From relatively small beginnings, tequila and mezcal are building a strong UK fan base, as Sarah Miller explains...

I’ve lived in London for most of my life, but 20 years ago I made the move from the salubrious west to the distinctly gritty east. Back then, I wasn’t deterred by the bright yellow police incident sign that welcomed me to my future home, but perhaps I should have been: that flat was little more than 600m from Hackney’s infamous “Murder Mile”.

As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. Twenty years and two children later I’m still happily living here, and Time Out has just hailed a stretch of Hackney a mile to the west of what was once deemed Britain’s deadliest road, as the “mighty Mezcal Mile”. That certainly tells us something about the borough’s vibrant bar scene and the wider gentrification of East London, but what can it tell us about mezcal and tequila in the UK?

Despite East London seemingly claiming a monopoly on all things mezcal, the last few years have seen a host of Mexican bars and restaurants open across the capital. This included Fonda (a more casual sibling to Michelin-starred modern Mexican KOL), which opened in Mayfair in October and has an entire section of its drinks menu dedicated to the tequila- based Paloma.

Yet the UK’s love affair with agave is not limited to London.

According to CLASS magazine’s 2024 report, tequila is the second-highest-selling spirit in the UK’s best bars, while mezcal (a category that barely existed here 15 years ago) comes in at an impressive sixth. Undoubtedly fuelled by the immense popularity of the margarita – the best-selling cocktail “by a distance” according to the CLASS Report – and the Paloma, which was proclaimed this year’s “drink of the summer” by The Financial Times’ Alice Lascelles. And it’s a trend we can see playing out beyond the UK’s best bars too.

Margaritas are now a common sight on most cocktail menus, including at
the (in)famously cheap and popular Wetherspoons pub chain. Wetherspoons recently launched a flavoured tequila range into more than 800 venues with an exclusive cocktail served in 1 litre pitchers and combining El Sueño’s Moda Pineapple Tequila with tequila blanco, a carbonated peach-flavoured energy drink and cranberry juice.

Meanwhile, ready-to-drink margaritas in all their guises – from Tommy’s to spicy, and cucumber to hot honey (and the odd Paloma too) – are flying off the shelves and sales of RTDs containing tequila have skyrocketed by 150.5% according to NielsenIQ (NIQ). But is this cocktail craze translating to bottle sales in the off-trade?

While there is undoubtedly rapid growth in the agave spirits category – off-trade sales of tequila and mezcal grew 15% to £46.1m in the past year according to NIQ – it is important to recognise that this growth comes from a very small base, and sales still remain a tiny fraction of the total £5.6bn UK spirits category.

If that is going to change however, now appears to be the time: with demand slowing in the States, and agave prices plummeting, producers are able to shift extra stock (and advertising budgets) to burgeoning markets overseas.

Indeed we’re already starting to see evidence of this with the launch of countless new brands, the expansion of ranges in supermarkets and department stores, and the release of Pernod Ricard’s first UK ad campaign for premium tequila brand Altos. Meanwhile, Enemigo has been named the official tequila sponsor of West London’s Fulham Football Club in an industry-first move that will see exclusive cocktails served throughout the stadium on match days, as well as an Enemigo-branded bar open year-round from January 2025.

With such a significant increase in visibility and availability, as well as a wide variety of styles and a rich and authentic history to entice and engross consumers, the stage certainly appears set for agave spirits to soar.

Sarah Miller is a UK-based spirits writer, judge and consultant.
ginadingding.com