exclusive interview on-site with reporters, Johnson shared the inspiration behind Teremana Tequila, as well as the importance of family and his favorite cheeky holiday traditions.

Men’s Journal: What was the impetus for Mana Holiday House? How did the idea come to pass?

DJ: Well, the idea behind this was to create a place where we could drink, get drunk, and celebrate the holidays. I’m kidding. Well, let me just take you back a little bit behind the brand of Teremana and break down the name of Teremana. “Terra” means Earth in Spanish and “mana” is part of my culture—I’m half black and half Samoan—and on the Polynesian side, we have a word called “mana” that I use often. It’s spirit. It’s here. I think you feel it in the air when you come in here, and ultimately I believe in the positivity of mana.

The idea behind the Mana House was, ‘Hey, can we create a real space that people can come to to feel Teremana, enjoy drinks, enjoy a musical element with our pianists who are amazing, and just enjoy the spirit of mana. I’m a hopeless romantic, especially at the end of the year, when it comes to positivity and things like that.

Wax figurine of The Rock is on display at Mana Holiday House in NY.

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And people can enjoy the experience virtually, too?

The idea was to have two spaces where we can create two homes—one in Los Angeles and the other in New York. For those who can’t get to LA or NY, maybe we create an online experience that’s shoppable. That’s an innovative experience, in terms of some of the drinks you can make, and hopefully we could create something that’s fun for people.

I’m forward facing, but behind me is a team who worked so hard at the idea every day of trying to create something special for consumers. In the online experience, it’s like ‘Okay, if you’re gonna go inside my closet, which sounds funny to begin with—and slightly dangerous—what can we put in it that’s gonna be fun?’ So, there are a lot of Easter eggs in the closet, and the idea was just to create something fun online because really that access is what’s going to be the main driver.

Teremana’s success can, in part, be attributed to your presence on social media. How special is it to have an in-person experience like this?

It’s really awesome. For those of you who don’t know, we’re a fairly young brand. Teremana is about three years old. We launched in 2020. We started thinking about the brand and talking about the brand openly about five years earlier. As you know, the world shut down and, at that time, it was like baptism by fire. We’re launching a new brand, and the decision was made back then to not move forward with the marketing plan we had, which had some polish and production to it. That was an interesting conversation to have with investors. It’s like, ‘Hey, all our plans, let’s trash it, and what I do plan on doing is let me take my phone, get online, and do an Instagram Live hopefully once a week. We’ll call it Teremana Tuesdays, and while we’re all down with the pandemic, if you want to share a drink with me, happy to do it.’

Since the days during the pandemic were all cheat days for me, it turned into having drinks with everybody on Teremana Tuesday, then how much French Toast could I eat in one sitting, be gluttonous, and really just have a good time? I remember having toasts and saying, ‘Look, I don’t know where all this is gonna go. I don’t know what’s gonna happen around the world. I know things feel kind of heavy right now, but let’s have a drink and toast to family.’ So, I’m super grateful.

Wide-angle view of Mana Holiday House in NY.

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How does Teremana differ from other celeb-owned spirits brands?

In creating Teremana, not knowing how it was going to go, and actually assuming we were going to take a loss in our first year, which was okay for me, I looked at it as, well, maybe we can create something that brings people together. When you talk about community, I think that’s a great word to underscore, because we started to create this community of Teremana, and what I realized early on was that it started to mean much more than just a spirit—there was actually a face and a story behind the spirit.

It’s not an indictment in any way of some of the people who have started tequila companies and spirits whose goal ultimately is to get in, sell, and get out. The idea here was maybe we can create a legacy brand where we’re in it, and I’m in it for the long haul until I’m walking in the clouds.

In the spirit of community and legacy, I wanted to create a real legacy brand in that if we’re lucky enough to find a little bit of success, then of course, we’d sell some of it or a lot of it off to our initial investors. But ultimately, a good amount will remain with me and my family. So, at the bottom of every bottle is this embossed word ‘TEJASI’ the first two letters of my three daughters’ first names and an indication of legacy.

Any favorite holiday traditions you’ve maintained since childhood?

We moved around a lot, and we were following my dad. My dad was a professional wrestler, and I come from a family and a background of professional wrestlers. At that time, professional wrestling wasn’t as global as it is today. There was really one main company, WWE TKO, headlining it around the world. Back then there were smaller promotions. So, your run as a pro wrestler locally in that particular town would last about a year, then you’re off to the next day.

We continuously moved around, so our tradition was really just to celebrate Christmas wherever it was. I lived in 13 different states by the time I was 13 and also lived in New Zealand. I wish we had these big traditions with family, but it was never like that. We just had Christmas wherever we were, and I’m an only child, so it was a small family. Our tradition was just to be together on Christmas, so years later what I try to do is have a semblance of stability with my daughters and the family. On Christmas Eve, the little ones do their best to stay up as long as they can, so usually around 11 or 11:30 p.m. When they finally fall asleep, that’s when Santa comes, and that’s a whole couple-hour process.

We also have a few drinking games that we play once the kids go to sleep. Usually they’re whatever you make up on the spot, and they wind up being amazing, because you never know where it goes.

Lineup of Teremana Tequila offerings, including Blanco, Reposado, and Anejo.

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Any drinking games stand out in particular?

Well, it wound up making my babies, so that’s a fun drinking game. Every time you blink, you take a drink, then take an article of clothing off.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy Teremana?

What I love doing with Teremana is enjoying it neat—especially the añejo. You just need a big cube and a little bit of orange, but sometimes we add a little soda, sometimes a little grapefruit juice. I always like to say when it comes to Teremana and when it comes to life, let’s make up the rules.