What’s the Best Bargain in Tequila? The 7 Best Bottles You Can Buy for Under $40

The $40 ceiling can feel like a death sentence in the tequila aisle. Below it, you’re mostly choosing between mixto headache fuel, ferociously sweet flavored products and a short list of reliable but uninspiring workhorses. Unlike the worlds of whiskey, gin and rum, where budget-friendly fare can offer quality in spades, it’s usually worth it to shell out a few more bucks when it comes to agave.

But the tides are changing. A wave of serious, 100% agave tequilas has pushed into the sub-$40 tier, and the best of them can hold their own against bottles that cost twice as much. Though you’re unlikely to find anything on par with a Fortaleza or G4 (a high bar if there ever was one), you will be able to find some damn good, and more often than not, damn underrated bottles.

The eight tequilas below were ranked using The Daily Pour Critics’ Score, our proprietary metric that aggregates our house rating with scores from the most trusted critics across the internet. The ranking is editorial, not strictly numerical, shaped by value, accessibility and how each bottle performs in its price bracket.

7. Pueblo Viejo Tequila Reposado

Check Out the Reviews

Pueblo Viejo Tequila Reposado comes out of the Tequila San Matias de Jalisco distillery, using agaves grown in the highlands of Los Altos before resting for nine months in American oak. Like much else in the Pueblo Viejo lineup, the brand’s lightly aged bottling delivers an unprecedented bang for its buck, clocking in at around $20 most places spirits are sold. Expect typical reposado flavors of butterscotch, cinnamon and agave, varied with a hint of vegetality and roasted nuttiness that picks up on the finish. There’s nothing here that reinvents the wheel, nor is there anything remotely unsavory. At its price, this is the best reposado for mixology needs, par none.

6. El Tequileno Blanco

Check Out the Reviews

El Tequileno Blanco is the only mixto tequila that we’d wholeheartedly recommend. Each bottle delivers a blend of 70% Blue Weber agave distillate and 30% piloncillo, an unrefined Mexican cane sugar with a darkened bite not unlike molasses. In the hands of El Tequileno — an over half-century-old distiller that’s long championed additive-free spirits — the combination is pulled off with a deft touch. Light, grassy flavors of mint, lime, minerality and faint vanilla make this $25 blanco a must-buy.

5. Cimarron Tequila Blanco

Check Out the Reviews

Cimarron Tequila Blanco has quietly become many a bartender’s secret weapon, and it’s not hard to see why. Made in Atotonilco, Jalisco, under the watch of maestro tequilero Enrique Fonseca at Tequileña, S.A., it uses proprietary yeasts and a proprietary screw-and-roller mill extraction method to squeeze something unique out of its highland agave. Clocking in at $25, the blanco delivers a wallop of freshly ground black pepper on the aroma and palate. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find plenty of citrus character, lingering butter and a salty note that we’d compare to capers in the best way possible.

4. Arette Tequila Blanco

Check Out the Reviews

Similar to El Tequileno, Arette Tequila Blanco is an affordable offering from a distiller otherwise best known for high-end, additive-free fare. Launched in 1986 by Eduardo and Jaime Orendain, the brand is one of few continuously owned and operated by one of the industry’s so-called founding families (others being the Cuervos, Sauzas and Camarenas). If you don’t have the time or patience for one of its top-shelf Artesanal bottlings, then Arette’s $25 Blanco should get the job done and then some. The tequila is loaded to the brim with all things lowland agave: In this case, a mix of minerality, brine and earth, evened out with sweet flecks of florarity and fresh citrus.

3. Espero Blanco

Check Out the Reviews

Espero Blanco is one of the more interesting stories in this roundup. Launched in 2021, it comes from Destiladora Juanacatlan, purportedly the only distillery in Jalisco owned and run by a cooperative of agave farmers. Better known for its jalapeño and chipotle flavored tequilas, the distiller made something compelling with Espero: a 100% agave blanco built on highland agaves and traditional brick ovens. An unusual combination of asparagus, celery and grapefruit pith dominates the nose, giving way to a palate of lemon, chamomile and pine needles. It’s earthy, almost tea-like stuff, and assuredly one of the most unique tequilas in its price range. Though production seems to have been discontinued, one-liter bottles of this criminally underrated blanco are still widely available at just $25 online.

2. Suerte Reposado Tequila

Check Out the Reviews

Suerte Reposado Tequila is the kind of bottle that makes you stop and recheck the price tag. Produced at a dedicated distillery in the Jalisco highlands, the tequila maker takes a low and slow approach, roasting its agaves for a well-above-average 56 hours before tahona-crushing for a full day. The brand’s Reposado then goes the extra mile with an additional seven months in ex-Jack Daniel’s American oak. The result is a reposado that smells like a Werther’s candy tin: caramel, nougat, vanilla and a crack of black pepper, followed by copious crème brûlée and custard creaminess on the palate. It’s the rare $35 tequila that we’d recommend for solo sipping, though that should by no means discourage you from pouring it into a margarita or Oaxacan old fashioned.

1. El Bandido Yankee Tequila Blanco

Check Out the Reviews

El Bandido Yankee Tequila Blanco is a relatively new name on the market, launched in 2021 by former NFL player Jim Bob Morris and NHL Hall of Famer Chris Chelios. Yes, we already know what you’re thinking — another celebrity-backed tequila? And an athlete-owned one at that? We’re as skeptical of the category as anyone else, but are happy to report that El Bandido delivers some pretty tasty, traditionally made stuff. Cooked in stone ovens and extracted via roller mill, the brand’s Blanco is distinguished by punchy flavors of lemon zest and white pepper, adding up to a springtime vibe right at home within a ranch water cocktail. If mixology isn’t your thing, pour this $35 blanco over a chunk of ice and you won’t be left disappointed.