The blue agave starts life as one hell of a sexy succulent, but it’s the piña at the heart of the plant that is needed to make tequila. The juice of the piña is fermented, then aged in oak for various lengths of time, to become blanco (unaged), reposado (aged for two months up to a year) or anejo (one to three years). Following The Wine and Spirit Trade Association’s (WSTA) market report last year, which revealed that Tequila’s volume sales rose by 83% compared to pre-Covid levels, with the category up by 94% in value in UK-based shops and supermarkets, El Rayo will be available in a nationwide UK supermarket for the first time from April. We’ve also included details of the NOM, which is a four-digit number found on every bottle. This gives us visibility of the producer, so you can see just how many brands they’re responsible for — because can you really claim to be an artisanal tequila with hundreds of brands under the same roof? Not on our watch. What are the different types of tequila? Each has different characteristics, ranging from the fresh and citrusy (there’s a reason you shot with lime and salt), to the more complex styles that display caramel and oak. Broadly speaking, blanco is for shots, anejo is strictly for sipping (like you would with whisky), and reposado is a good option for either. How we test tequila

Vereker also noted that the additional investment from Beavertown founder Plant, who recently sold the beer brand to Heineken for an undisclosed sum, would provide El Rayo with the opportunity to tap into Plant’s “combination of brand and business sense”. We wanted to do this fundraise to help us take advantage of [the Tequila category’s] growth, and ultimately this investment is going to be used to double our sales to 7,000 nine-litre cases this year.” Don't have time to read our full guide to the best tequilas? We've compiled at a glance information below. He added: “Strategically, he’s kind of awesome. [Beavertown] has been one of the most successful and probably standout brands of the last five years in drinks.”El Rayo is made using highland and lowland agaves, and was created in partnership with maestro Tequilero Oscar Garcia. El Rayo became the first Tequila brand to be listed at retailers such as John Lewis, Liberty and Daylesford, and is now available at more than 500 on-trade venues including London’s Sushi Samba, and Drake and Morgan. There are two types of tequila — those that are made with 100% agave, and the inferior 'mixto', which only contains the legally required minimum 51 percent (with the rest made up of any other sugar, often corn). Don’t worry, we’re not going to recommend any of those. Vereker continued: “Tom and I didn’t come from the drinks industry, so we didn’t even know what the on-trade really was before we started the business.

Vereker noted that actor Nicholas Hoult had also invested in the brand as an angel investor, after he direct messaged (DM) the brand on social media.

TEQUILA, TONIC, GRAPEFRUIT. YEAH, NO, REALLY.

The raise was led by Rianta Capital, the family office of New Look founder Tom Singh, alongside angel investments from Logan Plant, founder of Beavertown Brewery, and About a Boy actor Nicholas Hoult. He said he was a massive fan of the brand, and had been drinking it with someone from BBC Radio 1. He loves Tequila and loved what we were doing, so we’ve been chatting to him for a while about getting involved, and he kind of put his money where his mouth is.”