Cristalino
A Mexican-specific practice: tequila is aged in oak then carbon-filtered to strip the color while retaining most of the aged character. Recognized commercially but not codified as a separate aging class in NOM-006-SCFI-2012.
Cristalino is a Mexican-specific aging practice for tequila. The spirit is aged in oak (typically for añejo or extra añejo duration) and then run through activated charcoal filtration, which strips the color and most of the heavier wood tannins while retaining a portion of the aged character (vanillin, lactones, softened mouthfeel). The result is technically aged but visually unaged, hence cristalino ("crystal clear").
Cristalino is the fastest-growing tequila segment in the United States in 2026, on multiple years of double-digit volume growth, and is recognized commercially by the CRT for category-statistics purposes. It is not, however, codified as a separate aging class in 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).. A cristalino bottle's legal aging tier is still the underlying añejo or extra añejo classification it derived from; the carbon-filtration step is a producer choice that the norm does not regulate. The regulation chapter lists cristalino among the things a future NOM-006 revision would likely have to address (medium confidence, since no PROY-NOM-006 with cristalino language has yet entered DOF public comment).
The editorial debate is real. Defenders argue cristalino delivers premium oak-aging character without the heavy color that some drinkers (and many mixologists) find limiting in cocktails. Critics argue carbon filtration strips precisely the wood-tannin layer that justifies the time in oak, and that a "crystal" añejo is a contradiction of the aging tradition. The distillation chapter walks the aging and filtration chemistry in full.