Additive-free tequila is made without the caramel color, oak extract, glycerin or sugar syrup that Mexican rules allow in small amounts. Every bottle here comes from a brand verified through the Tequila Matchmaker additive-free program.
Picks from verified brands, one for every style.
Brick ovens, a stone tahona and copper pots. Cooked agave, citrus and pepper.
Distilled with captured rainwater. Minerals, pepper and buttery agave.
Eight weeks in ex-American whiskey barrels, so the agave stays in front.
Two to three years in ex-bourbon barrels. Sweet agave, jasmine and vanilla.
Seed-grown agave about eight years old, bottled at 50% ABV.
Mexico’s rules don’t require additives to be listed on the label, so you can’t tell from the bottle. Tequila Matchmaker’s program reviews production and tests products, then confirms them product by product. The bottles here come from brands on the program’s published list. Patrón states its tequila is additive-free but isn’t part of the program.
Mexican rules allow four kinds of additives, together up to 1% of the tequila by weight: caramel color, natural oak extract, glycerin and sugar-based syrup. They can make a young tequila look older or taste sweeter and smoother. Additive-free tequila leaves them out, so the agave, the still and the barrel do all the work.
Tequila made without the caramel color, oak extract, glycerin or sugar syrup that Mexican rules allow in small amounts.
Caramel color, natural oak extract, glycerin and sugar-based syrup, together up to 1% of the tequila by weight, without being listed on the label.
No. Additives up to the legal limit don’t have to be disclosed, which is why third-party verification exists.
The Tequila Matchmaker program reviews production and confirms additive-free products. Mexico’s tequila regulator doesn’t certify additive-free claims.
Patrón states its tequila is additive-free, but it isn’t part of the Tequila Matchmaker program, so it isn’t in this collection.
Fortaleza is the most searched verified brand. G4, Tequila Ocho and El Tesoro are favorites, and El Tequileño Blanco ($22.99) is a strong value.
No. “100% de agave” means no other sugars were fermented, but small amounts of additives are still allowed.
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