The Agaveist was founded to shine a light on what’s going on with Mexican spirits around the world, with a key focus being on the UK and European markets. With that said, a huge amount of innovation and agave spirits culture is happening in the US and there are lots of people with their boots on the ground who are at the centre of the action.

Jay Baer is one of those people. Co-founder and editor of the fantastic Tequila Report, Jay shares his tequila journey, his perspective on the tequila and mezcal market in the US, what makes a good tequila and what it means to research and share good tequila stories.

It would be great to start right at the beginning. I’ve read that your interest in tequila began because you grew up in Arizona around Tucson, and that was where your journey started. 

Could you talk a little about that, and what tequila was like at the time when you were first discovering it?

It was a different landscape to the one people see today. Tucson in Arizona is only about forty-five minutes from the Mexican border. One thing people often forget is that the legal drinking age is different in Mexico than it is in the States, so when we were young university students we would routinely head across the border and spend time there. It became a normal part of growing up.

Living in that part of the United States, you’re naturally immersed in Latino culture. Because of that, tequila never felt unusual or exotic to me in the way it still does for people who grow up much further away from the border. It was simply part of the culture around us. That familiarity eventually turned into genuine curiosity when I was in my late twenties, before my wife and I had children.

At that point my best friend and I started going to one of the very earliest mezcal bars in the Phoenix area. There was a bartender there who had been fascinated by agave spirits long before almost anybody else in the United States was talking about them. Wednesdays were completely dead. Taco Tuesday was always packed, but nobody came in the following night, so we’d joke that Wednesday evening was church. We’d sit there by ourselves while he’d reach behind the bar, pull down some dusty bottle he’d carried back in his suitcase from Oaxaca and begin telling us stories.

Those stories were what captivated us. He wasn’t just explaining what the spirit tasted like. He’d tell us about the family who made it, how they lived, the fact they might not even have electricity, how they harvested the agave, roasted it and distilled it, and what made each producer unique. We became completely enchanted by the craftsmanship, the people, the culture and the narrative surrounding every bottle. Looking back, that’s really where my fascination with agave spirits began.

Like many people, though, my own introduction to tequila itself was far less sophisticated. It was shots with salt and lime, just as it was for countless people at the time. Even in the American Southwest, where access to tequila was better than in many other parts of the country, the choices simply weren’t very good. 

We didn’t know any different. We assumed tequila was tequila, and if Cuervo Gold was what everyone was drinking, then that was simply what tequila was supposed to taste like. The market was dominated by large industrial brands producing inexpensive spirits that weren’t particularly well made. Thankfully, the category has evolved enormously since then, and what consumers have available today is on an entirely different level.

I believe you spend a lot of time in Mexico now and visit distilleries regularly. Do you also organise tours?

I live in Mexico for half the year now. My wife and I own a house in Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco. We’ve been visiting Mexico for more than thirty years, ever since we were just out of university, and it’s always been our happy place. Eventually my wife looked at me and said, “You’re down here all the time for tequila anyway, so why don’t we just buy somewhere?” It made perfect sense. 

One of the great advantages is the location. From Puerto Vallarta it’s easy to reach the heart of tequila country around Guadalajara. It’s only about a three-hour drive or a thirty-minute flight, which makes visiting distilleries remarkably convenient.

At the moment there are around 205 tequila distilleries in operation, and I’ve probably visited somewhere in the region of thirty or thirty-one of them. That sounds like a lot until you realise that very few distilleries welcome visitors. There are many producers making tequila who simply don’t offer tours or public access, so having the opportunity to visit as many as I have has been a real privilege.

Whenever people ask me for advice, I always encourage them to visit the region themselves if they possibly can. We partner with PKGD Tours and run around six guided trips each year, taking people into tequila country and introducing them to the production process, the distilleries and the people behind the brands.

Of course it’s an enjoyable experience, but the real value goes much deeper than that. Until you’ve stood inside a distillery, watched agave being processed, spoken with the families producing the spirit and experienced the culture firsthand, there are countless aspects of tequila that you simply can’t appreciate by looking at a bottle sitting on a shop shelf. The experience completely changes the way people understand what’s in their glass.

You’ve had a long and varied career in marketing, which we’ll come back to later, but what made you start the Tequila Report? How has it evolved from those early days?

I wish I could tell you there was some grand strategic plan from the beginning, but there wasn’t. It was much more accidental than people probably imagine.

I owned a marketing agency for ten years before eventually selling it in 2021. During that entire period I was also hosting a weekly podcast called Social Pros, which focused on social media strategy for large companies because that was the world we operated in. Once I sold the agency, I suddenly found myself with a significant amount of free time each week that had previously been dedicated to producing the podcast.

My thinking was straightforward. I’d spent almost thirty years learning about tequila, my friends were constantly asking me questions about it, and I thought it might simply be fun to start creating content around everything I’d learned. That really was the strategy. There wasn’t a business model or a media plan at the time. 

At the same time, I’d spent my entire professional life producing long-form work. I’d recorded well over a thousand podcast episodes, written seven books, delivered around nine hundred keynote speeches and spent decades creating substantial pieces of content. The one thing I hadn’t really explored was consistent short-form video. So I thought I could achieve two goals at once to teach people about tequila while also learning how platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels actually worked.

So I started making videos but they weren’t especially engaging. Eventually I approached my colleague, Maddie Jager, and asked if she’d appear in one video with me. My reasoning was simple. Maddie is much younger than I am and, beyond enjoying the occasional margarita, she knew very little about tequila. I realised that if I taught her in real time, the audience could learn alongside her. They could see themselves reflected in her experience instead of listening to someone who already knew all the answers.

That quickly became the entire concept. It was essentially an older guy who knew tequila paired with a younger woman who didn’t, and together we’d explore the category. As it turned out, Maddy was fantastic on camera. We also get along well, so the chemistry between us was completely natural, and people connected with that almost immediately.

Once she became involved, everything changed. The videos started finding an audience, then they started growing, and before long we’d become one of the most popular tequila-focused content creators anywhere in the world across Instagram and TikTok.

We continued doing that for almost four years. Then, at the beginning of 2026, I started thinking more seriously about where the business was heading. The reality is that the barrier to entry for video content is essentially zero. Anyone with a smartphone can create videos. More importantly, if your entire business exists on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, you don’t actually control your audience. The algorithm controls whether people see your work.

After spending my career in digital marketing, that bothered me. I wanted to build something where we decided when people received our content rather than leaving it to an algorithm. That’s ultimately what led to the launch of Tequila Report. We shifted away from being primarily video creators and built something centred on email and our own website instead. Rather than videos being the business, they became something that supports a much larger digital magazine.

Today Maddie is my business partner. She’s the publisher of Tequila Report and I’m the editor. It’s been a fascinating evolution from what began as a simple side project into a genuine media company, and so far it’s working really well.

I believe you started your marketing career in direct mail working for a US senator. I’m very much steeped in direct response copywriting myself, and reading the editorial in Tequila Report I couldn’t help noticing what felt like some of those same principles at work. 

From a tequila education perspective, I’d like to understand how those direct mail lessons and copywriting principles influence the way you educate people. What does that journey look like?

That’s a really perceptive observation. The truth is that, in my mind, it’s all the same discipline.

The reason I ended up in marketing in the first place was because I started my career in politics. At some point I realised that if I could persuade somebody to vote for a political candidate, I could probably persuade somebody to buy a car, a holiday, a bowl of soup or a bottle of tequila. 

Fundamentally, you’re doing exactly the same thing. You’re presenting a product, explaining why it matters and communicating why someone should choose it over the alternatives. The product itself changes, but the underlying principles of persuasion don’t.

That’s why I think copywriting, positioning and audience targeting are such universal skills. Whether you’re writing political fundraising letters, selling consumer products or educating people about tequila, you’re still trying to understand your audience, identify what they care about and communicate in a way that resonates with them. 

Eventually I decided I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life working professionally in politics. From there I moved into marketing, then into digital marketing, which is really just marketing with much faster feedback loops. Suddenly you weren’t waiting weeks or months to find out whether something had worked and you knew almost immediately. 

I then found myself moving into journalism, although in many ways that wasn’t really a new direction at all because journalism had actually been my university major. When I look back now, my career has almost come full circle. 

One thing Maddie and I understood from the beginning was that we didn’t want to create content for the absolute tequila experts. There are already some exceptional people serving that audience, and they’re doing a fantastic job. If you’ve spent thirty years studying tequila, reading production regulations and visiting distilleries, we’re probably not the publication that’s going to teach you very much.

Instead, we’ve always focused on helping people move from knowing almost nothing about tequila to having a solid intermediate understanding of the category.

Part of that decision comes from my marketing background. Quite simply, it’s a much larger audience. More importantly, it’s an audience where you can create real transformation. If someone already knows almost everything there is to know, you can probably teach them one or two additional things. That’s valuable, but it’s incremental. If somebody is just beginning their journey, however, you can fundamentally change the way they understand tequila. 

One of the people who has influenced my thinking enormously is my good friend Rory Vaden. Rory has an idea that has become something of a North Star for us at Tequila Report. He says that your ideal audience is the person you used to be.

I think that’s such a powerful way to approach education. There was a point in my life when I knew nothing about tequila. Maddie was in exactly that position only a few years ago. We constantly try to put ourselves back into that mindset and ask, “What would we have wanted to know? What would have helped us? What would have made this subject feel exciting rather than intimidating?”

That helps stop us from overshooting the audience. It’s easy when you’ve been immersed in a subject for decades to forget what beginners actually need. We work very hard not to make that mistake.

One of the advantages of moving to an email newsletter and website rather than relying solely on social media is that the analytics reinforce those decisions. The numbers tell us very clearly when we’ve become too technical or too specialised. Whenever we drift too far into what I would call tequila nerd territory, engagement drops. That’s valuable feedback because it reminds us that our job isn’t to impress experts. Our job is to educate people who are still on the journey.

One article that really stood out to me was your feature on Socorro Tequila. I thought it was a great example of how you combine storytelling with education and put those principles we’ve discussed into action.

Could you explain how you put a feature like that together?

Twice every month we publish what I’d describe as long-form magazine features. They’re usually around 2,500 words and take a deep look at a particular tequila brand and look at where it came from, who founded it, how it’s made and what makes it different from the hundreds of other brands competing for attention.

The challenge, particularly in the United States, is that there are an extraordinary number of tequila brands. There are now somewhere in the region of two thousand brands imported into the US. Depending on how you define viability, perhaps nine hundred to a thousand of those are brands that consumers will actually encounter with some regularity.

Even that is an astonishing number. It’s far more than you’d ever see in the UK and considerably more than most of mainland Europe. Ironically, there are more tequila brands available in the United States than there are in Mexico itself. That sounds completely backwards, but it’s true, largely because of the way taxation and distribution work.

As an editor, that creates a fascinating challenge. If there are one or two thousand brands available, why should someone care about this particular one?

That’s really the question I’m trying to answer every time we commission a feature. I have to identify the angle that an intermediate tequila enthusiast is genuinely going to find interesting. It’s never enough simply to say, “Here’s another tequila.” There has to be a reason this story deserves attention.

In the case of Socorro, what immediately caught my attention was the fact that it’s the only tequila served on American Airlines. American is one of the three largest airlines in the United States and one of the biggest airlines anywhere in the world. That means a huge number of our readers could realistically find themselves drinking that tequila on a flight.

That alone makes it relevant. But what really interested me wasn’t simply that they’d secured the contract. It was how they secured it. It’s one of my favourite entrepreneurial stories because, honestly, they had no business winning that account.

American Airlines invited various tequila brands to submit miniature bottles for a blind tasting. Naturally, airlines serve miniatures rather than full-sized bottles. 

There was just one problem. Socorro didn’t manufacture miniature bottles. They’d never needed them. So suddenly they’re faced with this enormous opportunity and no packaging to put their tequila into. Their solution was wonderfully scrappy.

They went onto Amazon, ordered empty miniature bottles, bought shrink seals, filled every bottle by hand from full-sized bottles of tequila, designed temporary labels themselves and then used a hairdryer in somebody’s bathroom to shrink the plastic closures into place so they looked professionally sealed.

They literally built their airline samples by hand. Then they carried those bottles into the American Airlines offices in Dallas and submitted them alongside multinational companies with enormous resources. And they won.

That single decision ultimately led to a contract representing tens of thousands of cases of tequila every year.

As someone who’s spent most of my career around entrepreneurs and growing businesses, I find stories like that endlessly fascinating. Yes, I love talking about fermentation, distillation and agave, but sometimes the entrepreneurial story behind the bottle is every bit as compelling as the production story itself. Those moments reveal the determination, creativity and resourcefulness that often separate successful brands from everyone else.

That’s interesting because there are really multiple angles to a story like that. There’s the emotional hook, there’s the entrepreneurial story and then there’s the tequila itself, which I thought was a really nice example of how you put those pieces together.

Tequila is the main focus of Tequila Report, but mezcal as a category continues to grow year after year. I’d love to hear your thoughts on mezcal generally.

How is it being received in the United States? 

I think mezcal is doing well, but it’s important to put that growth into context because percentages can sometimes be misleading. Yes, mezcal is growing, and it’s growing at a healthy rate, but it’s growing from such a small base that even strong percentage increases don’t necessarily translate into enormous volumes. At the moment, mezcal sales in the United States are somewhere around one per cent of tequila sales. It’s still a very small category by comparison.

There are several reasons for that. The first is simply flavour. Mezcal has an inherently different flavour profile to tequila because of the way the agave is traditionally roasted in underground pits. That process gives many mezcals their distinctive smoky character, and while a lot of people absolutely love that, it’s also a flavour profile that doesn’t immediately appeal to everyone. Tequila is generally a much easier entry point for new drinkers.

The second challenge is production itself. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a number of palenques in Oaxaca, and until you’ve seen traditional mezcal being made with your own eyes, it’s difficult to appreciate just how labour-intensive it really is.

It’s demanding work. Everything is done on a much smaller scale, often by families using traditional methods that have been passed down through generations. The production process is slow, physical and remarkably artisanal. In many ways, it’s hard to imagine a spirit that’s more handcrafted than traditional mezcal.

Naturally, that has consequences. The batches are small, and because production is so time-consuming and labour-intensive, the price of genuinely well-made mezcal is correspondingly high. That’s understandable, but it does create a barrier for many consumers. Asking someone to spend a significant amount of money on a spirit they may never have tasted before is a much harder proposition than introducing them to a less expensive tequila.

It also creates challenges for bars. If you’re running a cocktail programme, every ingredient has to make commercial sense. When the cost per pour of quality mezcal is significantly higher than other spirits, it becomes much harder to feature it widely on menus. That inevitably slows adoption.

Right now, I think bartenders are really carrying the category forward in the United States. The people introducing consumers to mezcal are the bartenders working in agave-focused bars and specialist cocktail venues. They’re the ones encouraging guests to try something different, pouring small samples, explaining production methods and helping people understand why one mezcal tastes completely different from another.

There’s another characteristic of mezcal that makes it both fascinating and slightly challenging for consumers.

Unlike tequila, which is produced within very tightly controlled regulations to ensure consistency, mezcal often embraces variation. Producers may use different agave species, different production techniques and different proportions from one batch to the next. Even batches from the same producer can taste dramatically different.

In many ways that’s one of mezcal’s greatest strengths. It’s very similar to wine. Nobody expects every vintage of wine to taste identical. In fact, the differences between vintages are part of the appeal. Mezcal can be exactly the same. One batch may be completely different from the next, and enthusiasts love discovering those differences.

At the same time, that’s also one of the category’s biggest challenges. Consumers often want consistency. They want to know that if they buy the same bottle next year, it’s going to taste exactly as they remember it. Mezcal doesn’t always work that way, and for people who are new to the category that uncertainty can sometimes be intimidating.

Another factor is that so much tequila consumption in America is cocktail-driven. At Tequila Report we spend a lot of time talking about sipping tequila neat because that’s where our audience tends to be. But if you step back and look at the market as a whole, a huge proportion of tequila is still being consumed in cocktails.

The neighbourhood Mexican restaurant serving basic margaritas is still one of the biggest drivers of tequila consumption in America.

In fact, something like thirty per cent of all cocktails consumed in the United States contain tequila, and roughly one in every five cocktails served across the entire country is a margarita. When you stop and think about those numbers, it’s extraordinary. We’re talking about millions upon millions of margaritas being served every year. That level of familiarity naturally benefits tequila in a way that mezcal simply hasn’t achieved yet.

A couple of trends I’m seeing at the moment is the growth of sparkling tequila products and non-alcoholic tequila alternatives. 

Are they still relatively small markets in the US, or do you think they’re becoming significant?

They’re definitely becoming significant. Starting with ready-to-drink products and tequila seltzers, there’s no question that we’re seeing more and more of them entering the market.

There are several that I think are genuinely well made. Ascenda is good. Suerte makes an excellent tequila seltzer. Freshie has produced a really good one in the United States, and Yacht Water has also built a strong reputation in that space.

At the same time, there are plenty that simply aren’t very good. Some brands are using inexpensive bulk tequila and lower-quality ingredients because they’re trying to hit a price point rather than create an exceptional drink.

The challenge is that consumers buying canned cocktails often aren’t approaching the purchase in the same way they would if they were buying a premium sipping tequila. If you’re standing on a beach, sitting on a boat or grabbing something convenient for a picnic, you’re probably not analysing the production methods or wondering which distillery supplied the tequila inside the can.

Convenience tends to outweigh craftsmanship. That makes it difficult to build a truly premium tequila seltzer because I’m not convinced the average customer in that situation cares enough to justify the additional cost. Even so, the category itself is unquestionably growing.

More broadly, ready-to-drink cocktails are currently the strongest-performing area of beverage alcohol in the United States.

Tequila, after several years of explosive growth, has begun to soften slightly. Beer is down. Wine is down. Gin is down. Vodka is down. Whisky is down. Bourbon is down. The one category that continues to grow consistently is canned cocktails. Clearly consumers appreciate the convenience. They like having something ready to drink without mixing ingredients themselves, and I think that trend probably has further to run. Whether it continues at the same pace remains to be seen, but it’s certainly where a lot of innovation is happening at the moment.

The non-alcoholic category is equally interesting. There’s no doubt that no- and low-alcohol products are becoming increasingly popular, particularly among younger American consumers.

A lot of people still want the social experience of going out with friends, but they don’t necessarily want to drink alcohol all evening. They may have one alcoholic drink and then switch to something alcohol-free, or they may avoid alcohol altogether while still wanting something that feels like part of the occasion.

Where I think the market is still developing is around having a genuinely recognisable flagship product. There are some very good options available. Almave, which was co-founded by Lewis Hamilton, is probably the best-known example. It’s certainly well recognised in the UK and increasingly recognised in the United States, although distribution is still relatively limited.

There’s also a newer product called NeQuila from the team behind LEON y SOL in San Francisco, and I think that’s a very good product as well.

Right now, though, we’re still in that early stage where everybody is experimenting and nobody has really established themselves as the definitive choice.

Another trend I’ve been noticing, particularly across Europe, is the emergence of what people are calling New World agave spirits. 

Countries like Italy, Greece, South Africa and Australia are beginning to grow their own agave and produce agave spirits outside Mexico. What are your thoughts on that? 

It’s an interesting topic because it’s something we’re starting to see in a number of different parts of the world. The same countries you’re mentioning are the ones we’re paying attention to in the United States as well. South Africa is certainly one. Greece has some interesting projects. Australia is experimenting with agave production. Even within the United States there are producers working with blue agave. California already has some respectable agave spirits being made, there’s production beginning in Hawaii, and I’ve also heard there are projects currently being developed in Texas.

The reality is that agave itself is a resilient plant. Blue Weber agave, in particular, is remarkably hardy. If you give it a hot, dry climate, it’ll generally grow quite happily. From an agricultural perspective, growing agave isn’t really the difficult part of the equation.

The difficult part comes afterwards. It’s everything that happens once you’ve harvested the plant. Cooking the agave correctly, fermentation, distillation, understanding the raw material, developing consistency and all of those production skills take years to master. That’s where the real craftsmanship lies.

I’ve tried a number of these New World agave spirits now. Some are perfectly enjoyable. Personally, though, I haven’t tasted one yet that I would choose over a really well-made tequila. That’s simply my own preference. They’re interesting products, but they don’t quite capture what I’m personally looking for.

Now, I also recognise that this whole subject creates a fair amount of controversy. There are certainly people who feel very strongly that agave spirits should only be produced in Mexico because agave spirits are such an important part of Mexican history and culture. I completely understand where that perspective comes from. Tequila and mezcal are deeply rooted in Mexican identity, and I have enormous respect for that tradition.

At the same time, I think we also need to separate two different conversations. Nobody should be allowed to produce an agave spirit in Greece or California and call it tequila. Nobody should be able to call it mezcal. Those names are protected by denomination of origin, and rightly so.

But that’s different from saying nobody outside Mexico should ever produce an agave spirit. The denomination of origin protects the name, not the plant itself.

To use another example, sparkling wines are produced all over the world. You can’t call them Champagne unless they’re produced in the Champagne region of France, but nobody argues that Italy or Spain shouldn’t be allowed to make sparkling wine.

For me, it’s a similar principle. As long as producers are honest about what they’re making and aren’t trying to market it as tequila or mezcal, I don’t have a problem with people experimenting with agave spirits in other countries. Ultimately, consumers will decide.

If someone produces an excellent agave spirit in Greece, South Africa or Australia and consumers genuinely enjoy it, then I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Sometimes I think this discussion becomes a little too absolutist. People begin talking about cultural appropriation or suggesting that nobody else should ever touch agave outside Mexico. I understand the emotional attachment to tequila and mezcal, but I also don’t think it’s realistic to expect one country to have a monopoly on growing a particular plant forever.

As long as everyone respects the protected names and is transparent about what they’re producing, I think experimentation is healthy.

Moving back to tequila itself, everyone seems to have their own definition of what makes a great tequila. I’d love to hear your own philosophy. What makes a tequila great in your eyes, and are there any brands, whether they’re established classics or newer producers, that particularly stand out to you?

That’s one of my favourite questions because it’s also one of the hardest to answer. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through tasting professionally over the years is that there really isn’t a single correct answer.

There shouldn’t be. We’re talking about aroma and flavour, and both of those are inherently subjective. Different people experience flavour differently, enjoy different characteristics and even perceive the exact same compounds in completely different ways.

A simple example is coriander or cilantro, as we call it in the United States. It’s a fundamental part of Mexican cooking and countless other cuisines around the world. Some people absolutely love it. Other people experience it completely differently.

To them it tastes like soap. Neither person is wrong. It’s simply the way their body processes those flavour compounds. Tequila works in much the same way. Everybody responds differently to different aromas and flavours, so expecting universal agreement about what’s “best” simply isn’t realistic.

Something else I’ve discovered over the years is that you can experience exactly the same tequila very differently depending on the circumstances. That surprised me at first, but it’s become obvious through professional tastings. I’ll taste a tequila one day and write detailed notes, perhaps even assign it a score. Then I’ll come back two days later and taste exactly the same bottle.

Maybe it’s a different time of day. Maybe I’ve eaten different food beforehand. Maybe I’m better rested. Maybe I’m dehydrated. Maybe I’m simply in a different mood. Sometimes that exact same tequila presents itself very differently. Not because the tequila has changed, but because I have.

I think that’s something people don’t always appreciate, particularly online where everyone seems to want absolute certainty. People want definitive answers. They want a numerical score. They want to know which restaurant is objectively the best, which film deserves the highest rating or which tequila should receive ninety-eight points instead of ninety-six.

The reality is that these experiences are never completely objective. A restaurant may have had an exceptional evening or a disappointing one. A reviewer may have been having a particularly good day or a particularly bad one. Those things matter.

That’s why, when I write tasting notes, I often include little phrases like, “Today I experienced…” or “On this occasion…” It’s my way of gently reminding readers that they’re reading one person’s experience at one particular moment in time. It isn’t universal truth.

That said, I also recognise the practical reality of publishing content. If you’re running a publication that reviews products, readers expect scores. If we simply wrote, “We thought this tequila was pretty nice,” nobody would click on the article.

Reviews are part of what people come to us for, and numerical ratings are simply part of the modern publishing landscape. So we do them. Even if, philosophically, I wish people placed a little less emphasis on the number itself.

When it comes to my own preferences, I generally like tequilas that still taste unmistakably like tequila. Whether it’s a Blanco or an Extra Añejo, I want the agave to remain the star of the show. I don’t want a tequila that’s become so neutral it resembles vodka.

Equally, I don’t want something that’s been aged to the point where it tastes almost entirely like whisky. The identity of the agave should still be present regardless of how the tequila has been matured.

Another aspect I think is often overlooked is aroma. People naturally focus on flavour because that’s what they’re consciously thinking about when they taste. But so much of what we perceive as flavour is aroma.

A simple experiment demonstrates that perfectly. Take a sip of tequila. Think about what you’re tasting. Then pinch your nose closed and take another sip. The difference is astonishing. Without aroma, much of what you thought was flavour almost disappears.

That’s why I always encourage people to spend more time smelling tequila before they drink it. I genuinely think people would understand spirits much better if they paid as much attention to aroma as they do to taste.

In terms of style, I personally tend to gravitate towards Highland tequilas. That’s not an absolute rule, but generally speaking I enjoy their brighter citrus character.

Many Highland tequilas also have a really distinctive black pepper note, and I’m a huge fan of black pepper flavours across food and drink generally. Those are the profiles that naturally appeal to me.

As for recommending specific brands, we’re just finishing one of our biggest editorial projects of the year. We’ve already published our forty-six highest-rated tequilas of the year so far, and in a couple of weeks we’ll be releasing our updated ranking of the top one hundred and fifty tequila brands overall.

Personally, I always encourage people to look at those collective rankings rather than relying solely on my own opinion. One of the strengths of Tequila Report is that we have fifteen reviewers contributing to those scores.

You’re getting a much broader range of perspectives than simply asking, “What’s Jay’s favourite tequila today?” And I think that’s ultimately a much fairer way of helping people discover bottles they’ll genuinely enjoy.

Another trend I’m seeing is the growth of Cristalino tequila. I’m curious what you think about it. Do you see it mainly as a marketing innovation, or do you think it’s a valuable category in its own right?

That’s a great question because Cristalino is one of the most misunderstood categories in tequila. The first thing I always try to explain is that Cristalino is not Blanco tequila. A lot of people assume that because it’s clear, it must simply be another form of Blanco. They look at the bottle and think, “Well, it’s transparent, so it must be an unaged tequila.”

That’s not what’s happening at all. A Cristalino begins life as either a Reposado or an Añejo. In other words, it’s already spent time ageing in oak barrels, anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years depending on the style. During that ageing process it develops colour, along with many of the flavour compounds that come from interaction with the wood.

After that, however, producers put it through a fairly aggressive filtration process, usually involving activated charcoal and various other filtration methods.

That filtration does two things simultaneously. First, it strips away the colour, turning what was a golden or amber tequila back into something completely clear. Secondly, it removes a selection of flavour compounds at the same time. The end result, at least to my palate, is a tequila that becomes much simpler.

Now, I want to be careful here because when I say simple I don’t mean bad. Cristalino isn’t unpleasant. It’s simply a different style. Where an aged tequila might present ten different layers of aroma and flavour, after filtration you might be left with three or four dominant characteristics. Usually those are the sweeter, softer notes that remain after the filtration process.

So you end up with something that’s clear, relatively light, slightly sweet and generally very approachable.

I understand why people enjoy that style. It’s often served over ice, it’s refreshing, it’s easy to drink and it doesn’t challenge the drinker very much.

What’s always fascinated me, though, is that from a production standpoint Cristalino almost feels like you’re moving backwards. You spend all this time ageing a tequila in oak to develop complexity, colour and character.

Then you deliberately remove much of what the ageing process created. Conceptually I’ve always found that unusual. Having said that, whether I personally understand it or not, there’s absolutely no question that Cristalino has been enormously successful in Mexico

The local Costco near my home in Mexico carries thirty-two different tequilas. Twenty-three of those thirty-two bottles are Cristalinos. Think about that for a moment. The overwhelming majority of shelf space is dedicated to one category. That tells you just how popular Cristalino has become with Mexican consumers. It’s significantly more popular there than it currently is in the United States.

In America, the latest sales figures suggest that growth has started to level off. If anything, the category may actually be beginning to decline slightly after its initial boom. There’s certainly still a market for it, and plenty of people enjoy drinking it, but it hasn’t become the dominant force that some people predicted it would be. 

While Cristilanos aren’t my favourite, I think the category serves a useful purpose.  If someone who normally doesn’t drink tequila discovers Cristalino because it’s softer, sweeter and less intimidating than other styles, and that becomes their gateway into the category,  that’s fantastic.

When it comes to tequila regulations generally, where do you stand? Do you think the current system is moving the industry in the right direction, or are there areas where you’d like to see things change?

One thing I think surprises a lot of people is just how heavily regulated tequila actually is. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that tequila is probably the most heavily regulated spirit in the entire world.

Most consumers have absolutely no idea how extensive those regulations are. Every agave plant that’s destined for tequila production is tracked.We’re talking about millions upon millions of plants across the tequila-producing regions, all monitored using GPS technology, aerial surveys and incredibly sophisticated agricultural tracking systems. The level of oversight is remarkable.

It doesn’t stop there. If you’re at a distillery, you can’t simply decide to open a barrel of tequila whenever you feel like it. Government inspectors are involved throughout the production process. The system is extraordinarily comprehensive. Compared with almost any other spirit category, tequila operates under an exceptionally rigorous regulatory framework.

Personally, I think that’s a good thing. I think the CRT does an outstanding job overall. People sometimes criticise the organisation, but speaking broadly, I think they’ve been an enormous force for good within the tequila industry.

They’ve helped protect quality standards, safeguard the denomination of origin and maintain the integrity of tequila as a global product. Where much of the debate tends to arise is around transparency.

Specifically, it centres on ingredients and labelling. Under current regulations, producers are permitted to use small quantities of certain additives. Things like caramel colouring, sweeteners and other approved ingredients without declaring those additions on the bottle.

Over the last five or six years, that issue has become one of the biggest conversations in tequila. The phrase “additive-free tequila” has become popular, with many consumers actively seeking bottles that contain nothing other than what naturally comes from agave production.

Personally, I do tend to prefer tequilas that don’t use additives. Not because I think additives are dangerous or because I even think every additive-free tequila tastes better.

My preference is really philosophical. What attracts me to tequila is the craftsmanship. I want the flavour in the bottle to come from the skill of the people growing the agave, fermenting it, distilling it and ageing it. I find that more appealing than a product whose final flavour has also been adjusted through additional ingredients.

At the same time, I understand the opposing argument. Many consumers say, “If additives are permitted under the regulations, why not simply disclose them on the label?” That’s a perfectly reasonable position. Consumers increasingly want transparency about what they’re putting into their bodies, particularly as health consciousness continues to grow. 

On the other hand, tequila producers quite reasonably point out that many other spirit categories don’t have those same disclosure requirements either.

Artificial colouring appears in plenty of whiskies. Sugar adjustments occur in wine. Other spirits also make various production adjustments that aren’t necessarily listed on the bottle.

So from their perspective, the question becomes why should tequila alone be held to a different standard? That’s a fair question too. Which is why I don’t think there’s a simple right or wrong answer. There are good arguments on both sides of the discussion.

At Tequila Report, we’ve shifted the language we use around this conversation because we found the term additive-free had become increasingly difficult to apply consistently. The reality is that we’re not a certification body. We’re not an inspection agency. It’s not our role to go into distilleries and verify production methods or determine whether every producer is complying with a particular standard.

Instead, we’ve adopted the phrase craft tequila because we think it better reflects what we’re trying to communicate to readers. For us, craft tequila is defined by a few clear characteristics.

Firstly, the brand itself has publicly stated that it doesn’t use additives. We don’t independently verify that claim, but the brand has made that commitment. Secondly, the tequila isn’t produced using a diffuser, which is a large industrial extraction system that many people associate with high-volume production.

Thirdly, the producer remains below a certain annual production threshold, so we’re generally talking about smaller tequila companies rather than enormous multinational operations producing millions of litres every year.

Using those criteria, we recently published a guide featuring around 232 craft tequila brands that met those standards. Those brands are able to display a special Craft Tequila logo that we created, making it easier for readers to identify producers that fit within that framework.

Ultimately, though, I don’t think additives should become the only conversation people have about tequila. It’s certainly an important factor. Knowing what you’re drinking matters. Understanding how it’s made matters. But they’re not the only things that determine whether a tequila is worth drinking.

There are many different aspects that contribute to quality, craftsmanship and enjoyment, and I think sometimes the additive debate becomes so dominant that people forget to look at the bigger picture.

We’ve talked about a few current trends already, but what excites you most about the future of tequila over the next five or ten years?  Where do you think the industry is heading?

I think we’re entering a really interesting period because the industry is beginning to mature. For a long time, tequila experienced extraordinary growth in the United States. Every year was bigger than the last, and brands were appearing almost weekly.

Now we’re starting to see that growth level out. Whenever that happens in any industry, innovation tends to move in slightly different directions. One trend I think we’re going to see much more of is flavoured tequila. I saw a press release recently announcing that Cazadores is launching a pineapple-flavoured tequila.

To me, that’s probably the next major consumer trend. We’ve already seen exactly the same thing happen with vodka. We’ve seen it happen with rum. Once a spirit category reaches a certain level of maturity, companies naturally begin looking for ways to broaden the audience by introducing flavoured expressions.

I think tequila is following exactly the same path. We’re already seeing products like peanut butter-flavoured tequila becoming increasingly popular in the United States. There are cinnamon-flavoured tequilas entering the market as well, and I expect we’ll continue seeing more fruit flavours and sweeter expressions over the coming years.

Now, from my own perspective, those products obviously aren’t what we’d describe as craft tequila. By definition they’re using flavour additions. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be commercially successful. I think they’ll probably appeal to a completely different audience than traditional tequila enthusiasts.

Another trend that’s becoming increasingly important is ownership. More consumers are beginning to ask not just what they’re drinking, but who owns the brand they’re supporting. Is the tequila owned by the distillery itself? Is it owned by Mexican families? Is it owned by multinational corporations? Those questions are becoming part of the purchasing decision for more and more people, particularly consumers who care about supporting traditional producers and local communities.

Organic tequila is another area that’s definitely gaining momentum in the United States. We published a feature on that recently because we’re seeing much more consumer interest in agricultural practices. People want to know what happened in the field before the tequila ever reached the distillery.

They’re asking questions about farming methods, sustainability and environmental impact in a way they simply weren’t ten years ago. So I think that’s going to become a much more important conversation moving forward.

The other reality, however, is that because tequila’s explosive growth has begun to flatten, we’re almost certainly going to see consolidation across the industry. Quite simply, there are too many brands. Not all of them are going to survive.

Some brands that consumers genuinely enjoy are inevitably going to disappear because the economics simply won’t support everyone staying in business. That’s just the natural evolution of a rapidly expanding market.

From a business perspective, there’s another challenge that’s quite specific to the United States. Our distribution system is very unusual. Unlike many countries, producers don’t generally sell directly to retailers or bars. Instead, tequila is sold to a distributor. The distributor then sells it to restaurants, bars and retail stores.

So you’ve effectively got this additional middle layer sitting between the producer and the consumer. Recently we’ve seen enormous disruption and consolidation within the distribution industry itself. Many distributors have merged. Others have reduced staff. The result is that it’s become significantly harder for smaller tequila brands to expand into new states.

People outside the United States are often surprised to discover that every state effectively operates almost like its own separate country when it comes to alcohol distribution.

If you’re selling tequila in Texas and New York, that doesn’t automatically mean you can sell it in California. You need entirely separate distribution agreements, licences and commercial relationships. Today those distributors are stretched thin.

Many simply don’t have the capacity to take on new brands. As a result, I think a lot of tequila companies are effectively frozen in place for the time being.

Where they’re currently distributed is probably where they’ll remain for the next year or two until the distribution system settles down again. That creates enormous pressure on brands because they can no longer rely solely on expanding geographically. Instead, they have to become much smarter marketers. They have to work much harder to build awareness and loyalty within the markets where they already exist. It changes the entire commercial strategy.

So it’ll be fascinating to see how that develops over the next few years. And if you’ve got a favourite smaller tequila brand in the United States, my advice would probably be to buy a few extra bottles while you can. Not because the tequila is disappearing tomorrow, but simply because there’s no guarantee every excellent brand that’s available today will still be around in five years time.