Tequila, Mezcal and Raicilla: Reading the Label on a US Shelf

The agave section of an American liquor store is the most mislabeled shelf in the building — not because anyone is lying, but because the useful information is in small print and the marketing is in large print. Four things on the back label tell you almost everything. Here they are, in order of how much they matter.

100% de agave, or not

This is the single most important line. A bottle that says "100% de agave" is made only from blue weber agave. A bottle that says only "tequila" is a mixto: up to 49 percent of its sugars can come from cane or corn syrup. Mixto is what most people drank in college and the reason a generation thinks tequila causes headaches. The phrase is required to appear, so if you cannot find it, it is not there.

Mezcal has no mixto category — by its denomination of origin it is always 100 percent agave — but it has something tequila does not: species. Espadín is the workhorse and the usual place to start. Tobalá, tepeztate, madrecuishe and arroqueño are wild or semi-wild agaves that take far longer to mature, cost more and taste radically different. The label names the species, and that word tells you more than the brand does.

The NOM number

Every bottle of tequila carries a four-digit NOM, the registration number of the distillery that made it. Dozens of brands share a single NOM, because they are made to order at the same plant. This is not a scandal; it is how the industry works. But it is why two bottles at very different prices can be the same liquid in different glass, and it is the fastest way to find out what you are actually buying. Mezcal labels carry the producer's name and often the village, which serves the same purpose.

Additives, and the "additive-free" movement

Mexican regulation permits up to one percent of the volume in additives — glycerin for mouthfeel, caramel coloring, oak extract, sugar syrup — without disclosure. One percent is enough to change a spirit noticeably. In the last few years a verification movement has grown around producers who use none, and the US market is where most of that labeling shows up, because American buyers started asking. If a bottle says additive-free and the brand is willing to name its verification, that is a meaningful claim.

Age categories, and why younger is often more interesting

Mezcal is usually sold joven and should be. Barrel aging a spirit whose entire character comes from roasted agave and smoke is a way of hiding it.

Raicilla, and the other agave spirits

Raicilla is a Jalisco agave spirit, mostly from the Sierra Occidental and the coast near Puerto Vallarta, made from different agave species than tequila and traditionally distilled in small stills. It received its own denomination of origin in 2019 and has been arriving in the US ever since, usually in specialty stores and good cocktail bars rather than supermarkets. It tastes nothing like tequila: more herbal, sometimes briny, often with a green-vegetal edge.

Alongside it: bacanora from Sonora, sotol from Chihuahua and Durango (made from a desert spoon plant, not an agave at all), and the broad category of destilado de agave, which covers excellent spirits that fall outside any denomination. For a reader in the US, these are the shelf where the interesting bottles are hiding.

How to taste it

Not in a shot glass, and not with salt and lime, which exist to get cheap mixto past your palate. Use a small wine glass or a copita. Pour half an ounce. Smell with your mouth slightly open, because a closed nose over 40 percent alcohol just registers as burn. Take a small sip and hold it; the first sip anaesthetizes, so judge the second. A glass of water and a plain tortilla between pours resets your palate better than anything else.

If you are drinking it with food, a blanco with ceviche or Red Aguachile is a better pairing than any wine. A smoky espadín mezcal next to Oaxacan Black Mole is the classic match, and it works because both are built on roasted, slightly bitter depth.

Mixing, if you are going to mix

A good blanco in a cocktail is not a waste, as long as the cocktail is built to let it through. A paloma — blanco, grapefruit soda, lime, salt — is the national drink of Mexico in practice and it takes thirty seconds. A margarita made with fresh lime, a real orange liqueur and no syrup is a serious drink; made with a sour mix from a plastic jug it is a different beverage that happens to share a name.

What not to do with mezcal: drown it. Its character is smoke and minerality, and both disappear under sugar. If you want it in a cocktail, a mezcal paloma or a two-ingredient mix with grapefruit works; anything with four sweet components is paying for a spirit you cannot taste.

For the non-distilled side of the Mexican drinks table, our recipes for Horchata, Hibiscus Water and Tamarind Water cover what is actually served alongside this food at home.

What to avoid

Anything sold in a ceramic skull or a hand-blown bottle that costs more than the liquid. Anything labeled "gold" without 100% de agave, which is mixto with caramel color. Pre-mixed margarita bases. And the worm, which is a marketing device added to a few mezcal bottlings in the 1940s and signals nothing about quality.

A last note on where to drink it. Our US directory lists 26 businesses typed as cantinas — Mexican restaurants built around a bar rather than a kitchen — and a good number of the 630 restaurants have serious agave lists. The restaurant directory is the place to look, and the Google ratings there are Google's, not ours.