An worker pours tequila into the favored Mountain Dew Baja Blast frozen drink on the new Taco Bell Cantina in Brookline, MA.
John Tlumacki | Boston Globe | Getty Images
Tequila might quickly overtake vodka as America’s favourite liquor, fueled by shoppers’ want for dear bottles of agave-based spirits.
Tequila and mezcal was the second-fastest rising spirits class in 2021, trailing solely premixed cocktails. Agave-based spirits noticed gross sales climb 30.1% in contrast with the prior yr to $5.2 billion, in response to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.
It was additionally the second-largest class by income behind No. 1 vodka, which has been the top-selling spirit within the U.S. because the Nineteen Seventies. At $7.3 billion in income, vodka remains to be promoting roughly $2 billion extra yearly than tequila and mezcal, however agave-based spirits could possibly be on observe to outstrip it in just some years.
For extra proof of the development, look no additional than casinos. Julian Cox, famend bartender and government director of beverage and company mixologist for MGM Resorts International, mentioned whole gross sales of vodka and tequila are operating neck and neck on the hospitality large.
“Nobody might imagine it,” he mentioned.
Using quantity as a measure, vodka nonetheless stays king. According to DISCUS, the liquor offered 78.1 million circumstances in 2021, greater than double the quantity of the subsequent class: premixed cocktails. Tequila and mezcal scored a distant fourth at 26.8 million circumstances.
High-end tequilas are serving to drive progress for the class, in response to Christine LoCascio, DISCUS chief of public coverage.
“It’s not only for margaritas,” LoCascio mentioned on the commerce group’s annual financial briefing on Thursday. “There are so many high-end tequilas you can sip and savor like many different high-end merchandise, like whiskeys and cognacs and bourbons and high-end rums as properly.”
Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes echoed that sentiment on the corporate’s latest earnings name. The distiller owns two upscale tequila manufacturers: Don Julio and Casamigos.
“The class’s attraction throughout demographics is critical,” he mentioned. “It has crossed over. The multicultural progress may be very robust. It cuts throughout age segments, it cuts throughout gender, it cuts throughout dayparts, the event and the character of drinks. It’s not simply photographs and margaritas because it was a few years in the past.”
The Crown Royal proprietor is forecasting that tequila gross sales will increase quicker than the broader spirits business for the subsequent 5 to 10 years. In the primary half of its fiscal 2022, it noticed tequila gross sales surge 56% over the year-earlier interval.
Tequila can also be serving to the spirits business steal clients from beer. Tony Abou-Ganim, movie star mixologist and creator of “Vodka Distilled,” created the beverage packages for T-Mobile Arena and Allegiant Stadium, each in Las Vegas. The sports activities venues have margaritas on the menu, made with contemporary substances and 100% agave tequila.
“Lots of people suppose once they go to an enviornment or stadium, ‘I’m simply going to drink beer,’ and our feeling was, if we put a greater margarita of their arms, they are going to purchase margaritas. And that is confirmed to be the case,” Abou-Ganim mentioned.
DISCUS’s LoCascio additionally acknowledged that high-profile movie star launches have helped draw consideration to the class.
A bunch of celebrities have rolled out their very own tequila and mezcal manufacturers, together with each actor and former skilled wrestler Dwayne Johnson and mannequin Kendall Jenner final yr. In addition to hopping on the agave bandwagon, they’re hoping to emulate the success of George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila, which was offered to Diageo for $1 billion in 2017. Last yr, Constellation Brands invested in “Breaking Bad” co-stars Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston’s Dos Hombres mezcal for an undisclosed quantity.
Mezcal’s progress potential
About 98% of agave-based spirits’ $5.2 billion gross sales had been from tequila, which is barely comprised of the blue agave plant. Mezcal is a wider label, making use of to any spirit made utilizing dozens of sorts of agave.
“[Mezcal] is rising, however it’s nonetheless a really small portion of that broader class,” LoCascio mentioned.
MGM’s Cox is bullish on the way forward for mezcal, citing the big variety of flavors and style profiles. “Mezcal is sort of a taste bomb,” he mentioned. “For cocktail making, for those who use it in the appropriate medium, you have bought loads of taste.”
Julian Cox
Source: MGM Resorts International
Once shoppers strive cocktails made with mezcal, the subsequent step for class promoters is to introduce them to spirits made with the entire completely different sorts of agave.
Abou-Ganim mentioned youthful shoppers are main the cost, desirous to increase their style horizons. There’s a geographic ingredient to its progress as properly. Cox, who was beforehand based mostly in Los Angeles however now works in Las Vegas, mentioned most guests to Sin City stay largely uninformed about mezcal.
Mezcal is seen as genuine to its roots and custom, interesting to purists like Cox and Abou-Ganim. Mexico has positioned laws on what distillers can name mezcal, limiting manufacturing to sure states within the nation. (Uncertified merchandise could be offered within the U.S. labeled as “agave spirits.”)
“They cannot make loads of mezcal, and that is the wonder and the artwork of it,” mentioned Abou-Ganim.