What Is Additive-Free Tequila?

Tequila law allows a small secret. Under Mexico's tequila regulations, producers may add up to 1% of certain additives — sweeteners, glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract, flavorings — without listing a single one on the label. In a 750ml bottle, 1% is enough to change how a tequila tastes, feels, and finishes.

Why would a producer add them? Sweeteners soften a harsh spirit. Glycerin adds a slick, oily mouthfeel that reads as "smooth." Oak extract and coloring fake the look and flavor of barrel time. None of it is illegal. None of it has to be disclosed. And none of it came from the agave.

Additive-free tequila is the opposite deal: what you taste is what the agave, the water, the fermentation, the still, and the barrel actually did. Nothing propping it up.

How to drink the difference

• Additive-loaded tequilas tend to taste candy-sweet up front, coat your mouth, and finish fast with a flavor that feels sprayed on.
• Additive-free tequila tastes like where it came from: cooked agave, earth, citrus, spice — and it changes in the glass instead of repeating one sweet note.

How Una Vida is made

Una Vida is additive-free, start to finish. 100% Blue Weber agave from the Los Altos highlands of Jalisco, slow-cooked in brick ovens, tahona-crushed, and copper-pot distilled at NOM 1605 in Capilla de Guadalupe. Our Reposado (9 months) and Añejo (24 months) rest in a blend of American and French oak — the color and flavor come from the barrel and the agave, never from an additives lab.

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