From party ender to party soul: Tequila now fastest-growing alcohol segment in India

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Tequila has always been a party ender drink, typically involving a three-step ritual — a lick of salt, downing the shot, and finishing up by sucking on a wedge of lime. Not anymore, or at least it's not just that. The agave-based spirit is now sipped neat, on the rocks or with soda and even as a cocktail mix beyond just margaritas, making it the fastest-growing alcohol segment in the country, albeit on a small base.

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In India, sales nearly doubled to about 123,000 cases (of nine litres each) in the last calendar year, up from 68,200 cases in 2022, according to data from global alcohol market analysts IWSR sourced from company executives. In fact, sales have more than tripled since the pre-pandemic period when 38,950 cases of agave-based spirits were sold in 2019.
«Tequila, which was literally a non-existent category maybe a few years ago, has now gained a lot of traction. It has been one of the fastest growing white spirits in the world since covid,» said Hina Nagarajan, MD of United Spirits, which recently invested in local agave-based spirit brand Pistola.

Tequila is the most popular version of the spirit extracted from the agave plant that's native to Mexico. That's followed by other variants such as mezcal (or mescal) and pulque. The number of agave products in India has risen from less than a dozen in 2020 to nearly three dozen now, including recent launches such as Diageo's Don Julio and Kendall Jenner's 818.