Mike Dolan, co-founder of Mijenta Tequila, is urging the industry to be open about the use of additives after his brand was prevented from using the ‘additive-free’ term on its labels.
The use of additives (also known as abocantes) in the industry has been a prickly issue with the category’s regulatory body averting brands from labelling their products as ‘additive free’.
Tequila producers are allowed to use up to 1% of additives in production, but this does not have to be disclosed on the label.
In August, the Tequila industry’s regulatory body, Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT), and Mexico’s federal consumer protection agency, PROFECO, issued a statement that said the “certification of the term ‘additive free’ would cause confusion among consumers” and that its use on labels “must be previously verified and not mislead regarding the characteristics and nature of such alcoholic beverage”.
The CRT argues that because abocantes can ‘naturally’ occur during the Tequila-making process, that there is “no scientific way” to certify a Tequila as additive free, making it a “misleading health statement”.
As such, PROFECO stated that the term ‘additive free’ misleads and confuses consumers due to its inaccuracy and is in violation of the Tequila NOM (the Norma Official Mexican sets out Tequila’s regulations). The CRT issued a notice on 12 August to urge the industry to avoid the use of the phrase.
Mijenta Tequila was among the brands to have been affected by the move to prevent ‘additive‐free’ labelling on bottles.
Label U-turn
Speaking to The Spirits Business earlier this year, co‐founder Mike Dolan said the CRT “asked us to take ‘additive‐free’ off”, despite the labels initially being sanctioned by the trade body, before being unapproved. “We had all these labels made and applied to the bottles.”
The former Bacardi CEO explained that “instead of bringing back all the bottles, loading them onto trucks, putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, [and] throwing out a bunch of old labels” they decided to add stickers to them.
“If anyone asks why there is a sticker on it, we’ll tell them,” Dolan said. “And the stickers are there because of this debate about what you can say about additives. So until we run out of those dry goods, and we had a substantial number because we ordered in bulk, we’re putting the sticker over where it says additive‐free up front, and the other pieces that they told us we couldn’t say anymore were carbon neutral and B Corp‐certified, which is on the back label. Why? Their rationale is that that’s something about the brand and not something about the distillery. And so they approve what comes out of the distillery.
“They say they don’t have any insight into whether that’s true about the brand or not. So everything that’s on the label they need to validate. So I think they’re just saying, ‘Yeah, we can’t validate that. So you can’t say it.’”
Mijenta was co-founded by Dolan in September 2020, after he retired from his role as Bacardi CEO two years earlier.
Dolan says of the brand’s ingredients: “It’s simple, it’s spring water, the juice of the agave plant and a little bit of yeast that converts the natural sugar that’s in the plant into alcohol. There’s nothing else in it.”
The flavour of Mijenta as a result is “driven by that commitment and process that Ana [María Romero, maestra tequilera] has developed to really make sure that she can replicate that taste profile over and over again,” he explained.
In terms of transparency in the industry, Dolan calls for brands to be “open” and talk about whether they use additives.
“People have to be willing to say if they do use additives and not be defensive about it,” he stressed. “And you know, the 90% of Tequilas that we think do use additives in one form or another use it to get to a taste profile. There may be nothing wrong with that, but that’s the way they get there.”
He believes brands should not “hide” that they use additives and should instead describe what’s in the product to consumers and tell them that it’s not harmful, so they can make their own decision about the importance of additives.
Legal action
CRT’s actions last summer prompted the removal of a list of Tequila brands certified ‘additive free’ by the Additive Free Alliance (AFA) in October, a non-profit organisation that was launched in August 2024 by Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin.
The AFA certifies brands as ‘additive free’ for a fee following an independent verification of the spirit through laboratory and sensory evaluations.
The CRT recently filed a lawsuit against the AFA for allegedly misleading consumers by running an ‘unauthorised’ certification programme. The CRT claims that the AFA does not have a license from CRT to use its Tequila trademark for its additive-free programme.
Dolan says one of the “biggest tailwinds in the industry is no additives”.
He highlighted the demand for additive‐free brands, citing Nielsen US off‐premise data for the year ending 27 July 2024 that shows additive‐free brands (US$45 and above) are “growing at 10 to 20 times the rate of brands that are not [free of additives]”. Many of the big brands that use additives are both cutting price and losing market share, Mijenta notes.
Dolan would like to see the CRT address the additive‐free issue “more directly” and provide a “response to consumers that satisfies them”.
He added: “You can’t fight the consumer right? You don’t win. If people want to know [if a brand is additive free] they’re going to find out. They’re going to go to someone like Grover, and if not Grover, they’ll be 100 other Grovers that will fill the vacuum. So someone has to address it, and come to terms with what the consumer is looking for. I think it’s inevitable that will happen, and it may be a little bit painful along the way, but eventually the consumer is the one who decides.”
Industry pushback
Dolan believes that the CRT “doesn’t like the discussion around additive free”, claiming that the industry regulator had “back-pedalled” on its own additive-free scheme following pushback from other brands in response to the CRT’s earlier certification of Patrón as ‘additive free’ in October 2023.
When asked about the certification, a statement from Bacardi-owned Patrón on 1 February stated: “We made the decision to pause our additive-free endorsement from the CRT because we recognised that we were a few steps ahead of the industry.
“While our additive-free seals are on hold until the CRT resumes assessment of the seal, we remain committed to producing Tequila that is high-quality and 100% additive free.”
Dolan says the challenge for the CRT has been “balancing a lot of different interests” with the regulatory body being in a “difficult position” as it deals with competing voices.
He continued: “The industry really requires some leadership and someone to take a point of view and to say, ‘look, we understand what the consumer is looking for’. What we don’t want to end up with is 20 different organisations, each of which have a point of view about what no additives mean.”
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Author: Nicola Carruthers
