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The first time I tried a cristalino tequila was in the mid 2010s while working as a writer for an alcohol publication. It was Don Julio 70, one of the first cristalinos to reach the United States starting with a small batch in 2011, and was a curious blip in a tasting of the full Don Julio line up. Despite continuing to write about spirits for a living, I didn’t see much more of it until I was in Mexico for a work trip in 2021. The category still hadn’t become widely known in the US, but in Mexico, I learned while reporting a story on its popularity in the country, cristalino had been a popular top-shelf sipping tequila for a decade.
Fast forward to today and cristalino remains a small, but growing (in a press release, Mijenta notes the category grew 39 percent year-over-year), subcategory of tequila. A new limited-edition cristalino from Mijenta aims to broaden consumer awareness by taking a different approach to how the style is presented: an ingredient for elevated cocktails that typically use gin or vodka instead of the standard high-priced neat pour used for most cristalinos.
The release initially took me by surprise. Mijenta Tequila started in September 2020. The whole ethos for the brand’s blanco tequila is centered around highlighting the agave, and in 2023 its parent company, Altos Planos, won the International Wine and Spirits Competition Agave Producer Trophy.
Mijenta is guided by maestra tequilera Ana Maria Romera Mena–one of the few leading women in the industry, and one of the most respected for her refined nose and palate. Her 2007 book, “The Aromas of Tequila: The Art of Tasting,” introduced a tequila aroma wheel that’s now widely used. Mijenta Blanco, a personal favorite of mine, goes all-in on pure agave flavors by fermenting with hand-selected yeast and bottling the spirit unfiltered. Along with the reposado and añejo tequila from the brand, its previous line up is designed to showcase the terroir of the Los Altos agaves with low intervention and no additives.
The cristalino category, on the other hand, is about as filtered as it gets. After spending time in barrel, the tequila goes through a thorough charcoal filtering process that strips out the color–and, in what turns many tequila lovers off of the category, a significant amount of the natural agave flavor. What remains is a tequila that’s clear like a blanco but has stronger sweet vanilla and oak barrel notes instead of grassy, green, peppery notes from the plant.
But the purpose is more to show that a tequila can be adapted for cocktails not traditionally associated with the spirit. And in that sense, it’s found an interesting niche.
ABV: 40 percent
Price: $119.99
Where it’s available: Through Mijenta’s site and Sip Tequila
