When it comes to cocktails, agave-based spirits are outperforming every other spirits category in leading UK bars. A new insight report from Wilde Toast, however, finds that the likes of tequila and mezcal are still not fulfilling their true potential, with staff both unconvinced about new tequila styles and eager for more technical, brand-neutral training.
This month’s Día de los Muertos celebrations provide the on-premise channel with another fantastic seasonal opportunity to promote agave-based spirits. Why wouldn’t you want to throw a party or run a promotion to champion one of the few alcohol sub-categories that remains in growth across the country, jumping nearly a quarter in volume terms in 2025, according to the Consejo Regulador de Tequila (CRT)?
So, as the promotional tequila cocktail flyers, themed barware and papier-mâché skeleton figurines get dusted off for another year, now seems a good time to take a deep dive into how some of the leading bartenders in the UK view this fast-growing spirit category. Are agave spirits still the hottest ticket in town, or has the boom period passed, making way for a smarter, more nuanced business?
Based on in-depth interviews with over 30 top bartenders and supported by proprietary AI menu analysis across 40 leading UK venues, drinks marketing, strategy & activation agency Wilde Toast’s latest bartender insight report offers some intriguing answers to these questions and more.
Category growth, but narrow consumer repertoires need widening
The report captures an intriguing snapshot of agave spirits’ progress in the UK. It’s a business propelled by a decade of celebrity-fuelled growth but still held back by a lack of broad category education and missed premiumisation opportunities.
One reassuring headline, however, is that the tequila category remains in growth, with 76% of bartenders saying category health is increasing.
In fact, four out of five bartenders say that tequila-based cocktails are growing in popularity, faster than any other spirit. There’s good news too for mezcal, tequila’s smaller, smokier cousin. In leading UK bars, there are now more mezcal brands stocked than there are cognac brands (52 versus 47).
“Mexican spirits are really on the up at the moment,” confirms Tom Norris, head bartender at Liverpool’s Maray Dockside, one of the city’s standout dining spots. “Tequila has really changed its image from cheap, nasty and with little plastic sombreros on the lid. At the same time, mezcal has changed its image from a niche category for pretentious bartenders to something that is much more accessible to the masses.”
Such is tequila’s progress, in fact, that perhaps some venues are under-representing the category in terms of listings. The report discovered that tequila has 98 listed brands across the 40 establishments– fewer than leading categories such as rum (205), Scotch whisky (868), and gin (188), but sitting above vodka (78).
Interestingly, 68% of bartenders believe their tequila range is “about right”, with only 16% thinking they are understocked. “We haven’t increased our tequila selection to keep up with consumer interest,” admits Rebecca Pink-Swann, senior bartender & events coordinator at the London-based Swift Bars Group. “Part of this is that the majority of guests still don’t request specific brands– they just want rail.”
Consumer interest in tequila cocktails remains high, but guests’ willingness to make do with the in-hour pour is holding the category back in terms of profitability. Indeed, only one in three bartenders are regularly able to successfully upsell a guest’s tequila order.
A million reasons to celebrate – Olmeca brings Day of the Dead to life
With a major global sales milestone under its belt, Olmeca Tequila is celebrating in style, unveiling its first-ever Day of the Dead limited-edition collection in a vibrant tribute to its Mexican roots.
There’s plenty to celebrate at Olmeca Tequila. Having surpassed the landmark one million nine-litre cases mark in 2025, the brand is riding a wave of global momentum. And what better way to mark the occasion than by embracing one of Mexico’s most colourful and meaningful cultural traditions?
Enter Olmeca’s first-ever Day of the Dead limited-edition collection, a bold, playful celebration of Día de los Muertos that sees three of the brand’s signature expressions – Olmeca Silver, Olmeca Reposado and Olmeca Dark Chocolate – receive a striking limited-edition makeover, with vibrant new bottle designs inspired by the colour, creativity and cultural significance of the Mexican tradition.
At the heart of the collection is an exclusive collaboration with Mexican-American artist José Pulido, whose family roots trace back to Arandas, Jalisco, home to Olmeca’s distillery. Drawing inspiration from the rich symbolism of Día de los Muertos, Pulido has transformed each of the three expressions into a miniature work of art, bursting with colourful characters, traditional Cempasúchil flowers, candles and sugar-skull-inspired illustrations.
The result? Three distinctive, collectable designs that bring a fresh personality to Olmeca Silver, Reposado and Dark Chocolate, while capturing the joy, creativity and spirit of connection at the heart of this much-loved Mexican celebration.
For Olmeca, the launch also marks an exciting chapter in a remarkable growth story. Established in 1967 and now enjoyed in more than 80 countries, the brand has gone from strength to strength, doubling its total portfolio volume between 2020 and 2025 and cementing its position as a major player in the global premium tequila category.
With Mexican culture continuing to inspire everything from food and music to cocktails and celebrations around the world, Olmeca’s limited-edition collection brings together cultural heritage and contemporary creativity in unmistakably bold fashion.
Available from early October across selected international markets, the eye-catching 70cl bottles offer consumers a chance to discover, enjoy and collect a piece of the celebration, while giving retailers and bars an exciting way to bring the spirit of Día de los Muertos to shelves and back bars.
One million cases, three unique designs and a celebration bursting with colour. Here’s to the next chapter of Olmeca.
Bartender interest out of step with category training
The bartender community retains a healthy interest in agave spirits, especially around less well-known categories such as sotol and raicilla. When surveyed, 36% rate staff interest as “above average” and 44% as “strong”, but 100% of bartenders agree that their desire to learn about tequila is higher than the availability of training across the category.
The conclusion to draw from this worrying stat is a damning one. Too many brands are spending heavily on surface-level marketing when what the trade is craving is deep, brand-agnostic, technical education. Only 32% of bartenders rate themselves as “very knowledgeable” about basic aspects of the category, areas such as styles, production, serves and history, while only 8% can explain the more complex difference between “highland” and “lowland” tequilas.
“It can be challenging to receive impartial information surrounding agave as a lot of training is driven by larger brands and producers, which can often come with a more romanticised version of events surrounding their specific production methods and brand-specific tasting notes, rather than opportunities to compare multiple brands across the category in a singular space,” complains Jay Hardy, bartender at Manchester’s art deco-inspired Schofield’s cocktail bar.
“Bartenders want to know why the liquid tastes the way it does – the ovens, the wild yeast, the lack of additives – so they can explain it to guests,” agrees Daniel Mesa, the owner of Familia Mesa Tequila, an additive-free, 100% blue Weber agave tequila brand with a growing presence in the European on-premise. “That’s more useful than another tasting note.”
Genuine sustainability matters to bartenders
One of the most consequential findings of the report is that sustainability and agave farmer welfare are becoming significant tequila quality cues for bartenders, not just ESG talking points. Seventy-two per cent identify “production transparency” as an important factor in a great tequila, while 84% say sustainability and farmer-welfare credentials influence the brands they recommend.
“Forward-thinking distilleries are now recycling their leftover agave fibre waste, turning it into clean energy to power their ovens and protect the environment,” says Andrei Popescu, head bartender at 180 House-Soho House, a private members club in central London. “It’s all about making tequila more authentic, honest and green.”
Armando Gonzalez, the MD for the US at Tequila Centinela, a family-owned tequila house founded in 1904, adds: “Sustainability carries more weight when it’s backed by specific, verifiable practices, not just a general claim on the label.
“For example, Tequila Centinela’s production is built around details a bartender can check and repeat to a guest: deep well water, traditionally cooked agave and a fermentation process that uses cooked agave juice rather than honey, with nothing added after distillation.
“These are the kinds of details that give bartenders something tangible to speak to beyond the name on the bottle.”
Celebrity tequilas rate poorly
Green credentials are now an astonishing 14 times more likely to influence a bartender’s perception of a tequila brand than celebrity ownership or endorsement. Granted, celebrity-owned tequilas have flooded the market over the past decade, hogging a lot of the category’s presence on both traditional and social media platforms, but they are viewed with considerable hostility by the on-premise, with only 4% of the surveyed bartenders equating “great tequila” status with celebrity ownership.
“There are some dark marks of the celebrity tequilas coming in and overshadowing the work of some truly great distilleries,” argues Tom Byrne, bar manager at the Holborn branch of The Hoxton, a chain of boutique hotels.
“That’s not to say all celebrity tequila is bad, but it has caused the market to become quite flooded.”
The great disconnect – liquid versus brand
As for what makes a great tequila, bartenders overwhelmingly point to liquid-first factors, such as “flavour profile/agave character” (100%), “production transparency” (72%), and those previosuly-discussed “sustainability credentials” (56%).
Yet, when bartenders are forced to choose what separates a good bottle from a best shelf-seller on the back bar, 36% fall back on “brand heritage”, “story”, or “reputation”.
The takeaway here is that while liquid-led bartenders, who are passionate about brand authenticity and transparency, might frown on celebrity-backed or deep-pocketed multinational-owned brands, they also begrudgingly recognise that brand recognition is still often a sales clincher for less well-educated guests.
Blanco’s blanket-status a category problem
Due to its versatility and availability, blanco is by far the most popular agave-based spirit style, accounting for 41% of listings across 40 venues. Only one in three bartenders admit to asking guests what style of tequila they would prefer when making a recommendation, missing out on potential upselling opportunities.
Moreover, one in two bartenders have no consistent rule for matching different styles of tequila to specific serves. Brand owners could do much worse, therefore, than give their on-premise partners clear flavour-led advice for each of their expressions to ensure venues can build better tequila serve strategies.
Bartenders’ differing views on cristalino and rosado
The report highlights that tequila’s trendy cristalino and rosado styles are generating significant curiosity among UK bartenders.
“It’s interesting to see how different producers approach these styles and how the categories continue to evolve,” says Norbert Drozdowski, bartender at Cornwall’s celebrated Rick Stein Seafood Restaurant. “I also think they’re great conversation starters behind the bar.”
Rosado is seen by some as a potential bridge for wine drinkers entering the category, while cristalino is mentioned as a style that could develop an important role in contemporary nightlife and bottle-service occasions.
That enthusiasm is tempered, however, by concerns over availability and scepticism about why some brands are launching these products and what they add to the category. For instance, a substantial 44% of bartenders think rosado tequila’s popularity is due to its colour, rather than its taste.
Spicy margarita rules but new wave of cocktails beckon
On the crucial topic of cocktail trends, the spicy margarita appears to have overtaken the classic margarita in terms of current performance and future potential. In fact, an overwhelming 96% of bars are enjoying strong sales of spicy margaritas, outperforming margaritas at 84%.
Interestingly, the report also pinpoints a second wave of historic and reemerging serves, tipping them for future success. They include the ranch water, a low-sugar tequila highball; the ‘swicy’ el diablo, a classic mid-century pink-hued highball cocktail; the batanga, another highball, often described as Mexico’s answer to the cuba libre; and the toreador, a potent, pre-margarita classic, ripe for rediscovery.
“The return of the toreador, el diablo, batanga and ranch water – or agua ranchera – is a healthy sign for the category,” says Tequila Centinela’s Gonzalez. “Each one has a different story and a different structure: the el diablo’s ginger and cassis, the batanga’s cola and lime over ice, and the ranch water’s simplicity with sparkling mineral water.
“What they share is that they give the tequila room to show its character,” he continues. “Once the tequila is doing that much of the work, its production and flavour profile matter even more, so a well-crafted, agave-forward tequila with a clear production story is a natural fit.
“We’d like to see bartenders keep pushing these serves, and we’re glad to help them learn the history behind each one.”
For Mesa Tequila’s namesake brand, the paloma and margarita still serve as useful entry points to the world of tequila cocktails, particularly the paloma due to its popularity in Mexico. “At the same time, I’m open to the idea that drinks like the el diablo or toreador could bring people deeper into the category. The cleaner the tequila, the more those drinks can show what’s in the bottle instead of covering it up.”
If there’s one overriding message from Wilde Toast’s report, it’s that the agave-based spirits sub-category is maturing but suffering from a lack of in-depth knowledge by both bartenders and guests.
A more thought-out approach to upselling by bartenders and deeper, more transparent education by brands owners could work wonders.
For more information on this bartender insight report, click here to email Wilde Toast.
Some people remain with us in a song, around a table, or in a story someone tells again and we listen to as if for the first time. In Mexico, we know how to make room for that presence. La Catrina was born from this understanding of life: honouring where we come from, remembering those who accompany us, and celebrating that we are here today.
We created La Catrina at La Cofradía, where our name expresses what we want to build: a fellowship. People bringing their craft, ideas, and sensitivity together to shape something they can share with pride. La Catrina carries that intention. It is our way of welcoming others to the table and bringing a piece of our culture into new hands, conversations, and places.
We chose a figure that reminds us that, beneath appearances, we share something essential. Our Catrina has colour, character, and memory. She speaks of our origins and the possibility of giving them new expression without losing touch with what gave them meaning.
That is why the Day of the Dead holds special meaning for us. It invites us to remember people by name, give thanks, and gather. That same intention accompanies La Catrina throughout the year: making space for the people and stories we want to keep close.
In 2026, this story brought another reason for pride: La Catrina Reposado and Rosé received silver medals at the WSWA ACCESS Wine & Spirits Tasting Competition. For those of us involved in their creation, this means seeing our work travel far and find recognition beyond home.
Through both expressions, we invite you to discover a brand that can accompany conversations long after a meal, inspire a cocktail, or become a thoughtful gift. We want every bottle to spark curiosity about its tequila and the story it represents.
Sharing La Catrina means sharing what La Cofradía means to us: creating together, nurturing our bonds, and welcoming others with the same warmth we offer our own. It is a spirit of belonging we carry everywhere.
Because there is a story to remember and a life worth celebratin
