100% agave,
mixto & additives
The most important consumer-protection lesson in tequila — and its liveliest current controversy. What "100% agave" does and doesn’t promise, the additives the rules permit, and the fight over telling you about them.
What’s really in the bottle
This session is why the whole efficiency chain matters to you, the buyer. Click through carefully:
The additive-free fight is moving in real time: the CRT and Mexican government restricted "additive-free" labeling (Aug 2024), sent warning letters to brands, and in early 2025 took legal action against independent certifiers, with a reported raid on Tequila Matchmaker’s founders. Patrón’s brief CRT additive-free seal was paused, and a labeling dispute was tied to a temporary export suspension. What counts as sayable, certifiable, or verifiable keeps changing — check the current state (independent databases, recent reporting) rather than trusting a seal or a memory. The durable lesson: labels won’t fully tell you, so lean on distillery reputation and your own palate.
Become an additive detective
Separate the two claims
On any bottle, confirm "100% agave" — then remember that still allows additives. Two different questions.
Cross-reference the NOM
Look up a bottle’s NOM against independent additive-free resources (Session 14 shows how). Note how much isn’t on the label.
Trust the palate test
Real cooked-agave complexity vs a suspiciously uniform, silky sweetness — your tongue is the certifier that can’t be sued.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- What does "100% agave" actually guarantee?
- Name the four permitted additives and the limit.
- What do additives accomplish for a producer?
- What is the additive-free movement?
- Why is the current situation "verify before relying"?
Reading
the bottle
The practical payoff of the whole category map: turning a tequila label from marketing into information. One number does most of the work.
What the label really tells you
Most of a tequila label is marketing; a few elements are information. Click through in priority order:
Decode a shelf
Find the NOM
On bottles you own, locate the NOM number and look it up — who made it, what else they make, their reputation.
Rank by information
Sort a few bottles by how much real information (NOM, 100% agave, process, origin) vs marketing they carry.
Predict quality, then taste
Make a call from the label alone, then taste the blanco to check yourself.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- What does the NOM number identify?
- What does the absence of "100% agave" mean?
- What does color prove? (Trick question.)
- What does the CRT seal certify — and not?
- What actually signals quality on a label?
Highlands
vs Lowlands
Tequila’s terroir, in two words: Los Altos and the Valles. A genuine flavor divide — fruity-floral vs earthy-peppery — and a useful predictor, kept in proportion to the production choices that matter more.
Two regions, two profiles
Highland and lowland agave taste recognisably different. The vs-card below sets the two signatures side by side:
Highlands — Los Altos
- Higher altitude, iron-rich red clay.
- Larger, sweeter agave.
- Fruitier, floral, brighter, sweeter tequila.
- Think: citrus, tropical fruit, jasmine.
- Home to many famous highland distilleries.
Lowlands — Valles
- Lower valleys around Tequila town.
- Volcanic/mineral soils.
- Earthier, more mineral, peppery, herbaceous.
- Think: wet earth, olive brine, black pepper, herbs.
- The historic heartland of the industry.
The highland/lowland split is real and worth learning — but remember the course’s spine: a lowland distillery using traditional ovens and wild yeast will out-express a highland one running a diffuser. Origin is a genuine signal, secondary to production. Taste it as one input, not destiny.
Taste the terroir
Get two blancos
One clearly highland (Los Altos), one lowland (Valles/Tequila) — same category, ideally similar production.
Contrast the profiles
Highland should read sweeter/fruitier/floral; lowland earthier/peppery. Log both on earth and pepper axes.
Name your preference
Neither is better — but knowing which you like guides every future purchase.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Describe the highland (Los Altos) signature.
- Describe the lowland (Valles) signature.
- What drives the difference?
- What is highland soil like?
- How should you weigh origin vs production?