Suntory Global Spirits is pulling its Hornitos Tequila brand in two directions at once: a $25 cocktail collaboration aimed at value shoppers and a new $44.99 Reserve line aimed at drinkers trading up, both launched within the same year. The company frames the split as its response to a Tequila category where growth now depends on which price tier a bottle sits in.
The moves land as Tequila's decade-long expansion slows industry-wide. Analysts increasingly describe the category as entering a period of stabilization rather than the double-digit growth of prior years, with a crowded field of more than 2,000 expressions now needing to sort itself by price and quality, according to Forbes contributor Joseph V. Micallef.
What Hornitos' volume numbers show
Hornitos is the eighth-largest Tequila brand in the United States, with 2025 volume of 1.42 million cases, according to Impact Databank data reported by Shanken News Daily. Inside its own competitive set, brands priced between $15 and $25, Hornitos ranks third, behind Proximo's Jose Cuervo and Heaven Hill's Lunazul. The brand has grown steadily since 2020, when it stood at just over 1.1 million cases, though Shanken News Daily reported it faced headwinds in 2025. A separate global tally, Drinks International's Millionaires' Club 2026 ranking, put Hornitos volume down 5.6 percent to 1.7 million cases, its lowest performance since 2021, a decline that outlet grouped alongside drops for 1800 Tequila and Patrón.
Hornitos' answer: cheaper mixers and pricier Reserves
On the value side, Hornitos paired with Mexican soda brand Jarritos on a co-pack called Margaritos, which bundles a bottle of Hornitos Reposado with a bottle of Jarritos in Lime, Mandarin or Pineapple flavor for an easy margarita, retailing at $25, Shanken News Daily reported. Rashmi Raine, vice president of Tequila at Suntory Global Spirits, said the strategy also leans on Hornitos Pineapple to recruit new drinkers and expand occasions for the brand. On October 27, 2025, Hornitos took the opposite tack, introducing a Reserve Line for its 75th anniversary: Cristalino Reserve and Añejo Reserve, both listed at an MSRP of $44.99, according to the company's announcement. Raine said in that release that the launch was proof of a promise to make premium, 100 percent agave tequila accessible to all. In discussing the broader lineup, Raine has said the Cristalino Reserve and Añejo Reserve expressions let the brand participate in growing consumer interest in elevated Tequila experiences, even as entry-priced flavors do the work of holding volume.
How the wider Tequila category is splitting
Hornitos' two-track approach mirrors a broader pattern documented by Drinks International: Jose Cuervo, the category's volume leader, declined 3.9 percent to 7.3 million cases even as Don Julio rose 2 percent to 4.5 million, a split the outlet said reflects a wider tension between mainstream volume and premium-led momentum. Casamigos fell 20.2 percent to 1.9 million cases, its weakest showing since entering the ranking in 2020, which Drinks International linked to fading pull for celebrity-founded brands. At the value end, Heaven Hill's Lunazul rose 35.3 percent to 2.3 million cases, continuing a run of gains since it first broke into the ranking in 2023. Micallef's Forbes analysis of the category's 2026 outlook described growth as slowing and agave economics shifting, with the market moving from expansion toward a more selective, recalibrated phase rather than an outright downturn.
What this means
Hornitos' barbell approach, cheap mixer packs at one end and a $45 Reserve line at the other, is one bottling company's answer to a category where the middle is getting squeezed. Whether it moves overall volume back up is not yet documented; the 2025 headwinds Shanken News Daily reported and the case declines Drinks International tracked both predate the Reserve launch's first full year on shelves. Tequila Watch's own database includes Casamigos Blanco, whose volume slide accompanies the celebrity-brand softness noted above, at 55 of 95, near the lower end of the brands it has scored.