From late-night shots to sipping with soda: how tequila took over | Life and style

Cracking open the tequila at the end of a long night rarely leads to good decisions. But for Tom Bishop, reaching for a bottle that had been gathering dust on his shelf proved life-changing. Having run out of beers while drinking with friends in 2017, Bishop dug out a bottle of premium Añejo tequila that his brother had given him after a business trip to Mexico. His expectations were low, informed by the throat-burning experiences of his youth. “But it completely blew me away,” Bishop remembers. “I just hadn’t associated tequila with that level of quality or flavour.”

Having stumbled upon the spirit as it was meant to be enjoyed “by accident”, Bishop saw an opportunity. Two years later, he and Jack Vereker, a friend with whom he had been drinking in south-east London that night, sold their first bottle of their brand El Rayo, now stocked across the UK and part of tequila’s new wave.

For decades, tequila was known as a party drink: something you did shots of to kick off or ramp up a big night, or enjoyed in cocktails on holiday. In recent years, however, tequila has shaken off its youthful, hedonistic image to become the fastest-growing spirit in the world.

According to the global alcohol analyst ISWR, UK sales of tequila have grown by about 14% a year between 2019 and 2024. Though growth has slowed lately, the US has seen a similar explosion (it’s now the country’s second biggest spirit after vodka).

Today tequila is not only driving innovation in cocktails with endless twists on the ever-popular margarita, but increasingly sought out and savoured for its own merits, sipped as an aperitif and even paired with food.

“What we’re seeing in the UK isn’t just a tequila boom, it’s a complete reframing of the spirit,” says Nick Ward, a co-founder of Ark Drinks, a specialist marketing agency in London.

The growth is being driven by at-home drinking, premium brands and aged styles of the spirit, showing that consumers are drinking better quality tequila, not just more.

Behind the boom is the pandemic-era rise in cocktail culture, a trend towards drinking “less but better”, and a fatigue with gin. There’s also the influence of increased tourism to Mexico and growing global appreciation for its culture and cuisine. “Tequila was the right spirit, in the right place, at the right time,” says Ward.

El Rayo benefited from that momentum and also helped accelerate it. In 2023, it became the first premium tequila brand costing more than £30 to be stocked by Sainsbury’s. The retailer has since added the premium brands Patrón and the George Clooney-founded Casamigos.

A decade ago, UK consumers had little concept of tequila as a spirit you would reach for over vodka or gin – or even in the sober light of day. “I don’t think people really understood how to drink it, particularly at home,” Bishop says. “It wasn’t part of that moment when you shut your laptop at the end of the day, put on some music and reach for a drink.”

It wasn’t pitched at the premium consumer either. Researching the UK market in 2017, Bishop found it to be geared towards hard-drinking male consumers and littered with lazy stereotypes. “It wasn’t a fair reflection on Mexico as a country today.”

Sierra Tequila, the brand you could probably buy at your local corner shop and get change from £20, has a stylised guitar-toting, moustachioed hombre on its label and is capped off with a little plastic sombrero. Though the hat does have a function (serving as a measure, lime-squeezer and salt receptacle), the branding speaks loudest of Mexican theme nights and students looking to maximise drunkenness from minimum spend.

In fact, tequila can be as refined and complex as rum or any other aged spirit. Tequila blanco (or silver tequila) is consistently the most popular type in the UK, accounting for roughly two-thirds of the market by volume in 2024, according to ISWR. It is the purest form, bottled immediately or within 60 days of distillation – and the most common culprit for that burning sensation. Experienced as intended, however, there should be distinct notes of agave, citrus and pepper against a grassy, vegetal backdrop.

The recent “premiumisation” of tequila has driven interest in other types of the spirit, notably reposado and añejo. Both are aged in wooden barrels, reposado for between two and 12 months, and añejo for between one and three years, resulting in golden to amber hues and notes of oak, vanilla, caramel and spices.

In their richness and complexity, they have more in common with whisky than the harsh, clear, rubbing-type alcohol you might associate with tequila. Throw in mezcal – made from the roasted hearts of agave plants, resulting in a smoky flavour – and the category of “tequila” encompasses a diversity of flavours and expressions, which many consumers are now waking up to.

From a bartender’s perspective, very few spirits are as versatile, says Lucia Montanelli, the manager of the Vesper Bar at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Tequila pairs well with a range of flavours – fruity, herby, umami, earthy, smoky, sweet – while holding its own against them. “Rather than disappearing in the mix, it elevates it,” says Montanelli.

That distinct identity – characterful without being overpowering – is why people are increasingly plumping for tequila-based drinks over gin or vodka, she adds. “Vodka is often selected for its neutrality, while gin is driven by botanicals that can sometimes dominate a drink – tequila sits comfortably in between.”

Indeed, tequila and tonic with a grapefruit slice has long been favoured by bartenders and others in the know as a more lively order than G&T or vodka-soda, which is just as straightforward to make.

Pritesh Mody, a cocktail consultant and the creative director of Think Drinks, says tequila’s reputation began to shift with growing celebrity endorsements through the 2010s, notably Casamigos, co-founded by George Clooney in 2013. When it was sold four years later to Diageo, the British giant behind Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff, for $700m (£510m), the global drinks industry sat up and took note.

That deal opened the floodgates for “every celebrity and their dog” to jump on the tequila bandwagon. Now Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, Matthew McConaughey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, LeBron James, Nick Jonas, Eva Longoria and Rita Ora all have their own brands.

Not all of them has raised the bar for the category, or even met it, Mody says. Founded in 2020, Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila has become one of the fastest growing brands in the US thanks to Insta-friendly partnerships with Coachella and Nascar, and its celebrity founder’s following among young women. But Jenner has faced accusations of cultural appropriation for online promotions showing her traipsing through agave fields, her hair in braids, and playing cowboy with a horse. Though those 2021 Instagram posts have since been deleted, a class action lawsuit was lodged against 818 Tequila’s parent company last September, alleging its products were falsely marketed as “100% agave”; the brand filed to dismiss it in January and denies the allegation.

Mody used to have a bottle, but it has vanished from his shelf. “I probably gave it away,” he says. He shudders when he recalls the “sweet, orangey” taste. “It’s almost like a cocktail in a bottle.”

It speaks to the challenge to protect tequila’s integrity and authenticity through the global gold rush. As a legally defined and protected spirit in Mexico, it is even more heavily regulated than Scotch whisky and French cognac.

In order to be sold as tequila, a beverage must contain between 35% and 55% alcohol content, be made from the blue weber agave and produced in the Tequila region to exacting standards set by Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council. (Mezcal, made from a range of agave species, mostly in the Oaxaca region, has a more permissive definition, and has also seen rising sales.)

“It’s not like someone can just go down to their garden shed and make some tequila if they feel like it,” says Bishop, recalling his own experience of getting El Rayo approved. “It can be a bit onerous at times, but it does a great job for quality control.”

Indeed, that heritage has been more of a selling point in the UK than all the famous faces, with premium brands like El Rayo’s emphasis on provenance and production helping to shift the conversation. “You can tell a real story with tequila: it’s been aged in a barrel, it was grown with this type of agave, it’s been hand-cut,” says Mody.

Premium premixed cocktail brands such as Moth and Whitebox have helped to connect the dots between familiar orders like the margarita and their base spirit, while popularising up-and-comers like the paloma (made with grapefruit soda). Founded in 2021, Moth trumpets its use of craft Tequila Enemigo and sells tequila-specific packs, while El Rayo sells its Plata tequila in cans premixed with tonic. Beverage giants such as Schweppes have followed suit.

There is a danger that the craze for tequila everything will dilute its heritage and craft. Already, through the global boom, some producers have been making use of artificial sweeteners and other additives, potentially compromising the spirit’s flavour and authenticity.

Under the Tequila Regulatory Council’s rules, even bottles labelled “100% agave” – widely taken as a marker of quality – may comprise up to 1% additives, prompting some producers (including El Rayo) to market themselves as “additive-free”.

The drive to capitalise on the thirst for tequila and push the category forward risks distracting from the fundamentals, says Bishop. “The big thing to watch out for is that it doesn’t innovate too fast … There will come a time for flavours.” In the meantime, he says, consumers are still waking up to tequila’s transformation. “We’re trying to turn tequila into the first drink of the night, not the last.”

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