What Additive-Free Tequila Actually Means: El Velo, Los Dos and Angelisco

Here is a fact that surprises most people who drink tequila regularly.

Under Mexican tequila regulation, a producer may add up to 1% by weight of what are called abocantes and still label the bottle 100% agave. The permitted four are glycerin, caramel coloring, oak extract, and sugar-based syrup. None of it has to appear on the label.

One percent sounds trivial. It is not. Glycerin adds viscosity and a sense of body. Sugar syrup rounds off the edges. Oak extract can imitate barrel age that was never there. Caramel color makes a young spirit look older. Together they can make a mediocre tequila taste like a careful one, which is exactly why they are used.

This is the context that makes "additive-free" a claim worth reading rather than marketing noise.

Los Dos

Los Dos was the first tequila to get the term "No Additives" approved for use on its label, which is a small piece of category history.

It comes from the highlands of Jalisco, from a partnership between the American founder Jeremy Levine and the Vivanco family, one of the more respected tequila-producing families in Mexico. Their distillery, Destilería el Ranchito, is NOM 1414.

The production is deliberately old-fashioned in the ways that count. The family farms organically, and they use no diffuser, no autoclave and no column stills. Each of those three is a shortcut that trades character for yield, and skipping all three is a choice that costs money.

Angelisco

Angelisco is from Los Altos, the highland plateau of Jalisco, in the area sometimes called the Golden Triangle.

The agave is single-estate Blue Weber grown by the Aceves family at elevations above 7,000 feet. Alvaro Aceves is the family's first tequilero, and he distills their own agave at Casa Tequileria de Arandas.

The ingredient list is two items long: estate-grown blue agave and water. The pitch here is not rarity, it is that a clean, honest tequila does not have to be expensive.

El Velo

El Velo is the outlier of the three, and deliberately so.

It is made at La Cofradía, NOM 1137, from agave grown in the volcanic soil of the Tequila Valley lowlands rather than the highlands. It is bottled unaged and additive-free at 44.5% ABV, higher than the 40% most blancos land on.

That extra proof is the point. It was built to hold its shape in a cocktail, where a 40% blanco can get lost behind lime and sweetener.

Highlands and Lowlands, Briefly

Since these three split across both regions, the difference is worth knowing.

Los Altos, the highlands, has red iron-rich soil at altitude. Agave grown there tends to run sweeter, more floral and fruit-forward.

The Tequila Valley, the lowlands, has volcanic soil. Agave from there tends toward earthier, more mineral and peppery character.

These are tendencies rather than rules, and producer decisions matter more than either. But if you taste Angelisco and El Velo next to each other, you are tasting a fairly clean version of that contrast.

How to Drink Them

Blanco tequila is best slightly chilled but not iced, in a small glass with some room, sipped rather than shot.

If you have only ever had tequila in a mixed drink, taste a good blanco on its own once. Unaged agave spirit is a distinct flavor, closer to cooked vegetable and pepper than to anything sweet, and it is the actual reference point for the category.

Try It at Juraku

El Velo, Los Dos and Angelisco are part of the agave selection at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Bottles rotate, so check the current menu or ask the bar what is open.