Celebrity tequila brands with additives like glycerin, fake flavors

Most popular tequila brands, including celebrity labels like Casamigos and Kendall Jenner‘s 818, include secret additives like glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract and sugar-based syrups, DailyMail.com can reveal. 

Despite reading 100% agave azul on the bottle, Casamigos, famously founded by George Clooney and Randy Gerber (married to super model Cindy Crawford), is actually only about 99 percent tequila. 

Tequila makers are allowed to add four additives without telling you, so long as it’s one percent or less of what’s in the bottle.

Glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract sugar-based syrups are permitted, according to Patron’s website, which does disclose the information. Casamigos does not. 

‘Many (tequila) products are made in an extremely fast, industrial, neutral way,’ tequila expert Grover Sanschagrin told Liquor.com. 

‘Instead of using the (traditional) process to generate natural aromas and flavors, they short-circuit the process by making a cheaper product and then use additives to give it some character.’

Tequila, produced in the region with the same name in Mexico near Guadalajara, comes from the agave plant.

The fermented liquid is famously aged in oak barrels to achieve three levels of expression: silver, reposado and anejo.

As tequila matures, it starts to turn a darker hue and picks up flavors from wood barrels it’s housed in during this time.

An anejo, the type of tequila that requires the most aging, can take up to three years before it’s ready to be sold.

But time is money. For a brand like Casamigos, which is now one of the top-ten best selling tequilas in the world and the top celebrity-backed tequila, it means lost revenue if they’re sitting around waiting for it to age properly. 

Glycerin can be used to mask poor or shortened distillation, giving a fuller mouthfeel. It coats the mouth neutralizing consumer’s taste buds.

Coloring and oak extract help mask tequila that has been aged in the traditional tequila method.  

‘It makes your tequila seem older, so if you make it darker, it seems like it’s been barrel longer,’ tequila influencer Jay Baer told Daily Mail.com.

‘If you add oak extract it tastes more like wood, again, making the consumer think it’s been in the barrel longer. In many cases, consumers think that older tequila is better, therefore it’s worthy of a higher price.’

Tequila experts say larger operations outsource their blanco Tequila, buying it from a no-name mass producer before adding chemicals to it to make it taste like what their customers are used to. 

818 tequila by Kendall Jenner also has additives, but their inclusion is not disclosed to customers on their website or on the label.

The Kardashian sister hawks her product as the ‘most natural, and best tasting tequila possible’ and promises ‘only the highest quality ingredients are used in its creation,’ according to 818’s official website.

Interestingly, 818 describes its blanco as having notes of ‘key lime pie, and toasted coconut’ – none of which would naturally come from an oak barrel.

Neither Casamigos, sold by Clooney and friends to liquor giant Diageo, or 818 responded to a request for comment from DailyMail.com. 

Additives are not just in celebrity tequilas. 

It’s estimated that 70% of all tequila has secret flavor enhancers that consumers have no idea about.

‘You have the right to know what you’re putting into your body and what you’re consuming,’ Tony Boyle, CEO of additive-free Tequila Corrido told DailyMail.com.

Because additives are not declared on the label, two tequila experts living in Guadalajara launched a website called Tequila Matchmaker to help consumers learn about what they are drinking, including if there are additives present.

Sanschagrin and his wife Scarlet, who are both trained tequila sommeliers, started testing tequila brands in 2020 to award them the additive-free designation.

The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT) is the regulatory body that oversees tequila, after it took over from the Mexican government in 1994.

The CRT, run by executives from the most profitable tequila brands, uses an honor system.

‘There is a binder in every distillery where you write down if you put additives in the product or not. The CRT looks at the binder and signs off and moves on. They don’t test or smell or anything,’ Grover told Punch. 

Tequila brands are now clamoring to be included in the additive-free category, but only about 100 different tequilas, including Tequila Corrido, have so far made the cut.

‘We start from the very beginning with sourcing the agave, making that blanco and actually letting the blanco rest for 30 days, which is pretty unusual, but it’s as traditional as you can get,’ Tequila Corrido’s VP of Communications Olivia Fierro boasted. 

‘The most traditional way is costlier, and it’s not time efficient. For example, our Anejo, by the time we’re getting it in a bottle, it’s almost two years.’ 

Well-known brands like Tequila Ocho and Siete Leguas have earned the additive free designation as well. 

A handful of celebrity tequilas got the nod as well, including Santo Fino, started by rocker Sammy Hagar and chef Guy Fieri.

‘Consumers are picking additive free tequila over tequila with additives,’ Baer explained. 

‘As of April, additive-free tequila is 6% of the tequila market. That’s a lot of money. These larger brands are losing market share to these newer additive-free brands and they would prefer that not to be the case.’ 

Tequila Matchmaker even issued stickers that brands can add to their bottles letting customers know they are additive free. 

But don’t think this hasn’t ruffled some feathers. 

The Sanschagrins’ website, which claims to be the most extensive tequila database in the world, has pitted them against the CRT– called the ‘tequila cartel’ by Baer.

‘They (CRT) have taken some actions, that I think is far beyond what’s necessary, to try and kill the additive-free moment in the cradle,’ he stated.

The tequila organization has come out against Tequila Matchmaker’s Additive-Free Alliance program. 

‘We consider that any scheme offered in the market to “certify,” “verify” or “confirm” in any language that a certain trademark is “additives free” represents an act contrary to good customs and practices and induces error or confusion to the Tequila consumer,’ the organization said in January.

Last month, the couple’s home was raided in the dead of night by Mexican federal authorities, according to Mexican media. 

Armed police, with a warrant that included a complaint by the CRT, claimed that the Sanschagrins were using their home as an ‘adulterated tequila factory.’

While no one was arrested, some bottles of tequila were seized.

The CRT did not respond to a request from comment from DailyMail.com, but their representatives were present at the April raid.

Despite the pushback, the CRT announced it would be creating its own additive-free designation earlier this year. 

Specifics on how brands will be certified as additive-free have not been made public by CRT, but Baer explained a committee has been formed to start looking at the process.

‘The committee is primary compromised of master distillers that have not participated in the Tequila Matchmaker program,’ Baer added.

‘As I understand it, that committee has not made a lot of progress. My prediction is that nothing will happen. CRT will continue to pay lip service to their own desire to create a program, but no program will actually be forth-coming because the organizations that run the CRT really would prefer not to talk about additives at all.’