words: Aaron Goldfarb
illustration: Srishti Bhawal
Published: April 29, 2026
As with bourbon, obituaries for the tequila industry have already been queued up. The boom is supposedly over and no one is drinking it any more. Time to move onto BuzzBallz…
And yet, premium tequila offerings continue to be eagerly pursued, new brands continue to arise, Kendall Jenner is still hawking 818 at Coachella, and, yes, the tequila market continues to grow, predicted to be up to a reported $14 billion by the end of 2026.
To be fair, and again, in a tune similar to bourbon, a certain kind of get-rich-quick playbook in tequila has also clearly vanished. Sales in certain categories have softened. Many once well-promoted bottles now gather dust on shelves. Everyone is suing everyone else. And George Clooney has moved onto NA beer.
Nevertheless, the bottles we tasted for this year’s roundup made for one of the most exciting spirits tastings we’ve had in awhile. Not just numbers-wise — we tasted nearly 200 submissions — but in the amount of surprises still out there.
Many of the longtime “big” brands are as good as ever, continuing to push the envelope whether through higher proofs or in more interesting production processes. While we likewise discovered quite a few upstart brands that showed commitment to terroir, agave-sourcing, and artisan techniques that can quickly get your bottle on any true tequila fan’s radar. That’s not to mention the brands trying new forms of barrel-aging, blending, and infusions to create spirits as good as we’ve ever tried.
After tasting through everything the category has to offer at the moment, we’ve whittled it down to the 30 bottles you should actually be buying right now. Here are VinePair’s 30 best tequilas for 2026.
Why You Should Trust VinePair
Every year, VinePair conducts dozens of tastings for our “Buy This Booze” roundups, highlighting the best products across the world’s most popular wine and spirits categories. As part of this work, VinePair’s tasting team and editorial staff sample thousands of bottles annually. This ensures we have a close eye on what’s new and exciting. Crucially, it also ensures we have the context needed to distinguish the simply good from the truly remarkable, whether from quality or value-for-money perspectives — or both.
Ultimately, our mission is to offer a clear, reliable source of information for drinkers, providing an overview applicable to day-to-day buying and drinking. (Learn more about VinePair’s tastings and reviews department here.)
How We Taste
We conduct tastings as our readers would: with full awareness of the producer and, crucially, the price of each product. As such, our tastings are not performed blind.
For this tequila roundup, all samples were poured in Glencairn glasses and given five minutes to breathe before tasting. We analyzed each tequila’s aromas, flavors, texture, and finish, while appearance did not factor into the equation unless there was a notable flaw or irregularity.
How We Compiled This List
In order to provide our readers with the most comprehensive and thoroughly tested list of the best tequilas to buy, VinePair invited producers, distributors, and PR firms working on their behalf to send samples for consideration. These bottles were submitted free of charge — producers didn’t pay to submit nor did VinePair pay for the products. All were requested with the clear understanding that submission does not guarantee inclusion in the final list.
Not only would such an agreement contradict our editorial ethics and samples policy, it simply wouldn’t be possible to include everything we received. For this roundup, we tasted 180 new submissions and also retasted around a dozen other bottles that were sent to VinePair over the prior 12 months.
During tasting, we assigned a score to each product on a 100-point scale based on the quality and intensity of its aromas, flavors, texture, and finish. We then reviewed all scores and compiled an editorially driven list that meets our criteria of 30 best tequilas to buy right now. It’s important to note that these are not the 30 highest-scoring tequilas we tasted during this exercise. Instead, this list showcases the best bottles across every price and for every scenario.
The 30 Best Tequilas to Drink in 2026
The Best Tequilas Under $100
Solento Organic Tequila Añejo
Don’t dismiss the cologne-bottle packaging as the liquid inside is a bit more sophisticated. The 100 percent USDA certified organic Blue Weber agave, harvested in small batches from a single estate, gives this tequila (distilled at Tequila Las Americas) a wonderful cooked agave intensity. The 18 months of American oak barrel aging injects some maple syrup and butterscotch notes that are just enough to make this a worthwhile sipper.
Average price: $80
Rating: 91
Click here to read the original article
