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Here is a list of the best cheap tequilas that we choose:
- Best Blanco: Corazón Blanco
- Best Reposado: Cazadores Reposado
- Best Sipping: Milagro Silver
- Best Budget: Camarena Reposado
- Best For Margaritas: Herradura Silver
- Best For Paloma: Olmeca Altos Plata
- Best For Tequila And Tonic: Espolòn Tequila Blanco
- Best For Old Fashioned: Mi Campo Reposado
- Bets Overall: El Jimador Silver Tequila
- Best White: Arette Blanco Tequila
- Best For Shots: Agavales Blanco Tequila
- Best For Sipping: Bribon Reposado Tequila
- Best Anejo: Lunazul Anejo Tequila
To know tequila is to love it, but occasionally you’re looking for a cheap bottle that tastes fairly close to the really good stuff. If you need the liquor for mixing drinks or want to take shots of it (after it has been chilled, of course), there is nothing wrong with buying a less expensive bottle. And given that you are on a tight budget, it is best to buy a bottle of tequila that will be most effective for your intended use.
Over the rocks, sipping it? Paloma or margarita muddled with it? Doing any or all of the aforementioned? We have a tequila bottle that meets all of these criteria and then some.
Keep reading.
Table of Contents
Best Cheap Tequila
Best Blanco: Corazón Blanco
“I’m always blown away by the complexity of aromas and flavors in Corazón Blanco,” says The Common House in Virginia’s beverage director is Erin Scala. “You would have a hard time failing to recognize the superior quality if you blind-tasted this against anything else in the $30 and under range.” The Moxy South Beach’s restaurant manager, Carlos Lopez, concurs. “Corazón Tequila is single estate-grown and handpicked for over 130 years by the same family,” he says. “[It is beautifully crafted and can be appreciated with just one rock.”
Best Reposado: Cazadores Reposado
The brightest of the spirit’s assertive agave notes are muted in reposado tequila, which is aged for two months to a year in oak barrels. The reposado from Cazadores is one of the category’s most approachable tequilas. “Rested just long enough to have its edges sanded off, [Cazadores] comes without the somewhat medicinal after-notes that can sometimes overwhelm more delicate cocktail ingredients,” says Clay Tolbert of Charlottesville, Virginia’s The Alley Light.
Best Sipping: Milagro Silver
“Cheap tequilas are often very harsh,” says Precinct Kitchen + Bar in Boston’s general manager Matthew Sentas. “But Milagro is a low-cost tequila that is easy to drink, smooth, and agave-forward. The silver, reposado, and añejo are delicious and reasonably priced.” A beautifully crafted blanco tequila can become your go-to sipper, as demonstrated by the silver expression.
Best Budget: Camarena Reposado
Look, if we’re recommending a “best budget” entry in a “cheap tequilas” roundup, that had better be a bottle that’s going to over-deliver on price in a big way. Fortunately, Familia Camarena’s reposado accomplishes this. This mellow reposado, which is aged for a minimum of 60 days and is produced by a family that has been in the tequila business since 1860, is produced. The result is a tequila that is clear and delicate and is simply impossible to fault. Based entirely on blue Weber agave, this silky repos works well in a well-made margarita but is also elegant enough to serve neat to your guests; they won’t suspect that you probably paid less than $20 for the bottle.
Best For Margaritas: Herradura Silver
“Herradura is well known and [worth it] for the price,” says Havana 1957 on Espaola Way bar director Reniel Garcia. “Fruity and spicy, great for sipping or adding to your favorite margarita.” Herradura’s silver tequila is aged in oak for 45 days, giving it soft flavors to complete this traditional cocktail, making it especially flavorful in a margarita.
Best For Paloma: Olmeca Altos Plata
“This is great quality and affordable tequila that stands out really well with various cocktails,” says Danilo Bozovic of the Miami rooftop restaurant and bar Sugar. When combined with tequila, lime juice, and grapefruit soda to make a Paloma cocktail, the Olmeca Altos blanco, which is made from blue Weber agave grown at elevations of nearly 7000 feet in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, excels.
Best For Tequila And Tonic: Espolòn Tequila Blanco
“This is 100 percent agave tequila with a great history,” says Birmingham, Alabama’s Automatic Seafood & Oysters has Jose Medina Camacho working as the bar manager. “I adore it neat with a glass of sparkling rose or in a tequila tonic. Its homage to Mexican culture, as seen in the artwork on the bottles and the proportion of juice in each one, is one of my favorite aspects of it.”
Best For Old Fashioned: Mi Campo Reposado
Mi Campo is unique because it’s a reasonably priced tequila that’s still made using very traditional techniques. For instance, the agave is traditionally pressed after cooking using a huge stone wheel called a tahona, a practice that many believe extracts more flavor. “[Mi Campo also] uses different barrel finishing than a lot of other brands,” says Timothy Slane, a bar manager in Edmond, Oklahoma. “The reposado is aged [for three months] in wine barrels, and the flavors it develops make it perfect for cocktails or casual drinking. It tastes great in a straight tequila Old Fashioned or an Oaxacan Old Fashioned with mole bitters.”
Bets Overall: El Jimador Silver Tequila
This 100% agave tequila from Jalisco rests for 40 days before being packaged and delivered to thirsty consumers. Since it is one of the most popular brands in Mexico, this produces a crisp tequila that is especially good in cocktails. A paloma pairs particularly well with flavors of roasted agave, lemon, and honey. The farmers, known as Jimadors, who tenderly cultivate and harvest all the agave in Jalisco, Mexico, are honored by the name El Jimador.
“Probably the best inexpensive tequila for the money is the El Jimador Blanco,” says Director of food and beverage at Los Angeles’ Scratch Bar & Kitchen, Gavin Humes. “While still having enough oomph to hold up in cocktails, it is smooth enough for shooting. The price can’t be beat, even though I might not be hankering for a glass of it on the rocks.”
Best White: Arette Blanco Tequila
“I like tequilas that have a strong family history and [companies who] choose to do the right thing for the land and the people,” says Dean Hurst, the Datz Restaurant Group’s beverage director. Tequila, a town outside of Guadalajara, carefully crafts each bottle. The Orendain brothers, who are descended from some of the nation’s first tequila makers, continue to manage the brand. Despite this, the tequila retains the same qualities as it did decades ago, with notes of jackfruit, lime zest, and green pepper.
“Give your margarita some punch with Arette Blanco, a steal for a cheaper tequila,” says Hurst. He also recommends the distillery’s reposado (also budget-friendly) because it’s “a great sipper and adds complexity to the paloma cocktail.”
Best For Shots: Agavales Blanco Tequila
Hope Ray, a bartender at The Holler in Bentonville, Arkansas, reaches for Agavales Blanco because it often “runs under $20, so you can’t go wrong with this in your home bar.” The inexpensive bottle has a spicy 110 proof, so each sip will have a bit of heat. It isn’t as elegant in cocktails as some other options because it is on the more affordable end of the price spectrum.
That said, “it makes a great margarita and an easy shooter,” says Ray. “This bottle is the one to choose if you want to please everyone.” If you want to enjoy it later, think about freezing it. The colder temperatures will counteract the higher-proof burn of taking shots with this tequila by chilling it.
Best For Sipping: Bribon Reposado Tequila
Although Jessica Fallon, general manager of Ladybirds in Houston, Texas, says she prefers drinking it on the rocks, the crystal-clear Bribon is unaged and has vegetal earthy notes that work well in a margarita, paloma, or old-fashioned.
“Bribon is a solid tequila for its price,” says Fallon. “I suggest this tequila to people who are unfamiliar with agave drinks because it is approachable and has a flavorful finish.”
The venerable Casa Don Roberto distillery, founded by Spanish immigrants in Tequila town in 1924, produces bottles of Bribon.
Best Anejo: Lunazul Anejo Tequila
Finding anejo tequila on a tight budget is challenging. Tequila must age in barrels for between one and three years in order to be designated as anejo, so each bottle takes a lot of time and effort to produce. As a result, the liquid has a more sophisticated flavor akin to drinking whiskey or cognac.
Fortunately, Lunazul provides a unique, cost-effective choice in this category. Pure agave flavors fill the simple, elegant bottle, which is smooth and well-balanced. The seven-year-old agave plants used to make the 100% agave tequila are first roasted, then distilled, and finally rested for 12 to 18 months in previously used bourbon barrels. The oak brings mellow smoky notes and cozy vanilla spices. A spicy twist on an old-fashioned can be made by mixing it with some agave syrup and Angostura bitters.
Read about
What To Look For When Buying Cheap Tequila
Intention
How will you be utilizing the tequila? Are you going to incorporate it into a margarita or another tequila-based cocktail? Do you prefer to drink it or take a shot of it? Tequila that is reasonably priced works well for all of these, though obviously some are better than others. Find one that fits your needs, has the flavor you like, and is within your price range.
Taste
Your palate will influence the type of tequila you choose to purchase. There are many different types of tequila, and how it is made, including whether it is aged or not, what kind of agave is used, and what other ingredients are added, affects the flavor of this liquor. When tasting it, you might detect hints of citrus, honey, herbs, spices, and floral notes.
Ingredients
While some tequilas are additive-free, others contain things like corn syrup, sugar substitutes, or food coloring. Fruits and herbs may also have been added. For information on the ingredients, read the label.
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FAQs
Do Inexpensive Tequilas Cost More Than Other Budget-friendly Booze?
Yes, they can be if made entirely from blue Weber agave, and this has everything to do with the unique constraints of working with agave. Tequila is a spirit that takes at least seven years to mature, as opposed to spirits like whiskey or vodka, which are made from plants that produce a crop every year. As a result, producers are less able to react swiftly to shifting market trends. Several well-publicized agave shortages in recent years have also shown the importance of scarcity in the booming agave spirits industry.
Why Do Aged Tequilas Cost More Than Fresh Ones?
The time and the barrels make up the two parts of the answer. Even if they are used barrels from whiskey distilleries, oak barrels are expensive, and the cost of high-quality cooperage is reflected in the price of your reposado or añejo. Añejos must age for at least a year, and reposados must age for at least 60 days. Between the income lost during the waiting period and the actual spirit lost to evaporation, tequila will inevitably get more expensive the older it gets—a characteristic it shares with nearly every other aged spirit.
What Is A “Mixto” Tequila?
While many tequilas at varying price points will boast that they’re made of 100 percent blue Weber agave (including all of those featured in this roundup), the law technically only requires that agave compose 51 percent of any given tequila, and a bottle that’s not entirely made from agave is known as a “mixto.” Producers employ various types of sugar to make up the remaining percentage, including high fructose corn syrup and molasses—although sometimes a lightly processed Mexican cane sugar known as piloncillo is what’s used. If a tequila’s bottle does not explicitly state that it is made entirely of agave, as is the case with the bottom-shelf brands that may have caused you trauma during college, then you can assume that the spirit is a mixto.
What Constitutes A Tequila Shot Properly?
Put some salt on your hand, lick it off, down a shot of tequila, and take a big bite out of a lime wedge.
Which Tequila Varieties Are Available?
Tequila comes in five different varieties: extra añejo, añejo, joven, and blanco. While añejo and extra añejo are aged the longest and are the top-shelf preferred sipping tequilas, blanco is an accessible, entry-level tequila that is white in color and aged the least, if at all.
What Goes Well With Tequila?
When it comes to tequila, a wedge or squeeze of lime is a requirement. This liquor has a wide range of mixers, including club soda, seltzer, grapefruit juice, coconut water, and other sodas, such as ginger, coke, and lemon-lime.
Final Words
Tequila cannot be produced quickly. After being harvested, agave plants require roasting, distillation, and resting for months to years, depending on the style. Agave plants take seven to twelve years to reach maturity. You can find bottles that fit your budget, and not all high-quality tequilas are only meant for shooting. For sipping and mixing margaritas, sangritas, and bloody marys, several brands make excellent, reasonably priced tequila.
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