What is tequila? Agave, the NOM, the five classes and 100% agave

Tequila is a Mexican spirit made from one plant, the blue Weber agave, Agave tequilana Weber variedad azul. The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT), the body that certifies it, says that is the only species allowed. The spirit is made inside a zone of 181 municipalities in five states: Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.

Mexico protected the name early. The CRT records that the general declaration of protection was published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 9 December 1974, making tequila the first of the 18 denominations of origin Mexico recognises today.

The rules sit in a Mexican standard, NOM-006-SCFI-2012. The CRT lists what a spirit needs to be called tequila: it is made in the authorised zone, from blue Weber agave, by the methods in the standard, at 35 to 55% ABV. The CRT is the only conformity body for the drink, and it says agave liqueurs, agave spirits and agave elixirs are not tequila.

The usable part of the plant is the piña, the core left when the leaves are cut away. The standard defines it as the piña or head. The CRT puts the time from planting to finished tequila at five to eight years.

We checked NOM-006-SCFI-2012 on 1 November 2026. Mexico’s Secretaría de Economía lists NOM-006-SCFI-2012 as in force, published on 13 December 2012 and effective from 11 February 2013, with one later amendment to a handful of numerals. The figures below come from the text in the Diario Oficial and the CRT’s own pages.

The CRT’s history dates the first records of a drink like tequila in Jalisco to the sixteenth century, the period of Spanish colonisation. Indigenous Mexicans already made a fermented drink from agave called pulque. Distilling arrived with the Spanish, and with it a spirit made from agave.

That is the CRT’s own account, and it names no date or person for the first bottle. The standard that governs the drink today is far younger than the drink: it is the 2012 text, and its predecessor, NOM-006-SCFI-2005, was introduced on 6 January 2006, according to Difford’s Guide.

The harvest is the jima: the leaves are cut from the plant until the piña is clear. The CRT describes the cooking that follows as turning the agave’s sugars, inulin among them, into sugars yeast can use. It says that can take up to six hours at 120 to 125°C.

The cooked piñas are then shredded or passed through roller mills to separate the sugary juice from the fibre. The juice is fermented in tanks with yeast, which also forms other compounds that shape the flavour, the CRT says. The fermented liquid is boiled and condensed twice, usually in pot stills, though the CRT notes that distillation towers exist. What comes off the second distillation is blanco tequila.

Beyond that, the method is looser than many drinkers expect. Difford’s Guide notes that the standard does not require a traditional oven and does not restrict how the agave is crushed, fermented or distilled, so a diffuser can replace the slow bake. That is why two bottles of the same class can taste unlike one another.

After distilling, a tequila is diluted with water to bottling strength. The class it is sold as depends on what happens next, which the table below sets out.

NOM-006 sets two categories by the share of sugar that comes from agave. In plain tequila at least 51% of the sugars come from blue Weber agave, and the remaining 49% at most may come from other sugars. The CRT calls the second category simply tequila, and the trade often calls it mixto.

In Tequila 100% agave, every sugar comes from the plant. The standard adds that a 100% agave tequila has to be bottled at the plant of the authorised producer, inside the denomination zone. Plain tequila can be bottled inside or outside it, which the CRT confirms. The wording on the label is fixed: 100% de agave, 100% puro de agave, 100% agave or 100% puro agave.

Look for those words, because plain tequila does not announce itself. Difford’s Guide points out that mixto is not a label term. Any tequila that does not say 100% agave is plain tequila. Difford’s also traces the minimum share of agave from 100% in 1949 to 70% in 1964 and 51% from 1970.

The label tells you what the sugar was, and nothing else about the bottle.

Class is about what happens after distilling. The CRT names five: blanco, joven, reposado, añejo and extra añejo. The table gives the minimum rest as NOM-006 sets it, in the oak or encino (holm oak) the standard names.

Take the classes in turn. Blanco is defined as transparent, not necessarily colourless, with only dilution water added, and it may rest in oak for under two months. Joven, or oro, is a blend of blanco with reposado, añejo or extra añejo, or a blanco softened with the additives described below.

Reposado has a minimum of two months in oak or encino. The standard gives it no cask size limit, and Difford’s Guide notes that reposado can rest in casks of any size or in large vats called pipones. A reposado from a vat and one from a small cask can be very different tequilas. Añejo needs a year and extra añejo three, and for both the cask holds 600 litres at most. Difford’s Guide notes that extra añejo is the newest class, introduced in March 2006. A blend of reposado with añejo still counts as reposado, and a blend of añejo with extra añejo still counts as añejo, under the same definitions.

A gold colour does not prove age. Difford’s Guide says that many joven tequilas are unaged spirit coloured with caramel, and NOM-006 lists caramel colour among the abocado ingredients. If you want age, look for the word reposado, añejo or extra añejo on the label.

Cristalino is not on the list. The text of NOM-006 we read on 1 November 2026 names five classes and never mentions it. Difford’s Guide describes cristalino as aged tequila that has been charcoal filtered or redistilled to remove the colour oak gives it, so treat it as a style of filtering applied to a recognised class, and read the label for the class underneath.

In the glass, the classes lead different drinks. In the Margarita, blanco leaves the agave green and peppery, so the lime meets it directly, and reposado trades some of that for vanilla and caramel. The Añejo Old Fashioned stirs añejo as you would stir whiskey.

NOM-006 permits sweeteners, colourings, flavourings and aromatisers approved by Mexico’s Secretaría de Salud in tequila, and it applies that to both categories. NOM-006 also defines abocado, a way of softening the spirit with caramel colour, natural oak or encino extract, glycerine or a sugar syrup. Joven, reposado, añejo and extra añejo may all be abocado.

There are limits. Clause 6.1.1.1 caps the abocado ingredients at 1% of the weight of the tequila before bottling, and where sweeteners, colourings or flavourings are added it caps total sugars at 75 g/L. Producers have to keep records of what they used.

So 100% agave describes the sugar that was fermented. It is not a statement about what was added afterwards. The label cannot tell you more, which is why the class, the producer and your own glass matter.

Difford’s Guide explains that every company or person bottling tequila is allotted a NOM number, and every brand from one distillery shows the same number. The number is not a mark of quality. It shows that the producer is authorised.

It does not say where the liquid was made either. Distilleries trade tequila between themselves, Difford’s Guide adds, so a NOM number does not always name the place that distilled the bottle. Use it to see which brands share a producer.

The label may also carry the letters CRT, which Difford’s Guide says refer to the export certificates the council grants to track tequila leaving Mexico. The CRT lists a certificate of authenticity for exports, a QR security code and an app called ValidAPP among its tools against imitation.

The name is on the UK register. GOV.UK’s protected names register lists Tequila as a registered geographical indication from Mexico, under other spirit drinks, with a UK scheme registration date of 31 December 2020 and an original EU registration of 28 February 2019. The entry adds that Tequila is also protected under the agreement on spirit drink designations between the UK and Mexico. The register lists it in class 99, other spirit drinks, and its internal note adds that Tequila is also protected by direct application of Regulation (EC) 110/2008. We state only what the register shows, as read on 1 November 2026.

Mezcal is listed separately and was registered in the UK scheme later, on 1 September 2021, under the UK trade agreement. The two are different spirits, and tequila or mezcal sets out the differences.

The CRT gives the range as 35 to 55% ABV, and the specification table in NOM-006 repeats it for every class. A bottle can be well above the 40% our recipes assume, so read the label before you measure, and count the units from the strength printed there.

The sums are the same as for any spirit. Multiply the percentage by the millilitres and divide by 1,000. At 40% ABV, 25ml is one UK unit and 50ml is two; ABV vs proof works through the rest.

Blanco is the base of the citrus drinks. The Margarita is the IBA’s 50ml of 100% agave blanco tequila with 20ml of triple sec and 15ml of lime juice. The Tommy’s Margarita drops the orange liqueur for agave syrup, and Difford’s Guide credits it to Julio Bermejo at his family’s restaurant in San Francisco around 1987 or 1988. The IBA lists it in its New Era category with 60ml of 100% agave tequila, 30ml of lime juice and 30ml of agave nectar. Serve the first up in a coupe, or over ice in a rocks glass, with half the rim salted using a salt rim.

The long drinks are built, not shaken. The Paloma tops blanco and fresh lime juice with grapefruit soda, and the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails traces the pairing to a 1950 brochure for the soda brand Squirt. The Batanga uses cola, with Punch crediting Don Javier Delgado Corona of La Capilla. The Mexican Mule uses ginger beer, El Diablo adds blackcurrant liqueur and the Tequila Sunrise pairs it with orange juice and grenadine. The Cantaritos is a Paloma with more fruit, served in a clay cup, and Difford’s Guide describes it as made in the bars, cafés and roadside stalls of Jalisco.

Reposado leads the Rosita, a tequila take on the Negroni. Añejo can go in a stirred drink or in a small glass on its own, at room temperature, as you would sip whisky. The Añejo Old Fashioned is 60ml of añejo with 7.5ml of agave syrup and two dashes of mole bitters, stirred over one large cube.

Pour a measured 25ml into a small glass rather than a tumbler, so the smell stays close. Nose it before you taste it, then take a small sip and let it sit on the tongue. Water between samples resets the palate.

Taste the classes in order, blanco first. A blanco shows the plant, with no oak to add to it. A reposado adds colour and, by the account in the Margarita recipe, vanilla and caramel. An añejo goes further the same way. Each step shows what oak does to the same agave spirit, which is why the ladder of classes is worth tasting once.

Measure every pour, because a Margarita made with 50ml of tequila comes to about 2.8 UK units once the orange liqueur is counted. ABV vs proof explains the arithmetic, and the units are the reason to pour from a measure.

Start with the words 100% agave. If they are missing, the bottle is plain tequila. Then find the class, because blanco, reposado and añejo are different drinks.

Next, find the NOM number, to see which producer is behind the brand, and check the strength, which can run from 35% to 55% ABV. A bottle that says cristalino still has a class underneath it.

Those four checks answer most of the questions at the shelf. After that, the choice is yours to make by tasting. A blanco and a reposado from the same producer, side by side, show what the oak adds. What spirits to stock puts tequila in its place on a home bar.