4 Up-and-Coming Tequila Brands to Keep an Eye on in 2025

Never in history have so many tequilas come crashing down on the market at once. Each year, dozens if not hundreds of new brands set up shop with splashy press releases, billboard sweeps and bold proclamations about what makes their juice the next big thing. Celebrity benefactors are aplenty, as is the proliferation of near-identical products on already crowded liquor store shelves. For those of us who write about agave spirits for a living, the sheer quantity is overwhelming. And frankly, the quality is often lackluster, to say the least.

Combing through the past few release cycles, we’ve narrowed in on four up-and-coming brands that are doing things a little differently. Whether you’re thirsty for a new take on agave or a total reinvention of the formula, these four distillers have promised big, tasty innovations and have already followed through with exceptional stuff.

Lagrimas del Valle

(Photo: Lagrimas Del Valle)

Taking a page from Tequila Ocho, Lagrimas has built its brand around a single-estate, single-field approach. Each year, the team tracks down a harvest of agaves from a different field in Mexico with a keen eye for variations in soil, flora and fauna that’ll affect the final batch. The brand’s offerings are a veritable playground for anyone interested in terroir. 2022’s “El Chiqueño” was chosen for its proximity to harvests of mango and ciruela, a local variety of plum; 2023’s “El Sabino” opted for herbaceous agaves grown near Los Guachimontones, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the state of Jalisco.

We’re especially fond of last year’s “La Loma,” which sourced its plants from the criminally overlooked agave-growing state of Michoacán. Packing tons of hibiscus, earth and fresh mint on the nose, the palate was equally dense with flavors of saline minerality and grapefruit that checked off all the right boxes for a delicious blanco. Find our full review of the expression here — it currently sits at a Raided Score® of 89.

Unlike most agave distillers, whose offerings tend to grow stagnant year over year, Lagrimas is constantly changing up the formula. Can’t wait to see what they have planned on the horizon in 2025 and beyond.

Cazcanes

(Photo: Cazcanes)

In all the ways that count, Cazcanes could hardly be considered a newcomer. Formally launched in 2015 before releasing its inaugural batch in 2017, the brand has charted a slow but steady ascent to the top of many a tequila connoisseur’s recommendation list over the past few years. Fans love its additive-free recipe, mineral-forward palate and occasional dabbling with red wine barrels. It’s one of the pricier options out there, no doubt, but a hell of a lot easier to track down than its cult-status older sibling, Fortaleza.

A decade into its lifespan, Cazcanes has now entered what could generously be dubbed its experimentation phase. Last week, the brand unveiled Nuestras Raíces, the first bottling from the distiller that ditches the “tequila” label in favor of the increasingly trendy “Destilado de Agave.” Though it’s made with the same Blue Weber found in a traditional batch of tequila, many of its production methods are entirely its own. Namely, agaves are processed not with the industry-standard tahona or roller mill, but with a repurposed Chevy inline 6 engine. Co-founder Jose Santillan affectionately calls the result “Jugo de la Selva,” Spanish for “Jungle Juice.”

It’s a welcome change of pace for a category that often finds itself constrained to the narrow confines of blanco, reposado and añejo. With luck, Cazcanes will continue to foray into uncharted territory and all the unexpected distillates therein.

Alma del Jaguar

(Photo: Lagrimas Del Valle)

For whatever reason, spirit brands with an eagle eye on animal conservation almost always find themselves in the gin category. Germany’s Elephant Gin contributes 15% of bottle profits to critically endangered African forest elephants; Stray Dog Gin donates to animal shelters in Greece; White Rhino Gin pays it forward to the world’s first baby rhino orphanage. Others support bees in the American northeast, cheetahs, gray whales and pangolins. If there’s an animal on the label and a botanical in the bottle, rest assured that a brand’s mission statement will resemble something penned by Steve Irwin.

Alma del Jaguar is one of the few carrying this ethos into the agave world. Conceived in 2023 by spirits entrepreneur McCauley Williams, the brand donates a portion of its profits to the Northern Jaguar Project, a binational effort that protects fauna in a 56,000-acre reserve along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

If that sounds like your jam, Alma del Jaguar can provide some pretty stellar juice to back up its ambitions. Over the past couple of years, the brand has debuted a 101-proof “Nocturna” expression alongside a blended añejo that took not-so-subtle inspiration from the scotch industry. If you’re a fan of unexpected banana notes in your agave spirits, you’ll definitely want to check out those aged expressions in the catalog. Everything clocks in under $100 and is well worth the buy.

The Lost Explorer

(Photo: The Lost Explorer)

Up until recently, The Lost Explorer was synonymous with mezcal. Its Salmiana, Tobala and Espadin expressions are some of the better-distributed products on the market, racking in their fair share of awards all while shipping worldwide to the U.S., Europe, the U.K. and beyond. If you’re interested in checking out that side of the portfolio, we’d highly recommend the brand’s limited-edition Madre Cuishe that dropped in February.

A few months before that, The Lost Explorer made its first adventure into tequila. Recruiting help from former Don Julio distiller Enrique de Colsa, the brand created what was, by all accounts, a pretty straightforward take on the concept. The Lost Explorer’s inaugural blanco clocked in at just 50 bucks, produced using a by-the-basics mix of double-distilled lowland agaves, deep well water and a 40% ABV bottling strength.

It was surprisingly excellent. We and other reviewers commended its bold, agave-forward flavors of tart lemon, lavender and buttercream that resembled springtime in a glass. On the finish, a floral bouquet of rose petals, white pepper and orange blossoms. It struck a rare balance between accessible and complex, an especially commendable feat considering its budget-friendly price point. For in-depth tasting notes, find our full review here.

Though The Lost Explorer hasn’t hinted at any future tequila releases, we wouldn’t be surprised to see them unveil a reposado or añejo sometime in the near future.