The 14 Best Tequilas to Drink (2024)

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Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 45.7% | Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, Olive, Brine

This tequila is a cult favorite among experts, as Yana Volfson, the beverage manager at Cosme and ATLA restaurants in New York, calls it “beautiful.” Enrique Fuenteseca, the farmer and distiller behind the bottle, chooses the ripest agave in his own estate, subjects the piñas to the autoclave-and-roller mill treatment, and lets the pot-distilled spirit rest in stainless steel tanks afterward for three years. The resulting blanco, says Grover Sanschagrin, is “super heavy on the cinnamon, olive, and brine notes—it’s just amazing.” Perfect for tequila aficionados, the limited-production Fuenteseca Cosecha 2013 is a worthy collectible.

Region: Guanajuato, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Honey, Peppercorn, Oak

Jenny Harris, bar manager of San Diego's Point Loma Fish Shop, says “you can’t lose” with this reposado produced at Tequilera Corralejo. Located east of Jalisco in the neighboring state of Guanajuato, this distillery is rated among tequila’s top 100 by the Sanschagrins’ Tequila Matchmaker user base. This reposado is aged in American oak barrels, giving off an oaky profile that Harris particularly likes—along with flavors of peppercorn, honey, and, of course, agave. It’s a tequila that starts with a woody, nutty aroma, rolls sweetly over the palate, and finishes with a slightly bitter spiciness.

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: White pepper, Agave, Mint

Tequila's popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, and the top bottles now command cultish prices formerly reserved for the rarest of Scotches and small-batch bourbons. But there are still plenty of great values for those with the patience to seek them out—and it's hard to think of an inexpensive tequila that over-delivers on quality quite like Pueblo Viejo. A secret favorite in the mixologist comminity, Pueblo Viejo blanco is crafted using 100 percent blue Weber agave, which is cooked in stone and brick ovens and crushed by a traditional rolling mill called a tahona. The classically-made tequila boasts a nose of white pepper and a rustic, unapologetic palate replete with bright agave and fresh mint.

Once you claw your way through the limited-production bottlings and the celebrity vanity projects, you'll discover that solid tequila can still be found at budget prices—and the Pueblo Viejo blanco is Exhibit A.

Region: Guanajuato, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Vanilla, Agave, Herbs

Produced at Tequilera Corralejo in the state of Guanajuato, Jalisco’s eastern neighbor, Los Arango Blanco is made with agave steamed relatively quickly in a high-pressure autoclave, then crushed with a roller mill, and distilled in a copper pot. “It’s one of the best blancos on the market, and at a great price,” says Stevie Latona, bar manager at San Diego’s Lionfish restaurant. Along with vanilla notes, the “toasted agave and fresh herb” flavors, he says, “create a soft, smooth taste; on the rocks or in a cocktail, it’s one of my go-to’s."

Related: The Best Tequilas for Margaritas

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Cherry, Mint, Pepper

A NOM is a number used to indicate the distillery in which the tequila is made. To produce this special bottle of ArteNOM, distiller Jake Lustig teamed up with the Camarenas, the family that owns and operates NOM 1579, Jalisco’s Destileria el Pandillo. Brick-oven, steam-roasted agave is crushed by a special tahona called “Frankenstein,” jerry-rigged out of scavenged parts: a junkyard cylinder and an old train wheel axle. After copper pot distilling with a mix of rain and well water, it’s left to oxidize overnight—a key process as oxygen accentuates the blanco’s fruity nature. Cherry and papaya notes mingle with mint and pepper in a spirit with a big, silky mouthfeel.

Related: The Best Blanco Tequilas

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Caramel, Spice, Butter

This estate-grown “crowd-pleaser” from the Tequila Valley is made using a 7- to 10-year-old agave that has matured to full ripeness and complexity. Aged in reclaimed whiskey barrels from two months to a year, as per the definition of reposado, Partida offers a caramelly and slightly floral nose, a creamy mid-palate, and big, spicy agave finish with a bit of honey and butter on the end. Though it’s lovely to sip with an ice cube in it, this tequila is also popular for cocktails, like the rich and boozy Notorious F.I.G. from StripSteak by Michael Mina in Miami, in which it’s blended with mezcal, calvados, and fig purée.

Related: The Best Reposado Tequilas

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Floral, Caramel, Spice

Before filling its tall, tapered bottle, this iconic, Don Julio 1942 añejo rests for two and a half years in American white-oak barrels. It’s made with agave that’s been cooked in a brick oven, roller-milled, and distilled with deep, mineral well water in a stainless steel pot still with a copper coil. This mix of old and modern gear, and of course, those casks, yields a smooth and flowery potion with a caramel-and-vanilla flavor, along with a salt-and-spice finish. It’s a testament to Don Julio González, who founded the brand back in 1942 when he was just 17 years old.

Related: The Best Añejo Tequilas

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 43% | Tasting Notes: Spice, Caramel, Nutty

Produced from a distillery with “probably the largest barrel room in the tequila industry,” according to Grover Sanschagrin, Tears of Llorona is made from a blend of scotch, sherry, and brandy casks. The barrels help accentuate the complexity of agave harvested from upland Jalisco, where the cool climate slows the growth of piñas, giving them time to layer on the flavors. The agave’s natural spice is amplified by the oak but when sipping, you’ll also find the caramel and nut flavors you’d find in bourbon. If you're a whiskey or brandy loyalist, reach for this extra añejo instead of cognac.

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Sweet, Smooth, Peppery

A recent innovation, cristalino is made by stripping the color from aged tequila. It’s essentially a way to circumvent the steep pricing of agave due to crop shortages by using what distillers already have in stock. The 1800 Cristalino is a good bottle to uncork when drinking with non-tequila fans. Blended from 16-month-old añejo aged in American and French oak, it’s rested for an additional six months in former port barrels before double filtering. As you’d expect, it’s sweet on the nose and the palate, with a luscious mouthfeel, but it finishes with some of the pepperiness that bespeaks the agave. Sip this neat or on ice.

Region: Jalisco, Mexico| ABV: 40%| Tasting Notes: Citrus, Spice, Brown butter

Like any fine spirit served neat, a good sipping tequila should be smooth, velvety, and nonabrasive—but, simultaneously, should still taste like tequila, rather than trying to mimic the characteristics of whiskey, or vodka, or anything else.

The añejo from El Tesoro is a classically-styled tequila that checks all those boxes: it's soft and silky, a result of two to three years of aging in American oak ex-bourbon barrels, but it's not as flush with caramel or vanilla as certain añejos that receive a more heavy-handed aging treatment. Consequently, the flavor of the agave really comes through—no surprise for a brand that prides itself on traditional production methods, from crushing the agave with a volcanic stone tahona (replicated in the design of the bottle's cap) to fermenting in open wooden vats with ambient yeasts. The El Tesoro añejo is an ideal choice the next time you're craving the vibrancy of raw agave character without wanting to bother with ice or with lime.

Related: The Best Sipping Tequilas

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 46% | Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, Olives, Grapefruit peel

Grover Sanschagrin describes this bottle of Fortaleza as "real tequila done really well." The blanco is produced at Distileria La Fortaleza on an agave estate located right in the town of Tequila. There, Guillermo Erickson Sauza, the fifth-generation of the famed Sauza family, uses “super-ancient, old-school” methods. He steam-roasts his agave in a brick oven, crushes it with a tahona powered by a small tractor, and ferments it in wooden tanks. He then bottles this blanco straight from the copper pot stills without diluting it with water. The spirit’s high proof highlights the agave’s bittersweetness and earthiness, and because it focuses on the character of the raw material, each batch is slightly different and each bottle is marked with the number of the batch.

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Herbaceous, Green peppercorn, Anise

Instead of sipping this high-end tequila, Volfson recommends trying it in a margarita. “A margarita is about the relationship of three ingredients: tequila, triple sec, and limes," she says. This tequila from Maestra Tequilera Bertha González Nieves gives off flavors of soft herbaceousness and grassy garden crispness, green peppercorn and fennel seed, cardamom, anise seed, and a bit of juiciness, which Volfson feels mingle well with the bright cirtus character of the triple sec and lime juice.

Region: Jalisco, Mexico| ABV: 46%| Tasting Notes: Licorice, Black pepper, Freshly-cut grass

Siembra Valles boasts a formidable line of classically-produced tequilas, but their high-proof offering is particularly excellent in cocktails—especially citrus-forward drinks like the paloma. This boldly-flavored tequila is produced very traditionally, with the agave cooked in brick ovens, the crushing being done via tahona, and the fermentation taking place with the bagasse (the fibrous material that's leftover after the agave is crushed), which adds richness and complexity. Finally, double-distillation in copper stills yields a delicious spirit that's bottled at a robust 46 percent ABV. Use this in your next paloma, and you'll be able to look forward to assertive notes of black pepper, citrus, licorice, and freshly-cut grass intermingling perfectly with the grapefruit and lime in your glass.

Related: The Best Cocktail Shakers, According to Experts

Region: Jalisco, Mexico | ABV: 40% | Tasting Notes: Pine, Lavender, Vanilla

Longtime master distiller Stella Anguiano and pop star Rita Ora, the women behind Próspero, “are full of passion, and it truly comes through in their tequila expressions,” says Simone Rubio, mixologist at the speakeasy Under CdM in Corona del Mar, Calif. She calls the unaged expression “balanced, with a silky mouthfeel that complements cocktails," especially those with a bit of heat. Rubio likes to mix this blanco with fresh muddled serrano chiles and housemade aqua de jamaica (hibiscus tea). Briny and citrusy in aroma, “its piquant nose pairs well with the fiery chiles and juicy jamaica,” she says.