Which states may legally produce tequila

Tequila can only be produced inside a defined territory of 181 municipalities across five states: Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Nayarit and Tamaulipas, according to the Consejo Regulador del Tequila's own description of the appellation. Jalisco holds the large majority of those municipalities, including the town of Tequila itself, which is why the drink and the state are so closely associated. A spirit distilled from blue agave anywhere outside that territory may be perfectly good, but it cannot legally be sold as tequila.

The practical effect for a visitor is that the word "tequila" on a label is already a geographic guarantee. What it does not guarantee is what is inside the bottle, and that is the next check.

What "100% de agave" legally means

"100% de agave" on a tequila label means every fermentable sugar in the bottle came from Agave tequilana Weber blue variety, with nothing added. The CRT sets out two categories: Tequila 100% Agave and plain Tequila, the second of which may take up to 49% of its sugars from other sources. That second category is what people in Mexico usually call a mixto, though the word does not appear on the label. A bottle that simply says "Tequila" with no agave percentage is a mixto by definition.

The Official Mexican Standard goes further and ties the category to where the liquid is bottled. Under NOM-006-SCFI-2012, a product may only be called Tequila 100% de agave if it is bottled in a plant controlled by the authorised producer inside the denomination-of-origin territory, and bulk movement of that category outside the territory is not permitted. Mixto tequila, by contrast, can be shipped in bulk and bottled abroad.

Reading the bottle in a Mexico City shop

Four elements on a Mexican agave-spirit label do most of the work, and you can check them in about ten seconds while standing in the aisle. Read them in order rather than starting with the price.

  • Category line. For tequila, "100% de agave" or nothing. For mezcal, the words "Mezcal", "Mezcal Artesanal" or "Mezcal Ancestral", which NOM-070-SCFI-2016 requires to appear on the main display panel, on their own and separate from the brand.
  • Class line. Blanco or joven, reposado, anejo, extra anejo for tequila. This is a minimum time in oak, not a quality grade.
  • NOM number. A four-digit producer registration number identifying the distillery. Several brands can share one number because they are made at the same plant.
  • Certification mark. The CRT's mark for tequila, or the mezcal council's hologram, which COMERCAM lets you verify online.

The agave species also has to be named on a mezcal label, in decreasing order if more than one was used, which is why you see espadin, tobala or madrecuishe printed on the front. A tequila label will never carry that information, because only one agave variety is permitted.

Mezcal is a different denomination with a wider map

Mezcal has its own denomination of origin, its own council and its own standard, and its territory is much larger than tequila's. According to COMERCAM's description of the denomination, it covers the whole of Oaxaca, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas and Durango, plus listed municipalities in Puebla, Michoacan, Tamaulipas and Guanajuato, with later additions in other states still subject to legal challenge. Oaxaca dominates the trade but does not monopolise the right to the name.

The most useful thing to know as a buyer is that mezcal has no mixto. NOM-070-SCFI-2016 defines mezcal as a distilled spirit made 100% from maguey or agave, and its three categories separate production method rather than agave content. Plain Mezcal permits autoclaves, industrial mills, stainless steel tanks and continuous columns. Mezcal Artesanal requires pit or masonry ovens, milling by mallet or tahona, fermentation in wood, stone, clay or animal hide, and direct-fire distillation in copper or clay stills. Mezcal Ancestral is narrower still, requiring a pit oven and clay-pot distillation.

Why the airport bottle is often not what you think

A duty-free bottle bought at the airport is convenient, but the selection there is built around large export brands, gift packaging and travel-retail sizes rather than around what the spirit actually is. Three things regularly surprise buyers. Some heavily marketed tequilas in that channel are mixtos rather than 100% agave. Gift boxes and decorative decanters carry a substantial share of the price. And the small-producer artisanal and ancestral mezcales that make a trip to Mexico worthwhile are usually absent, because they are made in volumes too small for airport retail.

Raicilla, bacanora and sotol are separate things

Raicilla, bacanora and sotol are not sub-types of mezcal but separately protected Mexican spirits, each with its own denomination of origin and producing region: raicilla from parts of Jalisco and Nayarit, bacanora from Sonora, and sotol from the northern desert states, made from a Dasylirion plant that is not an agave at all. They increasingly appear on Mexico City bar lists and in specialist shops, and they are worth trying precisely because they taste unlike either tequila or mezcal.

Their labelling conventions are less familiar than tequila's and the regulating councils are smaller, so if provenance matters to you, ask the shop which council certified the bottle and confirm the current protected territory against the federal register of denominations of origin held by IMPI rather than relying on the marketing text.

Before you pack a bottle

Check your own country's alcohol allowance before you buy, not at the airport. Duty-free and personal allowances are set by the country you are entering, not by Mexico, and they vary widely in both litres and value: some allow one litre of spirits per adult, others two or more, and exceeding the limit means paying duty on arrival rather than having the bottle taken away. Look up your customs authority's current passenger allowance page for spirits above 22% alcohol by volume.

Two practical points follow from that. Bottles bought in the city must go in checked baggage because of liquid limits at security, so buy them before an overnight rather than on the way to the airport if your itinerary includes a connection. And if you are connecting through a third country, the airport-bought sealed bag may be opened at the transfer point, so the safest route for anything you care about is checked luggage with the bottle wrapped inside clothing.

What this guide does not cover

This article covers how to read Mexican agave-spirit labels and the legal system behind them. It does not rank brands, quote prices, or cover pulque, which is a fermented rather than distilled agave drink and is not governed by any of the standards described here.