Tequila
For years, tequila in the Netherlands was mostly served as a shot, with salt and lime. What a shame. Here you'll learn what tequila is, what types there are, how it tastes, and how to drink it properly.
The best-known tequila brands
Four brands, almost all from Jalisco. Each stands out for a different reason.
Don Julio
From Atotonilco el Alto, made there since 1942. The agaves are planted farther apart and given more time to grow. From the crisp Blanco to the 1942 in that tall bottle.
About Don Julio →Patrón
The agaves are slowly cooked in brick ovens, and some are crushed with a volcanic stone wheel. Each bottle is hand-finished and sealed.
About Patrón →Casamigos
It started as George Clooney and Rande Gerber's own tequila. Deliberately made smooth and sweet, for sipping neat. There's also a mezcal from Oaxaca.
About Casamigos →
Clase Azul
Reposado comes in a blue-and-white decanter, shaped and painted by hand. It is aged for eight months in ex-whisky casks, giving it a remarkably smooth taste.
About Clase Azul →Every tequila, organized by brand
4 brands and 9 flavors. Each has its own page about flavor, cocktails, and which glass to choose.
One plant, five states, and strict rules
Tequila is distilled from blue agave. This is a succulent that must grow for seven to ten years before it can be harvested. Only blue Weber agave qualifies, and it must come from a designated area: the state of Jalisco, plus designated municipalities in Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas. If it comes from somewhere else, it can’t be called tequila. Only the heart of the plant, the piña, is used. The heart is cooked or steamed until its fibers are sweet. It’s then pressed, fermented, and distilled twice.
Check the label for “100% agave.” Only then does all the sugar come from the agave itself. If it doesn’t say that, it’s a mixto. Up to 49 percent of its sugars can come from something else, usually cane sugar. You can taste the difference, and often feel it the next morning, too. Those four words on the label are the first thing to look for.
Under Mexican regulations, tequila can have an alcohol content between 35 and 55 percent. What you see in stores here is almost always 38 or 40 percent. The main difference is aging. The longer it spends in oak barrels, the darker, sweeter, and rounder it becomes.
In brief
Types of tequila, from crystal clear to aged for years in wood
Tequila types tell you just one thing: how long it has been aged in a cask. That time determines its color, how smooth it is, and what you’ll reach for the bottle to make.
Blanco
Clear as water and bottled almost immediately after distillation. Here, you taste the agave itself. Plant-like, sweet, with a peppery edge. There’s no wood to hide anything.
Reposado
Reposado means “rested.” It’s aged in oak, usually American, for at least two months and no more than a year. Straw-yellow in color, with vanilla and caramel layered over the agave. You can still taste the agave.
Añejo
Aged for one to three years in small oak barrels. Amber-colored, smooth and warm, with caramel, chocolate and dried fruit notes. After more than three years, it’s called extra añejo.
Mezcal
Mezcal is the name for the wider category of distilled agave spirits. Dozens of agave varieties can be used, usually espadín from Oaxaca. The hearts are cooked over wood in a pit in the ground, giving mezcal its instantly recognizable smoky flavor.
Cristalino is aged tequila that has been filtered until clear again. Joven is blanco tequila blended with a splash of aged tequila.
Tequila flavor, from cooked agave to pepper
Cooked agave & citrus
Sweet and vegetal. It’s most like stewed sweet potato with a little lime zest on top. Aged tequila also picks up vanilla and caramel from the barrel.
Sweet, earthy and peppery
Agave is naturally sweet, with something earthy underneath. In a blanco, a sharp peppery note cuts through. A reposado or añejo feels noticeably rounder here.
Warm and clean
A blanco has a short, warm finish; the pepper and citrus fade quickly. The longer it’s aged, the longer the oak, vanilla and cocoa linger.
This is a 100% agave blanco. A reposado scores 3 for sweetness, an añejo scores 4 for sweetness and 2 for spiciness. With mezcal, there’s also a strong smoky note.
How to drink tequila
A good 100% agave tequila doesn’t need salt, and you don’t need to knock it back in one go. Give it the same glass and the same time as a whisky.
Neat, at room temperature
Pour 3 to 4 cl into a small tulip-shaped tasting glass and let it sit for a minute. Leave out the salt, lime and ice. They were once added to hide the harshness of mixto tequila, but with a good bottle they just hide what you want to taste.
Browse tasting glasses →In a Margarita
Shake 5 cl of blanco tequila, 2 cl of triple sec and 2 cl of fresh lime juice briefly and vigorously with plenty of ice. Strain into a chilled glass. Salt belongs here, but only on half the rim. Then you can choose whether to drink from that side.
Margarita recipe →In a Paloma
Pour 5 cl of tequila over a glass full of ice. Top up with grapefruit soda, or with fresh grapefruit juice and sparkling water. Add a pinch of salt and a lime wedge, and you’re done. No tequila cocktail is more popular in Mexico, and it’s much fresher than you might think.
Paloma recipe →The best-known tequila cocktails
Tequila pairs well with citrus. That’s what the classics are built around.
Margarita
Tequila, triple sec, and lime. The cocktail that made tequila big outside Mexico.
Paloma
Tequila with grapefruit, fizz, and salt. More popular than the Margarita in Mexico.
Tequila Sunrise
Orange juice and grenadine that rises from the bottom in a colorful gradient. Sweet and sunny.
Spicy Margarita
Same base, shaken with fresh chili pepper. Spicy and addictive.The right glass for tequila
Drink it neat from a small glass that lets the agave aroma linger. For a Margarita, you’ll want a spacious glass with room for a salted rim. These are the glasses we recommend.
Questions about tequila
Can’t find your question here? Check out our cocktail recipes or get in touch.
To the cocktail recipes →What percentage alcohol is tequila?
What does 100% agave tequila mean on the label?
What’s the difference between blanco, reposado, and añejo?
What is the difference between tequila and mezcal?
Should you drink tequila with salt and lime?
Which tequila should you use for a Margarita?
Buy tequila
Want the bottle delivered straight to your door? Order tequila online from Gall & Gall. Gall & Gall has 54, 7 of which are on sale.
Prices as of November 6, 2026, as provided by Gall & Gall. You can see the current price and stock at Gall & Gall. Glazen.nl receives a small commission if you buy something through these links; you pay nothing extra. No one under 18, no alcohol.
