“Traditionally, tequila was associated with Mexican- and Latin-influenced restaurants, but now you see it prominently displayed on cocktail lists at every type of venue,” says Jennifer Conley, bar manager at Don Shula’s American Kitchen in Canton, Ohio. “The movement to highlight tequila’s quality and craftsmanship has been around for quite some time, and it’s aligned with people seeking and demanding higher-quality food and beverage products and their willingness to pay a premium to enjoy them.”
Of course, the steady drumbeat by celebrity tequila evangelists has also sent tequila marching higher. The list of famous people who have joined the game includes such names as George Clooney, whose Casamigos, with partner Rande Gerber, sold to spirits giant Diageo for $700 million; LeBron James (Lobos 1707); Justin Timberlake (Sauza 901); Mark Wahlberg, who launched Flecha Azul with PGA golfer Abraham Ancer and entrepreneur Aron Marquez; Sammy Hagar, who is largely credited with kicking off the celebrity furor for tequila with his Cabo Wabo in 1999, now has a new venture, Santos, in partnership with chef and Food Network star Guy Fieri; Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who studied tequila for 10 years before releasing fast-growing Teremana; Michael Jordan created the luxury Cincoro with four other NBA owners.
The agave spirit has even managed to surpass America’s recent love affair with homegrown Bourbon and rye whiskey. In 2022 it climbed ahead of American whiskeys in dollar terms, according to Impact Databank, a sister publication to Wine Spectator, and last year four familiar tequila brands—Patrón, Jose Cuervo, Don Julio and Casamigos—crossed the billion-dollar mark in U.S. retail sales for the first time ever.
And tequila may very well be swiping vodka’s crown as the biggest spirits category in the country by value any day now. Because quality tequila is available in a spectrum of styles, from long oak-aged añejos to unaged blancos, it holds allure for not just whisky drinkers but vodka devotees as well. “It took a long time for vodka to receive any real competition in bars—then along came tequila the past few years,” says Mary Margaret Gallup, director of beverages and bars for Pelham House Resort in Cape Cod, Mass. “Drinkers are opting for tequila more and more these days as more brands pop up.”
Denisse Soto, mixologist and beverage consultant for Cariño in Chicago, says that the more consumers learn about and experience tequila, the more popular it becomes. “All the right information is out there now: the artisanal methodology behind the spirit, how families inherit their methods for generations, and how every producer applies their own methods and creativity to the process of each agave spirit,” she says. “All of this is making this industry more appreciated and understood.”
Tequila continues to take up more and more space at your local wine and spirits shop, too, thanks to that proliferation of new brands and styles. “The category has grown significantly in recent years—it’s slowly but surely catching up to vodka in terms of market share within our store,” notes Tyler Duma, e-commerce manager at Exit 9 Wine & Liquor Warehouse in Clifton Park, N.Y. “New brands are constantly becoming available and we’re finding that customers are generally willing to experiment and try new things.”
While the large names like Casamigos, Cuervo, and Don Julio still overwhelmingly dominate tequila sales at Exit 9, Duma notes that boutique brands like Clase Azul, Fortaleza, G4 and El Tesoro are inviting exploration as people seek the best Mexico has to offer. “The trend is absolutely premiumization; the average price point per bottle of tequila sold at our store has changed significantly in the past few years, up over 20 percent since 2020,” he says, noting that brands between $30 and $50 sell best now. “Customers are trading up in tequila, and I see that trend continuing.”
Trading Up
To meet growing demand for tequila, especially in the super premium and luxury tiers, tequila brands big and small have been putting a lot of R&D into evolving ever more flavorful and interesting expressions, especially with barrel finishing, which involves a brief final maturation in casks that held other spirits, or even wine, to help shape the final flavor.
Don Julio most recently introduced Don Julio Alma Miel ($100), a blend of blanco tequila distilled with agave honey and 14-month-old añejo tequila finished in casks that held Crémant de Limoux, the southern French sparkling wine that can include Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Mauzac and more. Don Julio Rosado ($110) is a reposado, or rested, tequila matured in ruby Port casks. Their second bottling of the Don Julio Ultima Reserva ($500), a 36-month-aged extra añejo, uses the final agave plants planted by founder Don Julio González, in 2006.
Patrón, meanwhile, has released El Cielo ($129), a four-times distilled “prestige silver” tequila, and El Alto ($179), which primarily comprises extra añejo, blended with añejo and reposado tequilas, and is aged in 11 different types of barrels, mostly hybrids of American oak body and French oak heads, adding layers of complexity.
In February, Lunazul, which sold more than a million cases in the U.S. last year, announced the second limited edition of its Extra Añejo ($60), aged for 36 months in Elijah Craig Bourbon barrels from Kentucky’s Heaven Hill, which also owns Lunazul. Heaven Hill also owns the luxury-priced Tequila Ocho, which recently introduced the Reposado Barrel Select Widow Jane 2022 ($75), a limited-edition tequila aged in Bourbon casks sourced from Brooklyn, NY’s Widow Jane Distillery.
Taking a page from the whisky world, single-barrel tequila is an exciting and growing aspect of tequila right now, Duma of Exit 9 notes. The practice involves identifying select barrels that are exceptional and bottling them on their own. This results in very limited and unique expressions. “Single-barrel selections are a big part of our spirits business, but until more recently it was almost exclusively whisk(e)y,” he says. “We’ve recently received our fifth single-barrel tequila selection—a Tres Agaves Reposado barrel—and these have all been pretty successful.”
While cristalino tequilas make up a small part of the high-end tequila market by volume, they are increasingly popular among drinkers who want to experience all that tequila has to offer.
“In the past year or two, cristalino tequilas are popping up on more and more lists at bars,” notes Francisco Velasco, head bartender at El Lugar Cantina in New York. “Cristalinos are matured in oak before going through a charcoal-filtering process to remove color and some of the oakier notes from the barreling process. The base tequila can range from a reposado to an extra añejo, and the filtering process aims to offer the complexity and character of an aged expression paired with the crisp, bright notes that define a blanco.”
Another tequila style that’s earning fans while expanding the spirit's range of flavors is ahumado (which translates to “smoked”), crafted using roasted agave, which adds a smoky quality similar to mezcal. Cenote pioneered this style back in 2019 and reintroduced its Ahumado ($75)—a small-batch smoked reposado tequila—in February of last year. Just one month later, Patrón announced its own limited-edition ahumado expressions: Silver ($70) and Reposado ($80). And this February, along with the release of its Extra Añejo, Lunazul introduced Primero-Cristalino ($38) and Primero-Humoso ($38), the latter of which is made very similarly to ahumado tequila: It translates to “the smoked one” and features both mesquite-smoked and fresh agave to create a smoked blanco.
Duma notes that his tequila customers these days are more conscious of where and how their favorite tequilas are produced, just like many serious whisky drinkers. “I think tequila drinkers will continue to seek out more producers that are authentic in both their marketing and production,” he says. Even among celebrity brands, authenticity, tradition and quality count.
As today’s tequila fans have grown more educated about the spirit and discerning in their choices, tequilas that are marketed as “additive-free” are growing more popular, notes Josh Robinson, president of Argonaut Wine & Liquor in Denver, where tequila accounts for 20 percent of spirits sales. “Recently, celebrity tequilas have started to slow down in our stores and additive-free has become more important to our tequila customers,” he says. “Brands like Wild Common and Yeyo have taken advantage of this.”
Ashley Reeves, beverage manager for the Mexican in Dallas, a fine-dining Mexican concept featuring more than 200 tequila and mezcal offerings, says they have many food- and drink-savvy customers who are already quite knowledgeable about tequila. “But they all have an appetite to learn more,” she says. “We’re seeing more guests moving away from the highly marketed brands and who are open to tasting the smaller-batch local tequilas we carry. Brands such as Casa Noble, Socorro, Cincoro and Flecha Azul have become some of our most popular tequilas.”
Bar Darling
Just as tequila is taking up more space than ever on liquor store shelves, it’s also made quite an impression on U.S. back bars as bartenders have learned to embrace its unique flavor profiles and flex their creativity. “Tequila has always been a go-to shot at bars, but the real tequila rush started around a decade ago when people became more curious about the spirit and started to ask, ‘What else can we make with this?’ ” El Lugar’s Velasco says. “Brands like Patrón and Casamigos really paved the way in bringing tequila to the mainstream. It was no longer just one gold tequila in the well; it was a back bar full of elevated agave spirits.”
Indeed, today you can find bars all across the country that specialize in tequila and other agave spirits. El Agave Restaurant and Tequileria in San Diego, for instance, doubles as a tequila museum, with the largest tequila collection in the country. There are over 3,000 bottles on display, around 800 of which are open and waiting to be sampled, including the venue’s own tequila, called El Agave Barrica Añejo, which is aged 34 months in new French oak and is available only at the restaurant ($35/2-ounce pour). Another notable bottle is the coveted 1800 Colección Extra Añejo from 1997 ($450/2-ounce pour). There are also many cocktails, including nine house Margaritas ($14–$16) and high-end options like the tequila Old Fashioned ($50), comprising Adictivo Extra Añejo (aged 83 months), Angostura bitters and Luxardo maraschino cherries.
Bartenders have played a major role in showcasing the spirit’s beauty as well as its versatility in cocktails. There’s one bartender in particular who gets a lot of credit for the current appreciation for tequila in bars. In the 1980s at his family’s restaurant Tommy’s in San Francisco, Julio Bermejo began serving 100 percent agave Herradura Silver as the house tequila as opposed to lower-quality mixto tequila; in large part thanks to him, any request for fine tequila today begins with the words “100 percent agave, please.”
Bermejo also created the Tommy’s Margarita, where instead of triple sec, he chose agave syrup—then a largely unknown ingredient—plus freshly squeezed lime juice and 100 percent agave tequila, a recipe that many venues have adopted. The drink, simple yet sophisticated, helped pave the way for the prevalence of craft tequila cocktails.
“When you think of tequila, the mind typically gravitates toward Margaritas,” says Olivia Fernandez, head bartender at the Ballantyne hotel in Charlotte, N.C. “I love a good Margarita, but tequila is so much more versatile. As a tequila fanatic myself, I am always looking for new inspiration with cocktails using the spirit. A lot of people don’t realize that many tequilas drink similarly to Bourbons; a tequila Old Fashioned or Manhattan is delicious if done correctly.”
Like the Tommy’s Margarita, the Oaxaca Old Fashioned—created by New York bartender Phil Ward in 2007 and featuring reposado tequila, mezcal, agave syrup and Angostura bitters—is both a modern classic and a seminal tequila cocktail for introducing the idea that tequila can be swapped into any number of cocktails.
“Tequila is wide and varied—within one single category you can have many different drinking experiences, which makes it fun for drinkers but also cocktail creators because there are an infinite number of flavors and combinations to try,” Pelham House Resort’s Gallup says. “It’s hard to upset the classic Margarita as the No. 1 tequila cocktail, but more and more you see people opting for tequila in Old Fashioneds, Negronis and other classic cocktail riffs.”
As tequila producers continue to innovate and bartenders continue to spread the good word, tequila’s future is brighter than ever.
“I think that we’ve only scratched the surface of tequila’s real potential behind the bar,” Reeves says. “I see it continuing to grow and develop as more people have exposure to tequila culture and experiences like the ones we provide here at the Mexican. As we introduce every guest that walks through the door to new tequila tastes and experiences, we have the opportunity to strengthen their connection to this agave-based spirit.”
Classics Reborn
El Agave in San Diego reimagines these popular drinks starring Tequila
Tequila Old Fashioned
- 2 ounces extra añejo tequila
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice
Stir together bitters and cherry juice in an Old Fashioned glass. Stir in tequila, add ice and garnish with a maraschino cherry and gold flakes (optional).
Frida y Diego
- 3 slices cucumber
- 3 mint leaves
- Pinch salt
- 2 ounces blanco tequila (Amatiteña preferred)
- 1 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 ounce simple syrup
Muddle the first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add the remaining ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into a Martini glass and garnish with mint.
Perfect Cadillac Margarita
- 2 ounces 100 percent agave tequila blanco
- 1 1/2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 ounce simple syrup
- 1 ounce triple sec plus ½ ounce for the floater
Shake all ingredients except the floater over ice and strain into a Margarita glass. Carefully pour remaining triple sec over the back of a spoon to float it on the drink. Garnish with orange an slice.
