How The Tequila Report Rates Tequila: 17 Questions, Answered

As Reviews Editor for The Tequila Report, I see all our reviews and feel all of the feedback. Here are the answers to the questions we get most often.

Last updated August 13, 2026.

We review interesting and noteworthy tequilas, plus popular bottles you will find on many shelves. We do not rate every tequila on the market. We are a newsletter, not a database.

We generally don’t score extremely small releases. A tequila batch needs to be at least 1,000 bottles for us to consider it.

Tequila brands interested in potentially having us review their products should visit this form.

No. We review tequila only, and we have no plans to review mezcal, raicilla, or similar spirits. We also do not review canned cocktails or other ready-to-drink products, though we are working on a feature article about the tequila that goes into them.

We publish 15 new reviews every two weeks. They arrive on a rotating schedule: 10 reviews one week, then 5 the next.

Every review is written by a member of our 15-member reviews panel. They are a cross-section of experienced tequila consumers, retail store managers, bartenders, and content creators.

They come from all corners of the United States, and represent a wide variety of age ranges and backgrounds.

The Tequila Report co-founder Jay Baer and I are both on the panel.

Yes, and no. Each reviewer is paid a very small monthly stipend by the publication in exchange for their time, and for hitting our publication deadlines.

Reviewers can’t rate tequilas if they have any business connections with them.

Three places. Bottles for review are purchased by our reviewers, acquired by reviewers at industry events and bottle shares, or provided by brands directly so that the tequila can be reviewed.

No brand can buy a score, period.

Only presenting sponsors of The Tequila Report get a guaranteed review at some point during the year. They have no visibility into the score until the review is published, and they are all brands we would have reviewed regardless. You can see who they are on our partners page.

At this time, no. Reviewers are aware of what they are scoring, which is typically the case for 1-100 point reviews, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, book reviews, product reviews, and so forth.

All of our reviewers have experience with blind tastings, and as a publication we appreciate the nuance tasting blind can provide.

No. Each review is written by one person from the reviews panel. The score is not an average from our staff, or an official position from The Tequila Report as an entity. Think of it more as an editorial in a newspaper. It’s one (knowledgeable) person’s opinion, of one bottle, of one batch.

Click any reviewer’s name at the top of a review to see everything they have scored. Or, click any name from our review panel. Our reviewers have slightly different aroma and flavor preferences, just like our readers do. Find the one you identify with most, and follow more of their reviews.

Every score is built from four components that add up to 100 points:

All of those are intuitive, except for “character”. Those 10 points are available to the reviewer to provide “extra credit” for a bottle that features different, interesting, dynamic, or particularly noteworthy characteristics in some way.

Here is exactly what each score range means to us, from top to bottom.

Currently about 30% of our reviews are rated Excellent (91+), 60% are rated Good (81-90), and 10% are rated a Pass (80 or below).

There is no “Value” component to our scores, as there currently is at Agave Matchmaker, and other sources.

We believe the value of a tequila is separate from its quality, and what is considered a “good value” is subjective and circumstantial.

We don’t give extra credit for low prices, and we don’t withhold points for expensive bottles. If it’s good, it’s good. Whether it’s worth the cost is your decision.

Not yet, but we will. A score reflects one bottle from one batch, and tequila changes. The most likely reason we would re-review a bottle is a brand moving production to a different distillery.

We both use a 100-point scale, but our ratings are intentionally different. You will see a wider distribution of scores from our individual reviewers than you will find on the averaged Panel score at Agave Matchmaker.

You might know that online database and mobile app already. We are good friends with them, and aren’t trying to replicate or replace the great work that they do.

The distribution gap is partly structural. When Agave Matchmaker panelists (I’m one of about 100 of them, as are many of our reviewers) go to score a bottle, they can see the scores everyone else already gave. That tends to create some numerical conformity.

On Agave Matchmaker you won’t find many average Panel scores above 91 points, for just about any bottle, period. On that site, a 92 is more or less a perfect 100.

We want to use all 100 points (or at least 98 of them, since that’s our highest so far), which is more similar to how it works at Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast.

Brand background, production highlights, and tasting notes, alongside the number. Ratings are just one component of a review. We believe the story about who makes it and why is also valuable, especially for our readers who are increasingly curious to go beyond the basics with tequila.

We want to not just throw out a number, but also teach and inform. These reviews serve as companions to our weekly long-form brand features, tequila education features, lists, and research reports.

A review is one panelist’s opinion of one bottle. Our lists are built differently, and each one has its own method.

The Ultimate List of Craft Tequila was created by our co-founders to incorporate all brands that state they make tequila without artificial flavors or coloring, do not use a diffuser in production, and sell 300,000 bottles or less in a six-month period based on Nielsen scan data.

The Top 150 Tequila Brands list is created twice each year by all of our reviewers, who independently score more than 350 tequila brands (not bottles). High and low scores are removed, and the average (on a 10-point scale) is how we do the rankings.

Note that brands must have been tasted by at least seven of our 15 panelists to qualify for the Top 150 list, so there are new brands that may have the quality to make the list, but not the breadth of distribution yet.

Our other lists, like 56 Top Reposados Under $60, 75 Great Blancos Under $50, and 44 Tequilas That Whiskey Drinkers Will Love, are created by our co-founders, sometimes in consultation with the reviews panel. These function as buying guides, not rankings.

And our Readers’ Choice Awards are created by YOU. Each year, we survey our readers about their favorite tequilas, and those votes are tallied to produce the year’s 10-best blancos, reposados, añejos, and more.

We hope our reviews at The Tequila Report are unique, educational, and add something new to the world of tequila. Thanks very much for reading.

As we say in our motto: Celebrate Your Spirit!

About the Author

Mike Barad is passionate about agave and community. He founded the Great Lakes Tequila Club and proudly serves on the board of the Tequila that Cares Foundation. He is also the reviews editor at The Tequila Report. Find him on Instagram.