Lunazul Tequila Guide: Blanco vs Reposado, Sizes and Prices
Lunazul is one of the most searched tequila names we have, and the question behind almost every one of those searches is the same: is it any good for the money? Short answer, yes, and the reason has more to do with Kentucky than with Mexico.
Who actually makes Lunazul
Lunazul belongs to Heaven Hill, the family firm in Bardstown, Kentucky that makes Evan Williams and Elijah Craig bourbon. The tequila itself is distilled in Jalisco from 100% blue Weber agave - no mixto, no cane sugar filler - and then the bourbon side of the business quietly does the rest of the work.
That connection is the whole story of the reposado. Heaven Hill has a mountain of used bourbon barrels sitting in Kentucky, and Lunazul rests its reposado in them for six months. Most brands have to buy barrels. Lunazul already owns them. That is a real cost saving, and it lands on the shelf as a 100% agave tequila at a price most 100% agave tequilas do not reach.
Blanco - the one to mix with
Lunazul Blanco is $30.99 for the 750ml. Unaged, bottled clear, and it tastes like agave rather than like oak: cooked agave sweetness up front, black pepper and a little citrus behind it, a clean finish that does not linger long.
This is a margarita bottle and it is unapologetic about it. Lime and orange liqueur do not fight it, they sit on top of it. If you have been buying a cheaper mixto for cocktails because good tequila felt wasted in a mixed drink, this is the bottle that ends that argument.
Reposado - the one to sip
Lunazul Reposado is $35.99, five dollars more than the blanco, and six months in those bourbon barrels changes it more than five dollars usually buys. Pale gold, vanilla and toasted oak over the agave, softer in the mouth, longer at the end.
Neat in a small glass it holds up fine. In a cocktail it makes a better old fashioned than a better margarita - the oak wants brown-spirit treatment. If you only want one Lunazul in the house and you drink more sipping than mixing, this is the one.
Not sure what reposado even means? We wrote the whole thing up in blanco, reposado and anejo explained.
The 1.75L is where the money is
This is the part most people miss, so here is the arithmetic in plain numbers.
- Blanco 750ml - $30.99, which works out to about $1.22 an ounce.
- Blanco 1.75L - $49.99, about $0.85 an ounce.
- Reposado 750ml - $35.99, about $1.42 an ounce.
- Reposado 1.75L - $59.99, about $1.01 an ounce.
The big bottle is roughly thirty percent cheaper per ounce. Two 750s of blanco cost $61.98; one 1.75L holds more than that and costs $49.99. If you are pouring for a kiddush, a sheva brachos or any night where a pitcher of margaritas is going to happen, buy the handle. The whole Lunazul shelf is in one place.
How it stacks up against the expensive names
Lunazul Blanco is $30.99. Patron Silver is $44.99, Don Julio Blanco is $49.99, Casamigos Blanco is $54.99, and Clase Azul is in another postcode entirely.
All of them are 100% agave. What you are paying for above thirty dollars is older agave, longer resting, a heavier bottle and a name people recognise across the room. Those are real things and on a night when you want them, buy them - we have full write-ups on Don Julio, Patron and Clase Azul.
But if the bottle is going into a shaker with lime juice, nobody at the table can tell you spent an extra twenty-four dollars. That is the case for Lunazul, and it is a good one.
Is it kosher?
Straight 100% agave tequila with nothing added is the simple end of the kosher spirits question, and Lunazul sits there. The complications start with flavoured tequilas, cream liqueurs and anything with additives. We laid out where the lines fall in which tequilas are kosher, and there is more on the wider category in tequila vs mezcal.
What to buy
- Margaritas for a crowd - Blanco 1.75L, $49.99. Nothing else on the shelf gets close per ounce.
- One bottle, does everything - Reposado 750ml, $35.99.
- Trying it for the first time - Blanco 750ml, $30.99.
- Building a bar from nothing - start with the blanco and read how to build a home bar.
The rest of what we carry is on the tequila shelf, and if you want to know what everything costs before you start, how much is a bottle of tequila runs through the whole range.
