Cazul 100

At a glance

Cazul 100 is a tequila brand made at the historic La Cofradía distillery (NOM 1137NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1137: Hacienda La Cofradía (town of Tequila, Jalisco). Valles-region distillery producing Cazul 100 and a range of contract brands.), which sits on the slopes of the Tequila Volcano on the edge of the town of Tequila itself, in Jalisco's lowland Valles region. Its distinguishing feature is a certification most tequilas do not carry: Cazul 100 is USDA-certified organic, meaning its blue agave is grown and processed to United States organic-farming standards.

Cazul matters as a clean example of two things a reader meets often in this category. It is a brand made at a shared contract distillery rather than at a facility it owns, and it spans two categories, a 100% blue-agave tequila range plus a small mezcal line, under one name.

The organic claim and the range

The line's headline is the USDA organic certification, which applies to the agave farming and the tequila's production process. That is a specific, third-party-audited standard, and it is distinct from the separate, tequila-specific question of undisclosed additives, which organic certification does not directly address. The two should not be confused: organic speaks to how the agave was grown, not to whether colour, sweetener, oak extract, or glycerin were added later under NOM-006-SCFI-2012A regulatory-standard NOM is a federal Mexican product norm. Unlike facility NOMs (4-digit identifiers of specific distilleries), a standard NOM defines the rules for an entire category of product: which raw materials are permitted, where the product may be made, how it must be processed, and how the bottle must be labeled. Standard NOMs are written as "NOM-XXX-SCFI-YYYY" where XXX is the standard number and YYYY is the year. NOM-006-SCFI-2012 (Tequila). The official Mexican standard governing every aspect of Tequila production: which agave species may be used (only Agave tequilana Weber var. azul), which states and municipalities qualify, how the spirit must be distilled, what additives are permitted (up to 1% by volume even in '100% agave' bottles), and how the bottle must be labeled. Enforced by the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT)..

The blue-agave (Agave tequilana) range runs from a Silver (unaged) through a Reposado, an Añejo, and an Extra Añejo, climbing the standard tequila ageing ladder. Alongside it, Cazul 100 also bottles an Espadín Joven mezcal, an unaged mezcal from the cultivated espadín agave, the workhorse behind most Oaxacan mezcal. A blue-agave tequila house also putting out an espadín mezcal is a common way brands extend across the two best-known agave categories at once.

La Cofradía, the distillery behind the brand

Every certified tequila carries a four-digit NOMNOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana): the official Mexican standard number. On a tequila label the four-digit NOM identifies the distillery that physically made the spirit, not the brand. One facility can bottle many different brands. identifying its distillery. Cazul 100 is made under NOM 1137NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) is the Mexican federal product-standard system. On a tequila bottle the NOM number is the unique identifier of the distillery facility where the tequila was made — every drop in the bottle came from a plant operating under that NOM. Different brands made at the same NOM share a distillery. NOM 1137: Hacienda La Cofradía (town of Tequila, Jalisco). Valles-region distillery producing Cazul 100 and a range of contract brands., La Cofradía, a long-running family distillery on the outskirts of the town of Tequila. La Cofradía is a multi-brand facility with a notable history: it was the original production home of Clase Azul before that brand built its own distillery. A shared NOM is entirely normal in tequila and says nothing in itself about quality; it does mean Cazul 100 is best understood as a brand produced at La Cofradía rather than as a distillery in its own right.

Where Cazul 100 sits

Cazul 100 is a mid-profile, organically certified tequila made at a historic shared distillery, with a small mezcal extension. It belongs to the large middle of the category: brands that are made under contract at an established facility and differentiate on a specific claim, here organic farming, rather than on owning their own land and stills. Reading it against a brand at the same distillery, like the better-known Clase Azul in its early days, or against an estate house like Fortaleza, shows how much of a tequila's identity lives in the brand and its claims rather than in a distillery it alone controls.

See also