What You'll Learn
Why "organic" and "additive-free" are not at all the same thing.
How USDA Organic certification of tequila actually works.
Why organic tequila is mostly an agricultural achievement.
How much organic certification actually costs tequila producers.
The Tequila Report has spent the past nine months addressing one tequila question at a time. Here, we bring together the best of our tequila education in one place. 14 articles, four parts. All of it useful to you, the tequila consumer.
What does a tequila label actually tell you?
Before you can judge a bottle, you have to be able to read one.
1. How to Read a Tequila Bottle
A tequila label prints nine facts that decide whether a bottle is worth buying, and a handful of decorative phrases designed to give you cues about what’s inside.
2. The Magic Number Hiding on Every Tequila Bottle
Every bottle carries a 4-digit NOM that identifies the distillery that controlled the production of that tequila. Fourteen distilleries account for 49% of our Top 150 brands, so learning the numbers is a shortcut to bottles you are more likely to enjoy.
3. 15 Lies About Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo Tequila
Fifteen myths about the three main categories of tequila, checked against the actual production regulations.
4. 6 Lies About Organic Tequila
"Organic" is a legally defined term that requires at least 95% organically produced agave. It is not the same as additive-free, and it is not the same as 100% agave. These key differences are explained here.
How do you taste tequila?
Tasting is a skill that improves with practice and a few specific habits.
5. How to Drink Good Tequila: A 6-Step Guide
A six-step method for 100% agave tequila that replaces the shot-and-lime ritual. Also: should you serve your tequila cold, or out of the freezer?
6. Stop Tasting. Start Smelling
Ana María Romero Mena, master distiller at Mijenta, can identify more than 600 distinct aromas in tequila. She built that skill over a sommelier career that began with a 1993 visit to the Martell House in Cognac. She explains her tips for teaching your brain to perceive the aromas of tequila.
7. How the Wrong Glass Is Quietly Ruining Your Tequila
Four glasses, from an $8 veladora to a $45 Denver & Liely. Each one changes how the same spirit smells and tastes, and it matters more than you think.
8. How to Pair Tequila and Food Without Screwing It Up
Three chefs argue that tequila age is the wrong starting point for a pairing. They explain what to use instead to plan a menu, and why reposado handles most dishes better than the other categories.
Where does flavor come from?
9. It's Not a Cactus: 9 Things You Didn't Know About Blue Weber Agave
Blue Weber agave is a succulent, not a cactus, and commercial plants are propagated as clones from a parent plant. Sergio Cruz, master distiller for Alma del Jaguar and Tierra de Ensueño, explains why that limits genetic diversity.
10. Is Fermentation Responsible for Most of Tequila's Flavor?
A master distiller who calls himself a cook rather than a chef argues that fermentation, not the agave, is where most flavor is created.
11. What Most People Get Wrong About Tequila and Oak
Brands like to name the species of oak they use. Five producers explain why barrel history, not species, is the variable that shapes the finished spirit.
12. Why Brix Matters in Tequila, and Why It's Also Overrated
Brix measures sugar in the agave and tells agaveros when it’s time to harvest. Here’s what it means, and where it doesn’t matter.
13. What It Really Costs to Make Tequila and Why It's Not Getting Cheaper
A spirits importer breaks the retail price of a bottle into four buckets: production, taxes and freight, the three-tier supply chain, and marketing. Agave is less expensive now, why isn’t tequila?
14. Are Single Barrel and Special Batch Tequilas Worth Your Money?
A single barrel typically yields 200 to 300 bottles. They are special and rare, but are they worth the money?
What to Buy?
Here are our two most-popular lists of tequila brands.
Of course, we also publish ten new reviews each week, where we score specific bottles. We answered 17 questions about the rating process, including the four components of the 100-point scale and why value is kept separate from quality.
