“Can you recommend a good tequila?” This is a simple question that just about anyone who has an interest in agave spirits likely gets asked by friends, colleagues and family members. But when it comes to modern tequila, it demands a leading follow-up question: Good how?
Nearly seven years ago, when we first compiled a list of blanco tequilas for a blind tasting with some of our favorite tequila drinkers, it was a month after George Clooney’s Casamigos brand became a unicorn, selling to Diageo for a whopping $1 billion. It seemed like the peak before an inevitable downslope of celebrity-backed tequila. Surely the market could bear only so many; surely this was an aberration. But each time we’ve gathered since, another handful of well-publicized celebrity tequilas have entered the market. Each new high-profile release has made that follow-up question—Good how?—more of a mainstream concern than just an industry one. It’s no longer a question of transparency around who is actually making the spirit, but also How?, and Who actually benefits?
Luckily, there are not only more celebrity tequila brands on the market, but also a greater selection of tequilas from artisan brands who have made great farming, fair labor practices and the preservation of traditional methods their mission. What actually ends up in a bottle of tequila has also become more of a consumer concern than ever before. (Spoiler: 70 percent of all tequila contains undisclosed additives, often used to alter flavor or mouthfeel.) The words “additive-free” are now increasingly common on labels from producers who proudly eschew these practices. So, yes, for every great bottle of blanco tequila, there are probably a dozen not-so-great ones, but there is still so much to love about this category, and at an affordable price point.
In searching for best-in-class blanco tequilas, we focused on value (all 16 tequilas we tasted were less than $50, or right at that mark) and bottlings that were singular without breaking from the flavors that have come to define what we love about the category: salinity, minerality, grassiness, earthiness and, above all, purity. For the tasting, Punch editors were joined by spirits expert Joaquín Simó, a co-founder of New York’s beloved Pouring Ribbons, which closed in 2022. As in previous tastings, at best the field showed the incredible range that blue weber agave can express; at worst, there was unevenness in terms of quality, most often manifesting in spirits that were muted, or perhaps delivered on aromatics but struggled to have the kind of textural complexity and completeness of our top picks. But let’s focus on the positives, shall we?
Without further ado, here are our top picks, all of which are additive-free.
G4 Blanco Tequila
Produced at the groundbreaking Destilería El Pandillo, located just southeast of his brother Carlos’ La Alteña distillery (El Tesoro, Tapatío, Ocho), the bottlings in Felipe Camarena’s G4 line of tequilas exhibit a way forward for the spirit that blends both innovative practices (bespoke equipment, use of solar and wind power, recycling biowaste) and traditional ones (natural fermentation, zero-pesticide farming, no additives) with truly singular results. This blanco, which was a favorite the last time we tasted, in 2021, shows the more floral side of Highlands tequila. It shows aromas of lavender, cilantro flower and pepper, the latter of which carries over to a palate that strikes just the right balance between richness and tension. As one taster noted: “This tequila has it all—structure, aromatics, texture—everything is there.”
- Price: $49 (750 milliliters)
- ABV: 40%
ElVelo Blanco Tequila
Though ElVelo blanco was conceived as a spirit to excel in cocktails, from the Margarita to the Oaxaca Old-Fashioned, it has a lot to offer served neat, particularly at 44.5 percent ABV, a higher proof than most on this list. Produced by master distiller Carlos Hernandez Ramos (La Cofradía) with agaves sourced from the volcanic soil of the Tequila Valley, ElVelo’s blanco has a pleasing earthy, briny nose, along with just the right amount of tannins and a surprising amount of baking spice on the finish. One taster likened the combination of brine and earth character to olive tapenade.
- Price: $45 (750 milliliters)
- ABV: 44.5%
La Gran Señora Silver Tequila
Another Highlands tequila from another Camarena, this time Doña Elena of Gran Dinastia (fka Casa Camarena). La Gran Señora is the distillery’s top line; the silver expression is made from single-estate Highlands agave (from a field 7,000 feet above sea level), cooked in a century-old volcanic oven and fermented in open stainless steel tanks. This bottling is rich and loaded with flavor density, but with an equal amount of nuance, showing aromas of cooked agave and chamomile and a palate that reveals a tarry, earthy quality and touch of mellow sweetness.
- Price: $44 (750 milliliters)
- ABV: 40%
Confianza Blanco Tequila
Produced at the Feliciano Vivanco distillery (NOM 1414, which is also responsible for the terrific Siembra Azul and ArteNOM 1414), and sourced from organically grown Highlands agave, Confianza is briny and herbal, with a strong wet earth quality. The agave is cooked in brick ovens for 24 hours, and then undergoes a long fermentation in open-top stainless steel tanks. Still coming in under $50 in a 1-liter format, this is one of the great newish value additions to the U.S. market. (NB: Confianza is additive-free, but has not gone through Tequila Matchmaker’s “Verified Additive-Free” certification process.)
- Price: $45 (1 liter)
- ABV: 40%
Tapatío Blanco Tequila
The Tapatío line, courtesy of Carlos Camarena and La Alteña, has been around since 1940; it has been a favorite of ours in every blind tasting, in both the classic blanco expression and the newer 110-proof expression, which was introduced in 2013 in partnership with distiller Marko Karakasevic. Made from Camarena’s estate-grown Highlands agave, which is slow-roasted for four days, this blanco is full of earthy minerality on the nose and palate as well as bright citrus backed by Big Red gum–like cinnamon on the finish. It was deemed one of the most approachable in the tasting, but still possessed its own distinctive flavor identity.
- Price: $42 (750 milliliters)
- ABV: 40%
