The reputation of Mexico’s national drink has gone from a regret-inducing shot, always preceded by salt and chased with lime, to a sophisticated sipping spirit worthy of contemplation.
This evolution has heralded a wave of high profile brand launches, but notably, the bestselling list is vacant of any of the celebrity-endorsed tequilas that emerged after Diageo purchased George Clooney’s Casamigos for $1 billion and which have been the focus of much attention and condescension from corners of the drinks community.
Tequila’s growing popularity has also placed a strain on agave farmers. Prices are at an all-time high and some brands are picking less-mature agave or using cost-cutting but quality-lowering techniques such as diffusers.
Don Julio tops the poll for the seventh year, representing an ideal matching of quality and affordability. It’s a top-three serve in half of the polled bars, with 13% plumping for the Diageo brand as their house pour.
It was a difficult year for Ocho with the sad passing of beloved co-founder Tomas Estes. In the market, the bartender favourite was as popular as ever – a house pour in 13% of bars – but, unable to match the pervasiveness of Don Julio, takes second place, a top-three serve in a third of bars.
Patrón in third place means that the top three bestselling tequila brands are the same as last year. Despite its non-movement in the list, Patrón has seen much change as Bacardi announced the discontinuation of the popular Patrón XO Cafe so the company can focus on its core range of tequilas.
High-volume brand Jose Cuervo has reversed its recent descent in the rankings, climbing one place to fourth, and El Jimador jumps four places to h thanks to its strong performance as a house pour in 10% of bars.
Casa Noble tops the trending table following a 2021 relaunch with a revised recipe and packaging. Before it was acquired by Constellation Brands in 2014, it was part-owned by Carlos Santana – who said celebrity-owned tequilas were anything new?
Methodology
The results of this report are the culmination of a questionnaire of 106 bars around the world, each cherry-picked to take part based on their performance in global bar awards. We aim to find out not only which brands sell best but also what’s trending. These two data sets give us an insight into the brands that are doing the most volume and the brands that are hot right now.
To read more on the methodology of the Brands Report click here.
