Tequila Grows Up: It’s Not Just a Drink Anymore, It’s an Experience

Jan 30, 2024

First came the blancos, reposados, and añejos. Then extra-añejos started to hit the market, and Cristalinos became part of the mix. Most recently, the latest expressions of tequila to entice consumers are limited-edition iterations that are produced in small quantities and only available until they sell out.

"Tequila today has become more than a drink. It's an experience," says Farid Fajer, an expert on the spirit who runs the tequila bar at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. "Tequila brands are introducing limited-edition bottles to bring this experience to consumers and to raise awareness about their brands. They present a great marketing opportunity.’

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Mark Tubridy, the bar manager at the Baccarat Hotel in New York, agreed. "With the meteoric rise in tequila's popularity over the past decade, I believe producers are finally feeling the freedom to experiment with creative distillation and aging practices with limited-edition expressions," he says. "In the past, it was enough of a challenge to convince consumers to embrace tequila at all, but now that the curiosity surrounding agave-based spirits has skyrocketed, one-off expressions have become more common."

Data from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis showed that agave spirits, including tequila, accounted for US$1.6 billion of the spirits industry in the U.S. last year. It's a number that contributed 65% to the overall value of the growth in spirits. Further, the Mexican drink is now the second-most valuable spirits category in the U.S.—more than whisky—and is projected to overtake vodka in value this year to be the leading spirit by value.

Clase Azul Mexico is a pioneer brand when it comes to creating limited-edition tequilas. Founder Arturo Lomeli says that the company introduced its first one in 2012. Called Mexico A Traves del Tiempo or "Mexico Through the Times," the bottle was handmade with four Mexican Designation of Origin items, a name given to goods and arts from the country that are protected.

Clase Azul's bottle was adorned with lacquered wood from Guerrero, decorative ceramics from Talavera, amber from Chiapas and the tequila itself. Only 15 were produced and they sold for a total of US$450,000, according to Lomeli, with all the proceeds going to charity.

The company has since launched an annual Día de Muertos bottle in commemoration of the early November eponymous holiday. These expressions have now become collector's items—the 2022 iteration, a 22-month aged añejo tequila with a retail cost of US$1,050, hit the market with 6,500 bottles and sold out within a few days.Soon after, it was available on the secondary market for multiples of its original price.

Now, Clase Azul Mexico has an even more exclusive offering with its Master Artisans bottles, featuring the work of a Mexican artist. The second installment of the series debuted last December with 300 bottles—100 in each of three designs by artist Jesus Guerrero Santos. They were available exclusively at the company's boutique in Cabo San Lucas, said Lomeli, who believes that one of the pillars of a luxury brand is to be innovative with new products.

"One of the most interesting ways for us to do this is to offer these unique bottles," he says.

Other examples abound.

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Dos Artes Tequila, a luxury brand, introduced limited editions in 2022, according to founder Alvaro Molina. The ceramic bottles are hand-painted by artisans from the Mexican state of Guanajuato in what's a three-day process, he says, and are decorated with Mexican patterns. The collection of tequilas includes a plata, a rose-tinged reposado that was aged in cabernet wine barrels and a joven or a blend of blanco and reposado tequilas. Dos Artes produced 15,000 bottles of each expression that are all created with fully mature agave from the Highlands in Jalisco.

Maestro Dobel recently branched out into limited editions with Tequila Maestro Dobel Atelier Tequila, an annual series of extra añejo tequilas in hand-painted bottles that honor Mexican iconography and folkloric themes. The inaugural edition, for one, retails for US$250 and is inspired by the embroidery of the traditional suits worn by Mexican horse riders called "charros," according to master distiller Alex Coronado, and consists of five different patterns.

There's also Don Julio's Ultima Reserva, a release retailing for US$499 that's more about the spirit itself—a 36-month aged extra-añejo tequila—than the bottle it's in. Brand director Stacey Cunningham says Don Julio is producing limited editions to introduce "more adult drinkers into our family."

Smaller tequila houses aren't leaving themselves out of the limited-edition game.

In April 2022, Tequila Ocho released Puntas, a version of its plata tequila that's cut from the very end of the heads and the beginning of the heart of the distillation. This part is considered the most premium part of the distillate, says Ocho founder Carlos Camarena, and gives the tequila a more full-bodied, deeper flavor profile.

Also, the boutique tequila house Nosotros recently released 1,500 bottles of its first one-off tequila. Called Cider Aged Tequila Añejo, it's aged in wet cider barrels and is a luscious expression that's reminiscent of spicy apples and almonds.

Irrespective of the brand, these small-batch tequilas are almost always more expensive than the core, more readily available expressions, says Fajer, of Las Ventanas.

"The limited-edition tequilas are pricier because they may have some additional features that complement the process of the spirit: a different aging cask such as port or whiskey, an artistic collaboration or a specially designed bottle," he says.

As an example, Nosotros’ standard añejo retails for US$140, compared with US$325 for the cider-aged expression, while Ocho's core Plata is US$45 versus close to the US$300 that liquor stores are currently selling Puntas for.

Is the higher cost justified or are limited editions a fleeting trend that isn't worth spending money on? Tubridy, of Baccarat, says he doesn't think that the latter is the case. "I don't believe that these special releases of tequila are so much a fad as they are the genre catching up with its bedfellows behind the bar," he says.