London Evening Standard's commerce vertical, Standard Shopping, named Olmeca Altos Plata the supermarket tequila to buy for margaritas in a roundup published in August 2026, attributing the pick to drinks writer Becky Paskin.

The piece, syndicated by AOL under the headline naming a drinks expert's supermarket margarita pick, frames the classic cocktail as simple by design and treats tequila choice as the variable that separates a forgettable margarita from a good one. It singles out Olmeca Altos Plata, a bottle widely stocked in UK supermarkets, as the accessible option worth buying over pricier bar bottlings.

What Becky Paskin said about Olmeca Altos Plata

Paskin is a Brighton-based drinks journalist who spent three years as deputy editor and then editor of The Spirits Business and later edited Scotchwhisky.com, and who holds the Institute of Brewing and Distilling's General Certificate in Distillation, a qualification more commonly held by distillery operators than writers. In the piece, she is quoted calling Olmeca Altos Plata the bartender's tequila, noting that it was founded by bartenders and has repeatedly been voted the world's best for making margaritas. Standard Shopping's own tasting note describes the bottle as bright, citrus forward and herbaceous, with lingering cooked agave and a touch of black pepper, and flags that it may be too simple for anyone looking for a sipping tequila rather than a mixing one.

The bartenders behind Olmeca Altos

Olmeca Altos was launched in November 2009 through a collaboration between master distiller Jesús Hernández and two UK bartenders, Henry Besant and Dre Masso, who worked together through their consultancy Worldwide Cocktail Club before building a tequila aimed specifically at cocktail use. Besant died in March 2013 following a heart attack. The tequila is distilled at NOM 1111 in Arandas, Jalisco, at an elevation cited by industry sources at roughly 6,900 feet, using a mix of the centuries-old tahona stone-wheel method and a modern roller mill to crush cooked agave before fermentation and distillation in copper pot stills.

The brand is owned by Pernod Ricard, which also controls the Olmeca, Avión and Del Maguey lines under its House of Tequila division. Pernod Ricard reported in 2025 that Olmeca had surpassed one million nine-litre cases sold globally for the first time, a milestone the company described as making Olmeca its first tequila brand to reach that volume and the number two premium tequila brand worldwide outside the US and Mexico.

Where the margarita accolade comes from

Retailer product pages at Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons describe Altos Plata as having been voted best tequila for margaritas for four years running by a panel of bartenders convened by trade title Drinks International, with brand materials dating that run of recognition to 2019. That framing originates from producer and retailer copy rather than a published, independently reviewed results page, and Tequila Watch could not locate a standalone Drinks International report detailing the panel or its scoring methodology beyond references reproduced across retail listings.

As for availability, price-comparison listings put a 70cl bottle of Olmeca Altos Plata at roughly 22 to 27 pounds across Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons in the UK. Pernod Ricard also sells a ready-to-serve Altos Lime Margarita made with the same Plata base, distributed through Tesco, Asda and online grocers.

What this means

This is a consumer shopping recommendation, not a blind comparison, and it should be read as one journalist's pick for an accessible, widely stocked bottle rather than a verdict on quality relative to smaller-production tequilas. Olmeca Altos Plata has not been assessed by this publication's panel, so it carries no purity status or score in Tequila Watch's database; that is simply because it has not been tasted here, not a finding about what the bottle contains.