The past five years have been boom-time for tequila, with sales in the US – its biggest market by far – growing 11 per cent year on year, fuelled by a slew of celebrity brand launches and the unstoppable rise of the Margarita. Tequila’s next chapter looks set to be steadier but also more discerning – and that, according to agave expert and Ocho brand ambassador Jesse Estes, is where it gets interesting.
“Consumers are doing a lot more to educate themselves about tequila,” he says. “And that’s really trickling down into the mainstream. You can see that in the success of apps like Tequila Matchmaker [an AI-powered recommendation app], which now has more than 400,000 users.”
Under current rules, a tequila can contain up to one per cent additives, such as sweeteners and colours, and not disclose it on the label (Tequila Matchmaker estimates that at least 70 per cent of brands contain some kind of additive). This has led to a recent spate of legal wrangles around additive labelling. “As a general rule of thumb, tequila isn’t supposed to be super-sweet or smell like vanilla cake batter. If it does, that should be a red flag,” says Tequila Matchmaker co-founder Grover Sanschagrin.
Desdeya Tequila Blanco, £31.95 for 500ml © Anna Bruce
