America's First Imported Tequila Brand Came To California By Barrel In 1852

It was a long road from tequila's birth in Mexico to its status as one of the most popular spirits in the United States. While agave had been fermented by people in what is now Mexico for centuries, the first versions of tequila were made in the 16th century, when Spanish conquerors introduced distilling to the process. Yet 300 years later, it was unheard of in Mexico's northern neighbor. It took until the 20th century for tequila to become well known in America, but it started making small inroads at the end of the 19th century. The first tequila sold in the United States was courtesy of Jose Cuervo in California in 1852.

Americans first came in contact with tequila in the 1840s during the Mexican-American War, but it took a few more years to make it across the border. It was during the California Gold Rush that Jose Cuervo says it shipped its first barrels of tequila to America, setting sail from the port of San Blas. While it's likely that tequila had informally been carried into the U.S. in border regions before this, the 1852 date is taken as the first official shipping of tequila into the country. Sending tequila to the U.S. even inspired the rise of glass bottles for transportation in the 1880s, as barrels were difficult to send over long distances. However, this story is disputed by Jose Cuervo's longtime tequila rival Sauza.

While Jose Cuervo asserts that 1852 date for its first export to the United States, Sauza claims on its website that it was the first tequila sold in the country in 1873. Some resources also list Sauza as the true American tequila pioneer. As two of the oldest tequila distilleries in Mexico, Jose Cuervo and Sauza have a longstanding rivalry. In fact, Sauza founder Cenobio Sauza got started working on the Cuervo estate, which was the first commercially licensed agave distillery in Mexico. So, no doubt there is some one-upmanship at work in the competing claims.

Regardless of who made it to the United States first, this was the era of tequila's first international explosion. Exports grew in the 1870s, and in 1888, the arrival of the Guadalajara-Mexico City Railway in Mexico's tequila-producing regions helped spur exports. Sauza also took the upper hand during this period, as it was brought to the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, where it won gold in its category as "mezcal brandy." This win also spurred the name change to tequila, based on Suaza's hometown of Tequila, Mexico, as the spirit had been more widely referred to as mezcal before this.

It took the creation of the margarita and tequila's popularity with musicians in the '70s for the spirit to truly take hold in America, but now it is the No. 2 selling liquor in the country, behind vodka. And it all started more than 150 years ago with a few barrels.