Casamigos Tequila Guide: Blanco, Reposado, Anejo and the Mezcal

Casamigos is the tequila people ask for by name, and the name is the point: it started as a private batch two friends had made for themselves and never intended to sell. Here is what is actually in the four bottles, what each one costs, and which one is worth your money.

The house of friends

George Clooney, Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman had a tequila blended to their own taste for drinking at their houses in Mexico. The name is Spanish for house of friends. The distillery kept asking why they were ordering a thousand bottles a year with no licence, so in 2013 they turned it into a brand, and in 2017 Diageo bought it for $700 million plus performance payments.

That story gets told a lot, and it earns the brand a lot of eye-rolling. Taste the blanco next to a serious sipping tequila, though, and the thing you notice is how soft it is. Casamigos is blended to go down easily, and whether that is a virtue or a compromise is the only real argument about it.

Blanco - $54.99

Casamigos Blanco rests a short while before bottling rather than going straight from the still to glass, and it shows. Sweet cooked agave, vanilla, a citrus edge, and almost none of the pepper burn people brace for in a blanco.

It is the one to buy if you are pouring for people who say they do not like tequila. It is also, at $54.99, an expensive margarita base - if the bottle is going in a shaker with lime and triple sec, something cheaper does the same job. There is more on that trade in our Lunazul guide.

Reposado - $62.99

Casamigos Reposado spends months in American white oak that used to hold bourbon, and it is the bottle the range is best known for. Caramel, toasted oak and vanilla sitting over the agave, with a finish that runs longer than the blanco's.

If somebody hands you a Casamigos on the rocks at a wedding, this is almost certainly the one. Of the four, it is the one that gives you the most for the eight dollars over blanco.

Anejo - $65.99

Casamigos Anejo sits in oak for over a year. Darker in the glass, thicker in the mouth, and it moves toward caramel, dried fruit and a little baking spice. The agave is still there but it is behind the wood now.

This is the after-dinner bottle. It also gets the least out of being mixed, so if you are buying it, buy it to sip. Our guide to blanco, reposado and anejo explains why the aging does what it does.

Mezcal - $89.99

Casamigos Mezcal is the outlier and the most interesting bottle on the shelf. It is made in Oaxaca from espadin agave roasted in an earth pit over wood, which is what puts the smoke in it.

Smoke is the headline but it is not a bonfire - Casamigos keeps this one gentler than most mezcal, so it is a reasonable first mezcal for somebody who has only ever drunk tequila. If the whole category is new to you, start with tequila vs mezcal, then look at the rest of the mezcal shelf.

The 1.75L question

Blanco and reposado both come in the big bottle, and the per-ounce maths is worth two minutes.

• Blanco 750ml $54.99 against Blanco 1.75L $129.99 - the big bottle holds 2.3 times as much and costs 2.4 times as much.
• Reposado 750ml $62.99 against Reposado 1.75L $149.99 - same story.

So unlike most spirits, the Casamigos handle is not really a discount. Buy it because you want one bottle instead of three on the bar for a simcha, not because you expect to save. Everything is on the Casamigos shelf.

How it compares

Casamigos sits in the same bracket as Don Julio and Patron, below Clase Azul, and well above the everyday 100% agave bottles.

Against Don Julio it is softer and sweeter. Against Patron it is rounder and less peppery. Against Clase Azul it is a fraction of the price and nowhere near the bottle - and if you are weighing that one up, Clase Azul plata vs reposado is the comparison to read.

Is Casamigos kosher?

Plain 100% agave tequila with nothing added is the straightforward corner of the kosher spirits question. Flavoured bottles, cream liqueurs and additives are where it gets complicated. We set out the whole picture in which tequilas are kosher.

What to buy

• Best of the four for the money - Reposado, $62.99.
• A gift that gets recognised - Anejo, $65.99.
• Something nobody at the table has had - the mezcal, $89.99.
• Pouring for a crowd who like it easy - Blanco 1.75L, $129.99.

The full tequila shelf is here, and how much is a bottle of tequila puts these prices in context against everything else we carry.