drink TEQUILA SUNRISE THE DAWN OF A FLAVOURED AGAVE MARKET

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Ah tequila. It makes us happy. And seemingly happier and happier if reports of booming sales and growing numbers of new launches are anything to go by.

The agave spirit has of course been with us for hundreds of years, but thanks to brands like Patrón for teaching us that goodquality tequila is best sipped rather than shot, both its image and its fortunes have been on the up over the past 10 years or so.

And now the latest way that this trend for all things agave is expressing itself, is through the beginnings of a flavoured agave market. Yes, where gins, vodkas, rums and, well, pretty much all spirits at this point have led, tequila and its agavecousins are following.

First up there’s Neurita Tequila (35 per cent ABV), available in two different flavours. Aiming to make crafting a Margarita a whole lot easier is Neurita Citrus Tequila. The twist is that rather than straight-up lime, it features Sicilian orange and tange rine. Add lime and a dash of agave syrup to make the classic cocktail. Then there’s Neurita Rosa Tequila, which is a little sweeter, with raspberry, strawberry and pomegranate notes.

Meanwhile, Butterfly Cannon Rosa Tequila uses Mexican pink grapefruit and grapefruit distillate in its silver tequila, for a pink-hued liquid with sweet and tart citrus flavours. But you’ll still get that rich agave taste.

What is the point of flavoured spirits? Well, for all the marketing and all the training offered by brands, some customers – especially younger legal-drinking age customers – still don’t fully understand the spirit, nor how best to drink it. Neurita carried out its own research to find out just how confused consumers are, and it found that 39 per cent don’t know how to drink it, and 28 per cent think it’s too much effort to make a tequila-based drink.

Add to that, that the brand thinks flavoured tequila is ripe to win over gin drinkers. The same survey found a third of G&T drinkers admit to disliking the taste of gin, and nearly half of them dislike the tonic. Which begs the question why they continue to order it, but nevertheless…

Offering familiar and well liked flavours, these drinks provide something approachable for drinkers who are frankly not sure they’d like the unadulterated spirit. And then who knows, maybe they’ll be ordering slow sippers from your top shelf one day. In the meantime, it’s an interesting category for pubs to explore.