Tequila's on-trade value in the United Kingdom rose 3.2% in 2024 to 276 million pounds, according to CGA data, even as United States tequila and mezcal revenue fell 4.1% to 6.4 billion dollars in 2025, Distilled Spirits Council reported.

The split tracks a category working through two different stories at once. In Britain, tequila has been climbing onto cocktail menus and into supermarket aisles. In the United States, the spirit's largest market by far, a decade of rapid growth has given way to a correction, compounded by an oversupply of agave in Mexico that has pushed farmgate prices down sharply.

What the UK on-trade numbers show

Industry trade title The Grocer reported that the margarita entered the UK's top 10 cocktails for the first time in March, according to volumetric sales data from CGA, and that tequila's on-trade category value had passed 250 million pounds. Drinks International, citing the same CGA tracking, reported that tequila's on-trade value rose 3.2% in 2024 to 276 million pounds even as overall spirits sales declined, with tequila sales in large venues and bars surging by up to 26.6%. Ready-to-drink formats have added to that momentum: Brown-Forman's el Jimador brand launched Lime and Mango Sparkling Margarita cans into the UK on-trade and off-trade in April 2026, pointing to a market research firm Mintel figure showing RTD value sales in convenience stores growing 12.6%.

Why the US market looks different

The picture across the Atlantic is one of deceleration rather than collapse. A premium tequila market report citing the Distilled Spirits Council put 2025 US tequila and mezcal supplier revenue at 6.4 billion dollars, down 4.1% after years as the category's fastest growing spirits segment, while total US volume still reached 32.1 million nine-liter cases. Becle, the owner of Jose Cuervo, 1800 and Maestro Dobel, reported fiscal 2025 net sales of 43,087 million Mexican pesos, down 2.0%, on volume of 24.29 million cases, attributing an 11.6% fall in US and Canada volume mainly to distributors working down existing stock. Diageo, meanwhile, reported a 23.1% fall in US tequila net sales in the first half of its 2026 fiscal year, according to the same report.

The agave glut behind the slowdown

Underpinning both markets is a supply problem that predates this year's sales figures. Mexico's National Chamber of the Tequila Industry has said agave consumption rose 21.1% in 2025 to 2.18 million tons even as tequila sales were expected to decline 3.5% for the year, a mismatch the chamber says is deepening the imbalance between supply and demand. The industry produced 496 million liters of tequila in 2025, of which 400 million liters were exported, the chamber reported. The roots of the glut go back further: the South China Morning Post reported that the number of registered agave producers rose from 3,180 in 2014 to 42,200 in 2024, while land under cultivation more than doubled between 2018 and 2023, according to Mexican government figures, as growers responded to boom-era demand that has since cooled. Farmgate agave prices, which producers told the SCMP had crashed to an average of 8 pesos per kilo, remain well below the levels growers say are needed to cover production costs.

How producers are framing the moment

Executives in the category have tended to describe 2025 as a pause rather than a reversal. Richard Black, chief executive of Teremana Tequila, told The Spirits Business that the category is undergoing what he called a natural recalibration, citing the temporary US slowdown and the Mexican agave oversupply, while arguing that tequila's ability to outperform the wider spirits market points to lasting consumer appeal. Separate market analysis has noted that premiumization has not disappeared during the correction: one industry report found that super-premium tequila accounted for close to 7.5 million of the 32.1 million nine-liter cases sold in the US in 2025, and that 100% agave product made up roughly 73% of January 2025 export volume by the Tequila Regulatory Council's classification.

What this means

The UK figures and the US figures are measuring different things, a smaller market still finding tequila for the first time against a mature market working off a boom. What is not yet settled is whether the agave glut resolves through lower prices that help smaller producers, or through consolidation that favors the largest players. Teremana, whose Blanco and Reposado carry TW Scores of 57 and 55 in this publication's database, sits in the value tier that analysts expect to hold up best if US consumers keep trading down. Whether that proves true will show up in 2026 sales data, not in this week's commentary.