Hottest tequila manufacturers, together with movie star labels like Casamigos and Kendall Jenner’s 818, embrace secret components like glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract and sugar-based syrups, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Regardless of studying 100% agave azul on the bottle, Casamigos, famously based by George Clooney and Randy Gerber (married to tremendous mannequin Cindy Crawford), is definitely solely about 99 p.c tequila.
Tequila makers are allowed so as to add 4 components with out telling you, as long as it is one p.c or much less of what is within the bottle.
Glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract sugar-based syrups are permitted, in accordance with Patron’s website, which does disclose the knowledge. Casamigos doesn’t.
‘Many (tequila) merchandise are made in an especially quick, industrial, impartial approach,’ tequila knowledgeable Grover Sanschagrin advised Liquor.com.
‘As an alternative of utilizing the (conventional) course of to generate pure aromas and flavors, they short-circuit the method by making a less expensive product after which use components to provide it some character.’
Wildly well-liked tequila Casamigo, co-founded by George Clooney and Randy Gerber, incorporates components reminiscent of glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract and sugar-based syrup however that aren’t disclosed on the bottle
Casamigos is the among the many high ten greatest promoting tequilas on the earth
Components are additionally in Kendall Jenner tequila model, 818. Glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract and sugar-based syrup are allowed in tequila with out labeling on the bottle as long as the non-tequila liquid is lower than 1% of what is within the bottle, in accordance with Mexico’s tequila governing physique
Tequila, produced within the area with the identical title in Mexico close to Guadalajara, comes from the agave plant.
The fermented liquid is famously aged in oak barrels to realize three ranges of expression: silver, reposado and anejo.
As tequila matures, it begins to show a darker hue and picks up flavors from wooden barrels it is housed in throughout this time.
An anejo, the kind of tequila that requires essentially the most ageing, can take as much as three years earlier than it is able to be bought.
However time is cash. For a model like Casamigos, which is now one of many top-ten greatest promoting tequilas on the earth and the highest celebrity-backed tequila, it means misplaced income in the event that they’re sitting round ready for it to age correctly.
Glycerin can be utilized to masks poor or shortened distillation, giving a fuller mouthfeel. It coats the mouth neutralizing client’s style buds.
Coloring and oak extract assist masks tequila that has been aged within the conventional tequila technique.
‘It makes your tequila appear older, so if you happen to make it darker, it looks as if it has been barrel longer,’ tequila influencer Jay Baer advised Every day Mail.com.
‘In the event you add oak extract it tastes extra like wooden, once more, making the buyer suppose it has been within the barrel longer. In lots of instances, shoppers suppose that older tequila is healthier, due to this fact it is worthy of a better value.’
Tequila specialists say bigger operations outsource their blanco Tequila, shopping for it from a no-name mass producer earlier than including chemical substances to it to make it style like what their prospects are used to.
818 tequila by Kendall Jenner additionally has components, however their inclusion will not be disclosed to prospects on their web site or on the label.
Supermodel Kendall Jenner of Kardashian fame launched her personal tequila model, 818, in 2021
The title of her tequila model comes from the world code for Calabasas, California– the Southern California enclave the place her well-known household lives
Casamigos is the highest celebrity-backed tequila on the earth
Laughing all the way in which to the financial institution: George Clooney and his two co-founders bought Casamigos to spirits big Diageo for $1 billion in June 2017, however it nonetheless the face of Casamigos
The Kardashian sister hawks her product because the ‘most pure, and greatest tasting tequila attainable’ and guarantees ‘solely the best high quality components are utilized in its creation,’ in accordance with 818’s official website.
Curiously, 818 describes its blanco as having notes of ‘key lime pie, and toasted coconut’ – none of which might naturally come from an oak barrel.
Neither Casamigos, bought by Clooney and associates to liquor big Diageo, or 818 responded to a request for remark from DailyMail.com.
Components are usually not simply in movie star tequilas.
It is estimated that 70% of all tequila has secret flavor enhancers that customers do not know about.
‘You’ve the appropriate to know what you are placing into your physique and what you are consuming,’ Tony Boyle, CEO of additive-free Tequila Corrido advised DailyMail.com.
As a result of components are usually not declared on the label, two tequila specialists dwelling in Guadalajara launched an internet site referred to as Tequila Matchmaker to assist shoppers find out about what they’re ingesting, together with if there are components current.
Sanschagrin and his spouse Scarlet, who’re each skilled tequila sommeliers, began testing tequila manufacturers in 2020 to award them the additive-free designation.
The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT) is the regulatory physique that oversees tequila, after it took over from the Mexican authorities in 1994.
The CRT, run by executives from essentially the most worthwhile tequila manufacturers, makes use of an honor system.
Fields of blue weber agave within the Tequila area of Jalisco, Mexico
At Casa Herradura, dwelling of Herradura Tequila, a jimador or farmer who harvests tequila, demonstrates how the agave plant is lower down to only the guts, which shall be cooked and fermented
The guts of the agave plant, referred to as pinas as a result of they appear like giant pineapples, are cooked in large ovens earlier than they turn out to be tequila
‘There’s a binder in each distillery the place you write down if you happen to put components within the product or not. The CRT seems to be on the binder and indicators off and strikes on. They don’t take a look at or odor or something,’ Grover advised Punch.
Tequila manufacturers at the moment are clamoring to be included within the additive-free class, however solely about 100 completely different tequilas, together with Tequila Corrido, have thus far made the lower.
‘We begin from the very starting with sourcing the agave, making that blanco and truly letting the blanco relaxation for 30 days, which is fairly uncommon, however it’s as conventional as you may get,’ Tequila Corrido’s VP of Communications Olivia Fierro boasted.
‘Probably the most conventional approach is costlier, and it is not time environment friendly. For instance, our Anejo, by the point we’re getting it in a bottle, it is virtually two years.’
Properly-known manufacturers like Tequila Ocho and Siete Leguas have earned the additive free designation as nicely.
Tequila Corrido is one in every of solely about 100 manufacturers who’ve been licensed as additive-free by Tequila Matchmaker
Tequila Corrido, an additive-free tequila markets itself as ‘no components, no celebrities’
Tony Boyle (left) pictured above with Brian Raab (proper) personal Tequila Corrido
A handful of movie star tequilas acquired the nod as nicely, together with Santo Fino, began by rocker Sammy Hagar and chef Man Fieri.
‘Shoppers are selecting additive free tequila over tequila with components,’ Baer defined.
‘As of April, additive-free tequila is 6% of the tequila market. That is some huge cash. These bigger manufacturers are shedding market share to those newer additive-free manufacturers and they might favor that to not be the case.’
Tequila Matchmaker even issued stickers that manufacturers can add to their bottles letting prospects know they’re additive free.
However do not suppose this hasn’t ruffled some feathers.
The Sanschagrins’ web site, which claims to be essentially the most in depth tequila database on the earth, has pitted them in opposition to the CRT– referred to as the ‘tequila cartel’ by Baer.
‘They (CRT) have taken some actions, that I believe is way past what’s essential, to try to kill the additive-free second within the cradle,’ he said.
Mexican authorities raid the house of Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin, the husband-and-wife founders of Tequila Matchmaker in April
The Consejo Regulador del Tequila or CRT has opposed the ‘additive-free’ designation
The tequila group has come out in opposition to Tequila Matchmaker’s Additive-Free Alliance program.
‘We take into account that any scheme supplied available in the market to “certify,” “confirm” or “verify” in any language {that a} sure trademark is “components free” represents an act opposite to good customs and practices and induces error or confusion to the Tequila client,’ the group stated in January.
Final month, the couple’s dwelling was raided in the dark by Mexican federal authorities, in accordance with Mexican media.
Armed police, with a warrant that included a criticism by the CRT, claimed that the Sanschagrins had been utilizing their dwelling as an ‘adulterated tequila manufacturing unit.’
Whereas nobody was arrested, some bottles of tequila had been seized.
The CRT didn’t reply to a request from remark from DailyMail.com, however their representatives had been current on the April raid.
Regardless of the pushback, the CRT introduced it might be creating its personal additive-free designation earlier this 12 months.
Specifics on how manufacturers shall be licensed as additive-free haven’t been made public by CRT, however Baer defined a committee has been fashioned to begin trying on the course of.
‘The committee is main compromised of grasp distillers that haven’t participated within the Tequila Matchmaker program,’ Baer added.
‘As I perceive it, that committee has not made a whole lot of progress. My prediction is that nothing will occur. CRT will proceed to pay lip service to their very own want to create a program, however no program will truly be forth-coming as a result of the organizations that run the CRT actually would like to not discuss components in any respect.’