On the heels of Additive-Free Week, we can’t help but be bowled over by the success of our Confirmed Additive Free program. There are so many brands and advocates that have made this a real movement, and we are...
On the heels of Additive-Free Week, we can’t help but be bowled over by the success of our Confirmed Additive Free program.
There are so many brands and advocates that have made this a real movement, and we are so grateful for your involvement.
We always believed that this was a mission bigger than us – it’s about the producers who are committed to making tequila in a natural way, and the consumers who appreciate their efforts. It’s about being able to chose what you want to drink, based on transparent labeling.
Over the last few months we’ve traveled across the U.S., giving tastings and trainings, and at each event we were surprised and delighted by the people who turned out – tequila lovers who appreciate the spirit as much as we do.
Industries don’t change themselves; it’s the market that forces an industry to change. And the “additive-free movement” has already started to bring change to the industry, thanks to all of you who have supported this honorable cause.
Anyone who has walked into a store and asked for an additive-free tequila is supporting the movement. Anyone who has recommended additive-free tequilas to a friend, or commented on a social media post about additive-free options, is part of this movement.
There are so many of you that the demand is clear and the industry is being forced to respond. This is what successful movements look like.
This is why we have decided to rename our program to the Additive-Free Alliance. It is a more accurate description of what it has become.
The members of the Additive-Free Alliance — the brands, retailers and consumers — believe in common goals: transparency overall, and honoring the natural product given to us by agave, water, yeast, and sometimes barrels. We simply want a labeling difference so the consumer can decide which tequilas they want to drink.
Additive-Free Week 2023 participants in a group photo on the grounds of Hacienda Gavilana, hosted by Tequila Volcan de Mi Tierra.
This change will also hopefully ease the hurdles that some of the brands in our program are facing over how our program is being perceived by authorities in the industry. With the name “Confirmed Additive Free”, some believe that fact checking the data on our own website is attempting to be some sort of regulatory process. It never has been, and it never will be.
The support of our program is humbling, but sometimes overwhelming. We are a team of just 3 people, and it’s not about us. It is about the tequila community working together, striving for transparency.
We will continue with our program of fact checking producers’ claims for our own website and app and then putting them on our additive-free list. But, we are not the authorities. Instead we are loud voices in an alliance that is committed to promoting a labeling difference between natural tequilas and those that use “abocantes”, or additives. And contrary to what some believe, we are not against producers who use additives. We know some of these producers and they are just as committed to making a good product for their customers.
Each year we do this program, we learn more and more about how the industry works and practices that producers use. With this knowledge our process is evolving. This program is never going to be perfect, but we will continue to refine it. Expect tweaks that can hopefully ease the bottleneck of adding new additive-free brands.
We hope that the name “Additive-Free Alliance” will better communicate our mission and goals. We will continue to be transparent with you about our efforts. Your support is what drives us, so thank you.