Tequila Industry by the Numbers: US Market Data and Trends

Tequila has become one of the most commercially significant spirits categories in the United States, surpassing long-dominant categories in both volume and revenue growth. This page examines the scale of the US tequila market, how demand is structured across price tiers and product types, where the numbers diverge from the popular narrative, and what the data actually reveals about where the category is headed.

Definition and scope

The US tequila market, for measurement purposes, encompasses all tequila legally imported under the Denomination of Origin for Tequila — meaning spirit produced exclusively in designated Mexican states, primarily Jalisco, from Agave tequilana Weber (blue variety). That regulatory fence matters commercially: it creates a finite, geographically bounded supply chain that shapes pricing dynamics in ways that grape-based spirits simply don't face.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) tracks US spirits by volume in 9-liter cases and by supplier revenue. By 2022, tequila and mezcal combined surpassed American whiskey to become the second-largest spirits category by revenue in the US, generating $5.4 billion in supplier revenue (DISCUS 2022 Annual Report). That figure excludes mezcal in isolation, which remains a fraction of tequila volume — roughly 600,000 nine-liter cases annually compared to tequila's 30+ million.

The category's rise isn't uniform. It splits cleanly between 100 percent agave tequila — where the entire fermentable sugar comes from blue agave — and mixto tequila, which permits up to 49 percent non-agave sugars. Premium and super-premium growth has been almost entirely in the 100 percent agave segment, while mixto has slowly ceded shelf and bar space.

How it works

Market data on tequila flows through three main channels: import records from the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), supplier-reported revenue compiled by DISCUS, and retail scanner data from services like NielsenIQ and IWSR (International Wine & Spirits Research).

The TTB's Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) database tracks every approved product entering the US market, which gives researchers a running tally of brand proliferation. The number of active tequila labels registered with the TTB grew dramatically through the 2010s and into the 2020s, reflecting both established Mexican producers expanding their US portfolios and the wave of celebrity tequila brands — a category that has introduced dozens of new entrants since 2013.

service level follow a structure the industry tracks carefully:

  1. Value — Under $20 per 750ml; dominated by mixto and high-volume 100% agave brands
  2. Standard — $20–$34.99; the largest volume segment by cases sold
  3. Premium — $35–$54.99; fastest-growing tier by percentage change
  4. High-end premium — $55–$99.99; driven by aged expressions like añejo and extra añejo
  5. Super-premium/Ultra — $100+; includes luxury limited releases and cristalino tequilas

IWSR data shows that the premium-and-above tiers now account for more than 50 percent of tequila's total US revenue despite representing a smaller share of total case volume — a dynamic known in the industry as "premiumization."

Common scenarios

The data produces some counterintuitive pictures worth examining. Blanco — the unaged expression — is actually the volume backbone of the category. Blanco tequila outsells reposado and aged expressions combined, largely because of its role in cocktails. The margarita remains the most ordered cocktail in the United States by most on-premise tracking measures, which means bartenders are moving enormous quantities of blanco regardless of what's happening in the sipping whiskey conversation.

The on-premise (bars and restaurants) versus off-premise (retail) split in tequila also differs from whiskey. Tequila over-indexes in on-premise channels relative to its retail share, a function of cocktail dominance. When on-premise volume collapsed during the pandemic period of 2020, tequila's off-premise retail sales surged — DISCUS data shows the category posted double-digit supplier revenue growth in both 2020 and 2021 despite the channel disruption, suggesting deeply embedded consumer demand rather than occasion-dependent purchasing.

Celebrity involvement accelerated this trajectory. Casamigos — founded in 2013 and sold to Diageo for up to $1 billion in 2017 — demonstrated that a brand built on personality and premium positioning could scale to millions of cases. That transaction triggered what analysts now describe as the "celebrity tequila gold rush." A broader look at celebrity tequila brands reveals how that pattern replicated across the category.

Decision boundaries

Where the numbers get genuinely complicated is at the intersection of supply and demand growth. Blue agave takes 7 to 10 years to mature before harvest by a jimador. That biological clock means today's planting decisions won't affect supply until the early 2030s — and the agave sustainability conversation sits directly inside this supply risk. Overproduction of agave led to price crashes in the early 2000s; underplanting relative to demand drove agave prices from roughly 3–4 Mexican pesos per kilogram to over 20 pesos per kilogram between 2016 and 2019, according to industry tracking by the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT).

For a full picture of how these market forces intersect with production geography and tequila regions, the tequila industry statistics reference pulls together the regulatory and commercial threads. The broader tequila landscape, from production to palate, is mapped across tequilaauthority.com.

References

Read Next

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