Additive-free tequila means tequila made without the caramel colouring, oak extract, glycerin or sugar syrup that Mexico's standard allows, up to 1% by weight, with no label disclosure. It is not a legal category, and the best-known list came down in 2024. In Australia in 2027, we would start with Don Fulano and Cimarrón, whose distillery was on that list.
Interest in the term has jumped in Australia over the past year, yet most of what you will find is American, and much of it is out of date. This page covers what the term can and cannot tell you, what has changed, what to expect in 2027, and the bottles we would buy, on our own recommendation and a public record.
Quick picks
- Don Fulano Blanco: a blanco from highland agave, NOM 1146. The producer says it is made from three ingredients.
- Cimarrón Blanco: from the same distillery, with cooked agave, citrus and black pepper. The one to mix with.
- Don Fulano Reposado: rested in French oak, if you want to try an aged style.
What does additive-free tequila mean?
Start with what is allowed. Mexico's tequila standard, NOM-006, in the regulator's English text, describes a step called mellowing, or abocado: a "procedure to soften the flavor" by adding one or more of caramel colouring, natural oak or holm oak extract, glycerin and sugar-based syrup. Together they "must not be more than 1%" of the tequila's total weight before bottling. You will often read 1% by volume in American articles. The standard says weight.
Additive free is not a term in that standard. It is shorthand, used by drinkers and by some producers, for tequila that skips the mellowing step, leaving agave, yeast, water and any time in oak to do the work. These are adjustments to colour and flavour, and that is all we are talking about here.
The standard treats the classes differently, which many guides miss.
| Class | What the standard says | Ageing |
|---|---|---|
| Blanco or silver | "Without additives" | Optional, under two months |
| Joven or gold | Blanco mixed with aged tequila, or with mellowing ingredients | Not required |
| Reposado | "May be enhanced by mellowing" | At least two months in oak |
| Añejo | "May be enhanced by mellowing" | At least one year in oak |
| Extra añejo | "May be enhanced by mellowing" | At least three years in oak |
So on paper, this is mainly a question about aged tequila. Experience Agave reads the rules the same way, saying only water may be added to a blanco after distillation since February 2013. Taste Tequila calls the wording "confusing" and says it appears to allow additives in a blanco. We cannot settle that from Australia. Our reposado and añejo guide explains the aged classes in more detail.
Is 100% agave the same as additive free?
No. They answer different questions. The standard's "100% agave" category concerns the sugar that goes into fermentation: it "may not be enhanced with sugars other than those obtained from" blue agave. It says nothing to bar mellowing afterwards. So a bottle can honestly say 100% agave and still be mellowed within the 1% limit. Look for 100% agave anyway, as our blanco tequila guide and tequila buying guide explain. It just will not answer this question.
Why don't labels tell you?
Three reasons, and the third is Australian.
- Mexico does not require it. The list of things the standard requires on a label does not include mellowing ingredients.
- Mexico has barred the phrase. The Spirits Business reports that the government ruled on 6 August 2024 that brands cannot use the term on labels, and the standard already prohibits text that misleads or confuses consumers. A bottle with no such wording tells you nothing either way.
- Australia does not require ingredients on spirits. The Food Standards Code exempts a "standardised alcoholic beverage", a group that includes spirits, from having a statement of ingredients. So the Australian back label will not help.
Who checks additive-free tequila?
Nobody official, and that is the heart of the argument.
The independent programme. In 2020, Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin of Tequila Matchmaker launched what became the Additive Free Alliance. It was opt-in and renewed yearly. VinePair described inspectors comparing what came off the stills and out of the barrels with what went into the bottle, with access to all areas of a distillery. The founders said brands paid a yearly fee after the first year. So the people being checked paid for the check, which is worth knowing when you weigh it.
The regulator. The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT) certifies tequila in Mexico and says it alone can do so. It announced an additive-free mark of its own in March 2023, but by April 2025 The Spirits Business was describing that mark as on hold or axed, depending on who it asked. The CRT's court complaint against the Alliance argues there is "no scientific way" to certify a tequila as additive free and calls the phrase misleading. Brands started getting warning letters in September 2024.
What happened to the list. In October 2024, VinePair reported, Tequila Matchmaker removed every tequila from its additive-free listings to protect brands from their own regulator. In March 2025 the CRT sued the Alliance in a Florida court. In May 2025 the Alliance responded, The Spirits Business reported, that it "never claimed to be a certification body". We do not track that litigation, so read those as dated events and not as the end of the story.
Where that leaves you. Copies of the list are still online, Doc Agave's among them, with entries dated no later than 2023. Read them as history. The Alliance's own brand list page is live, but when we checked in November 2026 its table showed no brands, and it says the program "does not constitute a form of certification or confirmation". Some retailer pages still call their own copy a verified list. We could not find a live list from the programme itself. Tequila Matchmaker, now Agave Matchmaker, instead runs a Transparency Partners page where brands supply their own production details. That is useful reading, but it is not a certification.
Will anything change in 2027?
Nothing we can find says it will, so we would not wait for it. Mexico's 2026 programme of standards work lists changes to its mezcal and bacanora standards and does not mention tequila. Mexican law requires a review of each standard at least every five years, and the Economy Ministry's record shows the last one on 18 May 2023, so the next is due by about May 2028. CRT technical commissioner MartÃn Muñoz told The Spirits Business in 2025 that it would fall in 2027 or 2028. The last two reviews, in 2018 and 2023, both confirmed the standard as it stood.
So plan on buying in 2027 under today's rules: no official list, no such wording on Mexican labels and no ingredient statement on the Australian back label. Muñoz also said any move on the term "has to go direct to the government". If a review does change the mellowing or labelling rules, it will matter more than any list, and we will update this page.
Can you buy additive-free tequila in Australia?
Not with an official stamp, because no certified list exists, and we do not test bottles ourselves. What follows is our own recommendation, resting on our taste and on a public record: Don Fulano and Cimarrón appear under distillery NOM 1146, and Volans under NOM 1579, on the withdrawn list. Its authors said a distillery listing does not automatically cover every product made there, and that not being on the list never meant a tequila had additives. So read this table as what we would buy, not as a statement of what is in any bottle.
| Bottle | Style | Strength | NOM | What it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Don Fulano Blanco | Blanco | 40% | 1146 | Sipping, or a pre-dinner glass |
| Don Fulano Fuerte | Blanco, overproof | 50% | 1146 | Cocktails, with a smaller measure |
| Don Fulano Reposado | Reposado | 40% | 1146 | Sipping or with food |
| Don Fulano Añejo | Añejo | 40% | 1146 | After dinner |
| Don Fulano Imperial | Extra añejo | 40% | 1146 | A slow glass, with sherry cask spice |
| Cimarrón Blanco | Blanco | 40% | 1146 | Margaritas and tall drinks |
| Cimarrón Reposado | Reposado | 40% | 1146 | Mixing, or an easy sipper |
| Volans Extra Añejo | Extra añejo | 40% | 1579 | Sipping, a pale extra añejo |
Don Fulano. The producer says its tequila is "entirely made from three ingredients": hand-selected mature agave, proprietary yeast and natural spring volcanic water, in what it calls a "low intervention process". Its aged bottles rest primarily in ex-wine European oak.
Cimarrón. Same distillery, Tequileña, but a separate brand, made under maestro tequilero Enrique Fonseca from highland agave. It sits on the same public record as Don Fulano, and that is as far as we can take it.
Volans. Made at El Pandillo, NOM 1579, by Felipe Camarena. This extra añejo spends over three and a half years in used American oak, and it is pale for its age.
Does additive-free mean better?
Not automatically, and we sell plenty of tequila that was never in the programme. Mellowing is legal under the standard. A tequila's quality still comes down to the agave, the cooking, the fermentation, the still and the cask. Plenty of good bottles sit outside this conversation, and absence from a list proves nothing about any of them.
What the phrase does offer is a way of asking for a style. If you want to taste agave and oak without adjustment, it points you towards producers who talk openly about how they work. That is why we would start with Don Fulano: the producer has said what is in the bottle, in public, under its own name.
How do you taste the difference?
You mostly cannot prove anything by tasting, and that is fine. The popular trick of rubbing tequila between your hands is not proof, The Daily Pour reports: results shift with temperature and sweat, and the only surefire test is a laboratory one. Taste for what you like instead.
- Pour 30 ml of Don Fulano Blanco beside 30 ml of whichever blanco you drink now. Each pour at 40% is about 0.9 standard drinks.
- Taste them neat at room temperature. Look for cooked agave, pepper, citrus and an earthy finish.
- Do the same with two reposados, and notice how much vanilla and oak you enjoy.
- Decide which you would buy again. That is the result that counts.
Then use them. To our taste, a clean blanco is the best tequila for a margarita, and Cimarrón Blanco makes a very good Ranch Water.
Additive-free tequila FAQ
Is Don Fulano additive free?
Don Fulano says it is made from three ingredients: agave, yeast and volcanic spring water. Its distillery, NOM 1146, was on the Additive Free Alliance list before that list came down in 2024. Neither is an official certification, and we do not test bottles ourselves, so read it as a public record rather than a guarantee.
Is Cimarrón additive free?
Cimarrón comes from the same distillery, NOM 1146, and appeared on the same list before it was withdrawn. A distillery listing did not automatically cover every product, there is no official certification, and we do not test bottles ourselves. So treat that as a public record and a reason to taste it, not as a guarantee from us.
Does additive free mean organic?
No. Organic has its own certification, which covers how the agave is grown and how the distillery handles it. Additive free refers to what is added to the tequila after distillation. A tequila can be one, both or neither. If organic matters to you, look for an organic certification on the bottle rather than relying on either phrase alone.
Can a brand fall off the list?
It could when the list was running, because listings had to be renewed each year, and a brand that did not renew dropped off. That never proved anything about what was in the bottle. Since October 2024 every tequila has been off the public list, so being absent from it today tells you nothing.
Is mezcal covered?
Not by anything on this page. Mezcal has its own Mexican standard, NOM-070, and the mellowing rules quoted above come from the tequila standard. The withdrawn list was a tequila list. For how the two spirits differ, and which mezcal to try first, read our mezcal and tequila guide.
Where to start
If additive-free tequila is what brought you here, pick one blanco and one reposado, and judge them on flavour. Browse our blanco tequila, reposado tequila and añejo tequila collections, or the full tequila range. We deliver to every Australian state and the ACT.