(Photo: Herradura)
If you've spent any time in the tequila aisle over the past year, there's a good chance you've started seeing "High Proof" on the label. Used to describe anything above the industry-standard 40% ABV (80 proof), the category has taken off like a rocket among brands hoping to flex scorch and flavor.
Champions of the technique include acclaimed names like LALO, Alto Canto, Mijenta, Alma del Jaguar and Guy Fieri's shockingly excellent Santo Tequila. Many of these brands fall within what could generously be described as the new guard — imprints launched in the mid-2000s and beyond that have positioned their prospects well alongside the ongoing tequila boom. You'll find words like "ultra-premium" and "additive-free" thrown around a lot among this generation. High-proof tequila — often more flavorful, pungent and complex than its lower-proofed sibling — has only cemented these distillers as forces to be reckoned with.
The trend has now begun to expand outside the usual suspects.
At the beginning of last year, legacy brand Tres Generaciones entered the fray with its delicious 50th Anniversary Añejo, a 90-proof delight stuffed with flavors of cedar, tropical fruits and minerality. It is one of only two tequilas bottled above 80 proof that the brand has launched since its inception in 1973.
On Monday, the historic Herradura Tequila took the concept in a different direction. Rather than launch a wholly new product, the brand reintroduced an expression to the U.S. that it had originally distilled in 1870. The brand's 92-proof blanco was the first to bear the brand's iconic horseshoe logo and still stands as Herradura's highest-proofed offering to date.
“Herradura Blanco holds a unique place in tequila history,” Kelley Kerger Sr., Brand Manager of Tequila Herradura in the US, said in a press release. “For nearly a century, this was the only tequila produced at Casa Herradura, shaping not only our heritage but the tequila category as we know it today. By bringing Herradura Blanco to the U.S., we’re sharing a piece of that origin story, inviting consumers to experience an authentic taste of history in every pour.”
So how exactly did high-proof tequila — whether old school or fashionable newcomer — come to dominate the agave market in 2025?
Breaking Down the Proof
In Mexico, the legal minimum for tequila is 70 proof. That's exactly 10 proof points lower than the minimum for tequila or anything else classified as a spirit in the U.S.
Here's where the law gets a little tricky. Since the Mexican government imposes taxes based on the alcohol content of liquor, tequila distillers are softly encouraged to sell their products within Mexico at around 70 to 76 proof. This is one of the reasons that tequila is often said to taste "different" south of the border. Browsing a liquor store in Tijuana or Monterrey, you'll find products that are legally unavailable just a few dozen miles north.
No matter the country, the cost of distillation will always factor in. It's simply more efficient for producers to sell products at the legal minimum, going a long way to explain why 80-proof tequila is the status quo within the U.S. and most international markets.
The other factor is consumers. Standardized ABVs help maintain a specific alcohol-to-flavor ratio that buyers can associate with a spirit. If consumers know that their favorite liquor is always bottled at a balmy 80 proof, it helps enormously with marketing and accessibility. Especially if that liquor is an unfamiliar taste.
This is where the tequila market has changed. The agave spirits boom of the mid-2010s kicked off a mass awareness of tequila never before seen in history outside of Mexico. No longer is it a spirit that you approach trepidatiously at the liquor store; nowadays, drinkers of all ilks are looking for a little variety in selection.
The industry has adapted fast to accommodate changing preferences. In 2006, the first tequila marketed as an extra añejo was officially recognized by regulatory officials. A few years later, the charcoal-filtered cristalino became a force to be reckoned with, reconfiguring the market as myriad celebrities and blockbuster brands cashed in on the zeitgeist. The most recent trend of the day was the red wine-finished rosado, though that one never quite picked up the steam of its predecessors.
High-proof tequila feels like a natural progression. As consumers demand transparency and a return to "old school" techniques (however ill-defined they may be), bumping up the alcohol content is a great way to appease both novices and agave die-hards alike.
What's next for the industry, you may ask? Only time will tell.
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