Cocktails with Tequila reposado
Tequila reposado is blue-agave tequila rested in oak for at least two months (usually up to about a year), so it keeps blanco’s cooked-agave character but gains a pale gold color, soft vanilla and a rounder edge. It sits between unaged blanco and the longer-aged añejo.
ABV35–55%By law, most reposado bottled at 40%. For a stirred, spirit-forward agave drink a reposado at 43–46% keeps its oak and agave without thinning.
Substitutes for Tequila reposado
Agave stays constant across the family; oak is the variable, and a swap moves the drink up or down that scale. Strength barely changes, so nothing needs rebalancing beyond deciding how much wood the drink should carry.
On the label
- "100% de agave" vs mixto
- A mixto reposado blends in other sugars and often caramel, so look for "100%".
- additives / "additive-free"
- Even "100% agave" may legally carry up to 1% additives — oak extract, coloring, glycerine, sugar — with no obligation to declare them. An "additive-free" mark flags a bottling without them.
- cristalino
- An aged tequila (often añejo) charcoal-filtered clear — a marketing category, not an official one; looks like blanco, tastes aged.
