Good tequila under forty dollars is not a compromise. The thing that decides whether a tequila is worth drinking is printed on the label — 100% de agave — and it is a production choice, not a price tier. Every bottle on this page clears that bar, and the cheapest is under twenty-five dollars.
What you are avoiding is a mixto: a bottle that just says "Tequila", where the rules allow up to 49% of the fermentable sugars to come from cane sugar rather than agave. That is the tequila people remember badly.
What we stock under $40
| Bottle | Price | Per 1.5 oz pour |
|---|---|---|
| Cazadores Reposado Tequila 750 Ml | $24.19 | $1.51 |
| Lunazul Blanco Tequila 750Ml | $26.39 | $1.65 |
| Lunazul Reposado 750Ml | $26.39 | $1.65 |
| Astral Reposado Tequila 750Ml | $27.49 | $1.72 |
| Espolon Blanco 750Ml | $30.79 | $1.92 |
| Espolon Reposado 750Ml | $32.99 | $2.06 |
| Teremana Blanco Tequila 750Ml | $32.99 | $2.06 |
| Teremana Reposado Tequila 750Ml | $35.19 | $2.20 |
How to choose between them
If it is going into a margarita, buy a blanco. There is no wood in it to be buried under lime juice, and it is the cheapest expression of any brand.
If it is the only tequila you will own, buy a reposado. A few months in oak rounds the edges, and it works both in a cocktail and on its own.
If you are drinking it neat, spend a little more, but do not assume the expensive bottle is better. Above about sixty dollars you are frequently paying for the bottle, the celebrity on it, and the marketing.
The NOM number, if you want to go deeper
Every bottle of real tequila carries a four-digit NOM number, which identifies the distillery that made it. Several brands often share one NOM, because one distillery produces for many labels. It is not a quality mark on its own — a great and an ordinary tequila can share a NOM — but it does explain why two bottles at very different prices sometimes taste strikingly similar. If a forty-dollar bottle and an eighty-dollar bottle share a NOM, that is worth knowing before you spend the eighty.
Why the expensive bottles cost what they do
Above roughly sixty dollars, a growing share of the price is the bottle, the shelf position and whoever is on the label. Celebrity tequila is a genuine category now and some of it is good, but almost none of it is good because of the celebrity. The liquid in a twenty-six dollar 100% agave blanco and the liquid in a fifty-dollar one are far closer than the gap in price suggests.
That is not an argument against ever buying the expensive bottle. It is an argument against assuming you have to.
Additives
Mexican regulations allow small quantities of sweetener, colouring, glycerin and oak extract in tequila without any of it appearing on the label. That is legal and common, and it is why some tequilas taste smoother and sweeter than the aging alone would explain. Producers who use none of it tend to say so on the bottle, because it is a point of pride. If a tequila tastes like vanilla frosting, that is the reason.
Blanco or reposado for the money
At this price level, blanco is usually the better value. Aging costs the producer money in time, warehouse space and evaporation, so a reposado at the same price as a blanco has generally had something else trimmed to pay for the barrel. If two bottles from the same brand sit at the same price and one is aged, the unaged one is often the better liquid.
The exception is when you want one bottle for everything. Then buy the reposado and accept that you are paying a little for versatility.
The one-sentence version
Check the label says 100% de agave, pick blanco for mixing and reposado for everything else, and ignore the price above that.
On our shelf right now
Prices and stock read from our own inventory when this page was built.
