Get to Know Additive Free Tequila
Agave fields
Tequila labels often contain information that may be important to consumers, such as “100% agave” or “organic agave.” And tequila drinkers probably know that tequila is made with Blue Weber agave. But what most tequila drinkers aren't aware of, however, is that while most commercial tequila is fermented from 100% Blue Weber agave, that doesn't always account for 100% of everything that's in the finished product. Certain additives are often added to tequila after fermentation to enhance its flavor, texture, or color.
Grover Sanschagrin, co-founder of Tequila Matchmaker and its Additive Free Alliance, estimates that a vast majority of tequila contains additives. “Using public sales data, we calculated that over 70% of tequilas on the market have additives,” he says, but believes that it is likely closer to 85% based on details that are not always publicly available.
Along with Mijenta, one of the small percentage of mostly artisanal tequila producers that are additive-free, Tequila Matchmaker’s Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin recently conducted a tasting workshop in New York City to help beverage professionals better understand how to perceive additives in tequila, and to better appreciate the craft and nuance that additive-free tequilas can demonstrate.
What Are Additives in Tequila?
Mijenta lineup care of Mijenta
First, it’s important to understand that “additives are considered normal and legal in tequila,” says Grover and are permitted so long as they amount to less than 1% of the weight of the finished product before it is bottled. Some nuances are used in the NORMA, however, the legal document which governs the production of tequila, which refers to certain elements as “abocantes,” (roughly translated as “smoothers”) rather than additives and are the most commonly used inclusions in tequila. These include glycerin, sweeteners, oak extract, and caramel color. By consumer standards, these should absolutely be considered additives, however, especially compared with tequilas that don’t rely on them to achieve flavor or texture.
Why Additives Are in Tequila?
Scarlet and Grover Sanschagrin
The use of additives in tequila isn’t necessarily new but is becoming more common as the demand for tequila has surged in the past decade. Blue Weber Agave typically takes eight years to mature, but many producers choose to harvest early to meet demand. (This may swing the other direction in the coming years due to an agave planting fury over the past several years.)
Other brands have looked to diffusers, machines that invert the process of making tequila where the juice is extracted before it is cooked or roasted, in order to shortcut the process, which results in what is closer to an “agave vodka” than a proper tequila. In order to account for shortcuts in the process, the four common additives can correct tequilas whose natural character has been truncated by the shortcuts.(“When have you ever experienced a product that got better when you made it faster or cheaper?” says Grover.)
Ana Maria Romero photo courtesy of Mijenta
Ana Maria Romero, Maestra Tequilera of Mijenta, who worked with Tequila Matchmaker to help delineate unique aromas and flavors in tequila, has identified more than 600 distinct, naturally occurring aromas in tequila. These aromas were the basis of the original Tequila Matchmaker project, which aimed to simply catalogue available tequilas according to their aromas so that consumers could more easily find one that suited them.
This is important to understand because the common additives in tequila can greatly affect how tequila smells and tastes, and helping consumers educate their palates is one of the main objectives of the Additive Free Alliance. Glycerin, which is often added for mouthfeel, can significantly mute tequilas’ natural aromas, for example, and oak extract, with its pronounced vanillin component, can make tequila smell cloyingly like cake batter. While tequila producers are only allowed to label tequila as Reposado, Añejo, etc., based on actual aging times, caramel color can give the impression of having aged for longer than its age statement.
Why Choose Additive Free Tequila?
The regular use of additives has created “unrealistic expectations for tequila,” says Scarlet. “We're afraid we're going to lose these traditional producers because of consumers that have grown up on additive tequilas,” she says, and who expect that kind of homogenized consistency in the finished product.
Current tequila law doesn’t permit the use of the word additives on bottles, so the onus is on brands and consumers, with help from projects like Tequila Matchmaker, to verify whether a given tequila is additive-free or not.
Producers are required to keep corresponding records of any raw material used in tequila, however the system in place is effectively an honor system, with a casual approach to checking records. In lab tests conducted by Tequila Matchmaker, however, it is common that brands who believe their product to be additive-free find out that’s not actually the case. (Grover esitimates that the failure rate of brands that self-select for testing is over 80%.) Part of the disconnect is related to the use of the word “abocantes” versus “additivos” above. Some within the tequila industry don’t believe that the commonly used additives described above actually qualify as additives, and record-keeping of these inclusions isn’t consistent.
In March 2024 the Sanschagrin’s home and laboratory was raided by police under the guise of it having been used as “an adulterated tequila factory.” Big Tequila’s profits are threatened by the advocacy work they are doing for additive-free tequila even though several major tequila brands produce additive-free tequila.
New York International Spirits Competition Winners That Are Additive Free
Tequila brands self-select to have their products evaluated by Tequila Matchmaker to determine whether they are additive-free. Over 100 tequila brands have been successful over the life of the project. Most are small batch, artisanal producers, but some well known brands are also on the list including Fortaleza, Cimmaron, and Tapatio, among others. Check out some recent New York International Spirits Competition Winners whose tequilas are also among the Additive Free Alliance:
Cantera Tequilas
Cierto Tequilas
Cierto
Cierto Tequila Ultra Añejo (2023 Double Gold)
Cierto Tequila Blanco (2023 Gold)
Cierto Tequila Reposado (2023 Gold)
Volcan De Mi Tierea XA Tequila
Volcan de mi Tierra
Volcan de mi Tierra X.A. (2023 Gold)