Good Morning Spirit lovers. And boy do I have some good news for you! If you ordered some In Good Spirits merch, We have received them this week and I have already started packing orders! I was able to get through quite a few yesterday and will be putting them in the mail by the time this newsletter hits your inbox! Thank you all for your patience on this, and I cannot wait for you folks to get your hands on your orders!

If you didn’t order a hoodie or a Shirt and would still like to, you still can! I ordered a few extras of each size should I should be able to ship those quickly! Head over to my website in the store and order some now!

Also! We are hosting a private dinner with our friends at St George Spirits, on Wednesday March 26th at 6 PM! St George was like the first craft distillery in the whole U.S.A when they launched back in the 80s and today are one of the largest independently owned distilleries in existence. They created the first commercially available absinthe in the U.S in almost 100 years. This event is going to be a great time! Don’t miss it.

This week i posted this video on how not all Mezcal is necessarily smokey featuring Mezcal de Leyendas

Anyway, enough about me. Lets get to this weeks newsletter!

Tequila on Trial: The Legal Battle Over Additives, Transparency, and Who Controls the Agave Narrative

Here we go again. There is another new development in the ongoing CRT vs. Tequila Matchmaker Battle Drama. The ongoing conflict between tequila’s governing body and transparency advocates has reached a new peak, with a freshly filed lawsuit now central to the saga. Here’s the latest, updated to reflect recent developments and a bit of history.

The Latest: CRT Files Lawsuit Against Tequila Matchmaker

This week, Mexico’s Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT) escalated its years-long campaign against transparency advocates, Tequila Matchmaker, by suing the Additive Free Alliance (AFA) and S2F Online (parent company of Tequila Matchmaker) in a Florida federal court. The CRT claims exclusive authority to certify tequilas and accuses the groups of “misleading consumers” by labeling bottles as “additive-free” without approval. The lawsuit seeks to block their certification efforts and ban the term “additive-free,” calling it a “health-related falsehood.”

The Backstory: A Timeline of Tensions

Several months ago, the feud took a dramatic turn when the CRT prompted the Mexican authorities to raid Tequila Matchmakers office, and then a few months later began targeting brands associated with Tequila Matchmaker (TMM), a decade-old platform beloved by bartenders and enthusiasts for its crowdsourced reviews (think “Rotten Tomatoes for tequila”). Here’s how we got here:

1. TMM’s Additive-Free Movement Gains Momentum

   • TMM, founded by Grover and Scarlet Sanschagrin, began flagging tequilas as “additive-free” on their website, highlighting brands that avoid sweeteners, colorants, or flavorings (permitted by the CRT but not disclosed on labels).

   • The initiative resonated with bartenders, influencers, and drinkers, sparking a surge in demand for additive-free options.

2. CRT Retaliates

   • The CRT declared itself the sole certifier of tequila, demanding that TMM stops everything they are doing and halt testing, and also demanding brands remove “additive-free” stickers from bottles.

   • Several months ago, the CRT escalated by raiding the Sanschagrins’ home in Guadalajara—a move that yielded no evidence of wrongdoing but intensified public backlash.

3. CRT’s Short-Lived Certification & Brand Threats

   • The CRT briefly launched its own “additive-free” program, naming Patrón as its first (and only) certified brand. The program collapsed amid criticism.

   • The regulator then pressured brands to dissociate from TMM, threatening consequences for those featured on additive-free lists or using TMM’s “confirmed additive-free” stickers.

4. TMM Fights Back

   • TMM relaunched its efforts as the independent Additive Free Alliance (AFA), expanding focus to include mezcal, raicilla, and agave-adjacent products.

Why This Matters

• 70% of tequilas reportedly contain additives, yet the CRT permits brands to use “100% agave” labels even with ≤1% additives.

• The AFA and TMM have filled this transparency gap, but the CRT’s lawsuit aims to dismantle their efforts—fueling accusations that the regulator prioritizes big brands over consumer trust.

The Bigger Picture
This clash isn’t just about tequila—it’s a fight over who controls information in a multi-billion-dollar industry. Should regulators shield corporations or empower consumers? The answer will shape the future of spirits.

As Our Beloved King’s Tariffs Finally Go into Effect, the Impact Is Already Being Felt…

… was the article I prepared for this week before the orange man reversed the tariffs…. AGAIN. But since in a month well have to talk about this again… I think this is still very important.

We wrote several weeks back about the impact that our supreme overlord’s very smart, and not self-destructive at all, tariffs would have, and it seems that just a few days after being enacted we are already seeing the direct impacts of it. 

Our friends from the Good Bottle Podcast, shared this photo and facebook update from a new brand that had been working very hard to launch their brand in the U.S. Now we could sit here and argue if the world needs more tequila brands, but that's besides the point. It must feel awful to be working so hard for years on something just to then get hit with a bill of $40,000 when they are so close to finally introducing their product to the market..

I went live on Instagram and TikTok on Wednesday of this week and so many people asked me about “If the tariffs will raise prices” And my response was “It's not a matter of opinion, mine or anyone else's. It's a matter of policy, prices WILL go up” And now we’ve been getting quite a few different sources confirming as such. 

Of course some brands COULD absorb the tariffs and our friends at Suerte, did announce that they will be absorbing the tariffs onto themselves rather than passing that onto the end consumer. So cheers to you my friends!

But it's not just foreign spirits that will be impacted, and PintsAndPanels created an incredible graphic showcasing just how far reaching these dumbass tariffs will impact the industry.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGxslDFz6XP/

Oh, and if I somehow didn't make it clear enough, this is stupid, the president is a fascist and if you support any of this please unfollow me. Dont email me telling me “I cant believe you’d mix politics into your content” Just unsubscribe & kindly fuck off. 

Wow, I got a bit heated there. Anyway, for those of you who are still here, let's continue! 

Best Video We Saw This Week

HumanTabasco is an Instagram creator who makes some hilarious videos about the day-to-day life of working with the public and being a server. If you have ever worked in a customer-facing job in your life, I think you'll get a chuckle. If you haven't ever done that, well please watch this so that you can understand what we deal with — this is barely an exaggeration. 

Oh and just for good measure, watch this one too. 

Quick Hits:

• Our friend (and editor) Dylan Ettinger, wrote an incredible piece about Angostura Bitters and their 200-year-old secret recipe.

• Incredible YouTuber, Kevin Kos, posted an incredible video making a Batanga Sour

• VinePair launched a Bartender Competition with a $5000 grand prize!