Spirits distributors sampled by IRI for the week of May 4 reported tequila volume flat to down 2 percent against the same week of 2025 — the holiday's softest comparable in three years. [1] Yesterday's paper called the cycle's end and argued the durable cultural artifact would be the Jose Cuervo print, not the bar tab. Day five confirms it.
Becle, the parent company of Jose Cuervo, reported its quarterly results Thursday. Cinco de Mayo–week shipments were within 1 percent of 2025's number; full-quarter U.S. tequila volume fell 4 percent, and the company guided full-year 2026 volume to be "modestly lower" than 2025. [2] Diageo, which owns Don Julio and Casamigos, cut its full-year North American spirits guidance the same week, naming GLP-1 medications and an aging high-end consumer base as overlapping pressures. [3]
The flat-to-down read is not the headline. The headline is what the holiday is starting to mean. Cinco de Mayo's U.S. expansion as a tequila-marketing event began in the mid-1990s. Three decades of compounding cultural lift produced the pre-pandemic peak — roughly $400 million in U.S. on-premise tequila sales the week of the holiday in 2019. The 2026 print suggests the cycle has plateaued. What replaces the lift, the spirits sector has not figured out.
-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago