Tequila Wars: José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico

by Ted Genoways

A revelatory history of the vast tequila empire born from the fires of the Mexican Revolution.


At the dawn of the twentieth century, José Cuervo inherited his family’s humble distillery in the Tequila Valley; within a decade, he had transformed it into a complex national enterprise that would become Mexico’s leading producer of tequila. Cuervo built this kingdom of agave with ingenuity and grit. He brought electricity and a railroad line to Tequila, but when the Mexican Revolution erupted, that wealth put a target on his back. His arrest and the death threat against him by Pancho Villa forced Cuervo to flee, and his disappearance turned him into an obscure, shadowy historical figure. Award-winning author Ted Genoways restores Cuervo to his place as a key player in Mexico’s formative period. Genoways also reveals how Cuervo favored “a union of tequila makers” in what would become the first Mexican cartel. Tequila Wars uncovers the history of the man who would forever change not only the business of tequila, but cross-border commerce and conflict.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Audiobook, Food, Business, World History

368 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Ted Genoways is an acclaimed journalist and author of The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food. A contributing editor at Mother Jones, the New Republic, and Pacific Standard, he is the winner of a National Press Club Award and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and is a two-time James Beard Foundation Award finalist. He has received fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. A fourth-generation Nebraskan, Genoways lives outside Lincoln with his wife, Mary Anne Andrei, and their son.

Reviews

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastically researched book about the Tequila Wars in Mexico by author Ted Genoways. This book deals with Jose Cuervo, his family, his rival the Sauza family and the sad wars in Mexico for over 50 years. Yes, the liquor Tequila plays a big part in this, but the actual town of Tequila is really the main player in all the revolutions that swept through the country. So many times the city was burned, bombarded, its citizens killed either by revolutionaries or constitutionalsts. Cuervo was survivor, and a political force besides being the larges Agave grower and distiller of Tequila. This is truly the first book that tells the entire truthful stuggle that the Mexican citizens endured and by the end we come o realize that all the bootleg routes used by the Tequila companies no longer are needed but have been taken over by the Mexican drug cartels. Wonderful depiction of the life and times of Cuervo and others and a definite book to read if you wish to understand Mexico!

[Morgan Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that tequila is named after a volcano? I didn’t! I also had no idea that José Cuervo was a real person until I picked up this book. The Tequila Wars dives deep into the rivalry between Cenobio Sauza, José Cuervo, and the Mexican government in the 1800s, revealing the corruption, power struggles, and intrigue behind Mexico’s most famous spirit.

This was such an interesting read. I’m not usually a big nonfiction person, but I love learning about the history of food and alcohol. When I travel, I make it a point to explore local cuisine and beverages, and Mexico is one of my favorite destinations. The food, the culture, the people—I love it all. I’ve also been on a streak of reading Mexican fiction set in the 1800s and early 1900s, so this book felt like the perfect fit, and I was right.

Alongside its rich history, I really appreciated the old photographs, maps, and documents woven throughout the book. They helped bring the story to life. Also, I was fascinated to learn that agave plants take 12 years to mature—talk about patience! It’s clear that The Tequila Wars was thoroughly researched, and if this is a topic that interests you, it will absolutely scratch that itch. However, if history books aren’t your thing, even when they cover engaging subjects, this might not be for you.

After finishing, I have an overwhelming urge to book another trip to Mexico, visit Tequila, and see where all of this history unfolded. Salud! And muchas gracias to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the eARC—I learned so much!

[Bethany Borgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book literally felt like fiction. I didn’t know anything about the Mexican revolution before this and OH MY GOD was it crazy. Is Jose Cuervo a dirty little capitalist despot?? Maybe. But god damn can my boy make some tequila (and also rig elections and violently force communities to progress into the new age so he can create and transport more tequila). Might have to throw back a shot in his honor tonight

[Miguel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book.
what's not to love? México, Tequila, the revolution?

it really is an interesting story but the author jumps back in time so many times that you forget what year he's referencing.
also, there are so many historical figures that it's hard to keep track of who is who and which side everyone is on.

there were good moments but too many flaws

[Annalise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love history, but how do you make the trials and triumphs of TEQUILA and Jose Cuervo BORINGGG! The amount of info dumping was insane and the ridiculously long chapters didn't help either. I also read the audio book at an increased speed and it still was the longest 4 hours of my life (the audio was 8-9 hours long). The narrator was okay for the most part as well, but it wasn't much help. I think there should've been more of a narrative to build around rather than this textbook-esque format.

[Stella Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was really well researched especially considering the difficulties with everything repeatedly being burnt down etc., but i just wish there was more of a narrative or tighter focus. it’s more so about the cuervo family, as a whole, oscillating between barely surviving and promptly taking advantage of their luck when they can. i liked but i think i disassociated somewhere in the middle because the various plots and rebellions felt circular and while the author was great about bringing this back to how it impacted the town of tequila and the cuervos, some of it just felt less impactful. i did really like Ana and Lupe’s contributions and was glad they were emphasized

[George Geranios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history of Jose Cuervo!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I was always a tequila (for my margarita) girl and when I saw this book I really wanted to read it.
I was surprised by the dramatic and squalid history. This book appears to be a very well researched book that delves into the History and not just how Tequila is made. I figured this was more about how it was made, plants it came from and the struggle to get it to market. But it's the whole sordid history that I had no idea about. It was so interesting and I am sure I will think of this everytime I come across Tequila.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc audiobook.

[DAISY READS HORROR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story. I was interested in this topic after visiting Tequila, Jalisco and touring the Obregón distillery.

I liked that the author put photos throughout the book so I could put faces to the names.

The descriptions of the setting made me feel like I was walking along these men back in time as they made their pacts over business meetings and eventually war.

[Grant Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feel like I need a shot of Tequila after reading this. Also did not realize that tequila came from the name of a city.

[Paul Mackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

How José Cuervo transformed the tequila industry across Mexico and the U.S.

https://popculturelunchbox.substack.c...

José Cuervo was a wealthy industrialist and an affable, well-liked man who also wielded serious political influence. Author Ted Genoways argues that Cuervo may be Mexico’s most famous person ever, but his new book—Tequila Wars: Jose Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico—is, surprisingly, the first biography about the legendary liquor baron. Many people, Genoways writes, don’t even realize José Cuervo was a real person, not just a brand.

That’s exactly why I was drawn to Tequila Wars. Tequila may be my favorite spirit, but I had no idea about the colorful history behind its most famous label.

I dove into the book, but honestly, it turned out to be a slog. Still, here’s what I did learn from the first quarter.

The Cuervo family were already powerful figures in the Tequila Valley, northwest of Mexico City, long before José was born in 1869. He spent his youth riding horses on the hillsides, playing chess and cards, and “attending formal dinners and cotillions in the courtyards of Tequila as a suitor for daughters in other wealthy families.”

The early years of tequila production were fraught with disaster—between pests destroying the agave and the occasional batch turning out undrinkable, the business was risky. But when the Mexican Central Railway was completed in 1888 through the region, a new era began—though plagued by setbacks like floods and destructive tariffs. When tariffs were finally removed on liquor traffic between Mexico and the U.S., it marked the start of tequila’s international rise. Still, Cuervo faced an uphill battle: ruthless Jalisco taxes and a flood of nearly poisonous counterfeit tequilas tarnished the beverage’s reputation. As Genoways notes, “This was creating the public perception that tequila itself was headache-inducing, or even dangerous, giving fuel to both public health and temperance advocates, who wanted to see its sale limited, or, if possible, outlawed.”

At age 21, José took his only job outside tequila—serving as mayor of the small town of Magdalena. But after a storm washed bodies out of the local graveyard, townsfolk considered him bad luck and sent him packing.

By the book’s fourth chapter, Cuervo was in the U.S., marketing his product—most notably at the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904, where tequila and mezcal were billed in the program as “those peculiarly Mexican drinks.”

Before I could finish the book, I switched over to Wikipedia to get more answers.

Spain granted land near the town of Tequila in 1758 to the Cuervo family, who soon began cultivating blue agave and experimenting with fermentation. In 1795, King Carlos IV granted José María Guadalupe de Cuervo permission to sell tequila commercially (King Carlos III had previously banned its sale). The brand was officially named Jose Cuervo Tequila in 1900, with the first bottles appearing that decade. It didn’t truly break into the U.S. market until Prohibition, when it was smuggled across the border. The real José Cuervo died in January 1921 under mysterious circumstances—possibly poisoning—setting off a violent battle for industry control. Tequila’s fortunes improved as World War II restricted European imports and the U.S. market kept growing. Since 2000, tequila’s global popularity has skyrocketed.

Most important of all: According to regulations, in order for a spirit to be called tequila, it must be made from blue agave grown only in Jalisco and a handful of nearby Mexican regions. All Jose Cuervo tequila is still made in Tequila, Jalisco. Agave leaves are chopped off, the core is cooked and crushed to extract juice, which is then fermented and distilled. The resulting clear tequila is diluted to about 40% alcohol before bottling.

If all this is making you thirsty, check out my article 10 cocktails that would fit on any fancy bar and restaurant menu, which features three of my all-time favorite tequila creations.

[Gustavo Lozano · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s an interesting book, but unnecessarily long, exhausting, repetitive, and not very historically reliable. It is, I would say, 50% novel—or the author’s wild imagination—and 50% nonfiction.And from the historical parts, there are unforgivable mistakes.

Creative nonfiction is a very fluid genre, but there is a point when one gets disappointed with so much fiction and, especially, the lack of knowledge of Mexican historical events. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of loose ends, and no clear narrative line.

The author, for example, does not understand much about the French Intervention of the 1860s, portraying the French as barbarous, destroying hordes—far from reality. He portrays the early Cuervos as rogue, rebellious but lovable characters. But they were pragmatic politicians; one was the governor of the state of Jalisco.

On top of this, the book suffers from several structural and narrative problems that make it far more confusing than it needs to be. First, the author has serious trouble keeping a clear narrative focus: the story constantly wanders into tangents, minor anecdotes, and digressions that interrupt the central thread, to the point that readers never quite know what the book is trying to be—family saga, political chronicle, business history, or novelized drama. Second, scenes are often described without spatial or situational clarity, as if stitched together from scraps of testimony. Third, characters rarely have discernible emotional motivations, making them feel more like props than historical figures. And finally, the book accumulates information without synthesis, producing an overwhelming sense of narrative sprawl.

All those detailed, long dialogues between people in the 19th century—dialogue that is rather unrecoverable by professional historians—made me suspicious. He has a problem distinguishing sources. When he describes the important visit of José López Portillo to La Rojeña, his source is a novel (!) written by López-Portillo—yes, but a novel nonetheless. When one reads excerpts like “where Florentino sought to succeed by destroying the work of his enemies and exacting revenge on anyone who stood in his way, Malaquías was more patient and strategic. He could see that...’’ it is clear that one is reading fiction.

When the author describes the killing of Manuel Piélago by Florentino Cuervo, he not only gets the details wrong (he calls Piélago a general, which he was not), but uses extensive creative license to describe the hanging of the man. Also, Ganoways depicts this Florentino Cuervo as a conservative opposing the government of Benito Juárez because the new constitution had "the goal of breaking up haciendas". Wrong on all accounts. First, Florentino Cuervo actually sided with Juarez. Second, the constitution of 1857 did not aim to redistribute the lands of large estates or to implement a broad agrarian reform against large landholdings. Its approach was classically liberal: to protect private property! And third, Florentino Cuervo was not "the most feared military leader" of Jalisco. In fact, he barely appears in the historical record.

There are other minor details, unimportant in the whole picture, but that denote a great misunderstanding of Mexican life, like when he describes a marriage in front of the civil officer “Bible in hand”!

Among his sources, there are memoirs (like the one written by Lupe Gallardo) that Ted Genoways uses so extensively (pages and pages of quoting Lupe’s book) that it should fall under dishonest use and/or copyright infringement. Better to read Lupe Gallardo’s book! On another page, he takes an open letter signed in 1909 by dozens of distinguished citizens of Guadalajara (among them Mr. Cuervo) and published in a newspaper in support of President Díaz, and converts it into a dinner at Cuervo’s house. And so on. His understanding of the Mexican Revolution is childish and inaccurate. Pancho Villa never turned against Madero, for example. Pancho Villa did not ban alcohol in Guadalajara (just because a gossip newspaper of the time said Villa would do it, does not make it true). And those dozens and dozens of pages summarizing the Mexican Revolution—what for?

Finally, I believe the book is exhaustingly and unnecessarily long (like this review!), filled with stories like the Cinco Minas uprising, which have nothing to do with the subject and only distract and tire the reader. I didn’t find a story of a “bloody tequila war for the spirit of Mexico,” but a very long and exhausting collection of business anecdotes and small-town quarrels.

Take this unnecessarily mammoth book with caution—it has great stories, but the imagination of the author and extensive creative licenses have colored them all.

[Maya Mathew · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.25 out of 5 stars)
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Tequila, history, Mexican Revolution…I’m in. Ted Genoways’ Tequila Wars: José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico delivers on the history and conflict but sometimes stumbles in how it frames its central figure. The book’s strongest moments, like the opening chase scene of José Cuervo fleeing Guadalajara ahead of the military commandante, have real cinematic punch. Yet Genoways’s portrayal of Cuervo as a “strategically invisible” man feels at odds with the evidence of his influence on politics, infrastructure, and industry. Invisible people don’t become Speaker of the Senate. Cenobio Sauza, Cuervo’s slippery rival, is fascinating in his own grimly pragmatic way, though the narrative could easily flip perspectives and cast him in a more sympathetic light. The Cuervo-Sauza feud, set against the chaos of revolution, imperialism, and modernization, keeps the pages turning; even if the tone occasionally drifts between hagiography and history lesson.

There’s something oddly modern in how Genoways shows government paranoia, especially when the U.S. suspected Cuervo of plotting to invade Texas because of the Zimmermann Telegram. The absurdity of that moment, alongside the decades of literal and fiscal survival the Cuervos endured, gives the story bite. The “poisoning” twist near the end is unexpected, shifting what felt like a slow simmer of political tension into personal tragedy. I didn’t exactly identify with José, but I recognize men like Cenobio—ambitious, shrewd, and not always likable. For all its rough edges, Tequila Wars is a well-paced, occasionally uneven history that makes you appreciate how fragile the survival of tequila itself really was. By the last page, one thing’s certain: José Cuervo may have been called a failure, but his legacy and his brand proved far more enduring than his enemies ever imagined.

[William Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the center of this engrossing tale of murder, mayhem and civil war in Mexico entitled "Tequila Wars: The Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico," written by Ted Genoways and published by WW Norton, is the enigmatic figure of Jose Cuervo and the traumatic decades of sweeping social and economic change which followed the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. I thank the folks at Norton for allowing me access to an ARC of the text, and I am pleased to report that it is a fascinating book for anyone with even the slightest interest in Mexican history. In many ways, the author places Cuervo and his iconic product as a kind of marker for the kind of change which swept Mexico following the collapse of the abortive Hapsburg monarchy and the ensuing years of fast paced change in Mexico. The text traces the growth of the tequila industry and the leading figures in its development and uses them to introduce and expand upon the nature of social and economic change in Mexico as Diaz toppled and Mexico descended into civil war. The story has a bit of everything, almost Shakespearean in this retelling. I have never read a finer description of the circumstances and pressures that forged the emerging nation of Mexico in the late nineteenth century and through the troubled first few decades of the twentieth. The choice of Jose Cuervo as a nexus for all of this is inspired. Family, religion, wealth and the titanic military struggle that ultimately laid the foundations for the modern Mexican state are all carefully set forth as a sort of window into the world of the ascendant middle class in Mexico as it began to define and assert itself. Reading this book would be of benefit to scholars already focused on Mexican history and to new or aspiring students trying to make sense of Mexico's place in the modern world.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was provided an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I had no idea tequila had such a sordid history. I love a well made margarita or tequila cocktail, but I had no idea that the families that made tequila a staple in my liquor cabinet had such a political and violent history. This follows José Cuervo and the Cuervo family as they struggle to maintain ownership of their land on which the agave is grown and distilleries that produce the tequila. At the same time other families are growing and distilling tequila and trying to usurp one another as best in brand.

I expected this to be more about the growing of agave and the process of making tequila, but this is more about the history of the Tequila Valley and the Cuervo family. There is some information about the making and distillation process but that is not the focus, this is more of a biography of Cuervo's life and family and it is packed with information. Who knew tequila had so many political ties? I had no idea that José Cuervo was such an influential force not only in the tequila business but in the political sphere as well.

This was such a well researched book and provided an insight into facts and historical figures that I've heard about in the past but didn't know much about. I don't even know if I knew José Cuervo was a real person only the name of a popular brand until listening to this book. If you are interested in history, specifically Mexican history this is a really interesting tale with a little bit of history on tequila as well. I enjoy learning new things especially the history of food and drink, and this was a great and engaging non-fiction book.

[Brisa Barbosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a mexican who have lived almost twenty years in Guadalajara, a city very close to Tequila town, (and a tequila entusiastic) it is very interesting to know more about Cuervo brand. Of course I knew about La Rojeña destillery and Cuevo as a family who owned it. But in this book, you can find a lot of historic details and, as the title anunced, the struggle behind the raise and evolution of the spirit beverage. Also, a close look about the Mexican Revolution in the west Estate of Jalisco and how Cuevo and anothers producers of Tequila like Sauza family, had to gambled to survive during that convulsive period.
Of course, I think is neccesary to have a general idea about the Mexican Revolution to understand better the context, otherwise, you can feel "lost" in a world of details, places, names... at the end, it is a microhistory, a great effort by the author (who is an academic) to put togheter important events and the way that a character like José Cuervo, a landowner and visionary man, could built a tequila empire (for instances changing sides as his convenience).
At the end, my only lament is the fact that the worst tequila made in the company (in quality), is precisely one named "José Cuervo". So sad.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books where the writer is trying to tell one story but really wants to write another.

Jose Cuervo as a person doesn’t seem that interesting. He’s from a famous family, has a fascinating story, did some incredible stuff and observed a lot more. But this is a book where it feels like everything is happening around him rather than through him. Which would be fine if he was the auxiliary character and not the purpose of the book.

Because the history stuff on Mexico, particularly their early-2oth century Civil War, was fascinating to read and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about tequila production too for what that’s worth; I truly did not know the name tequila came from the name of the town in which the famous agave leaves were used to make the drink. But I liked it as a history text, even if the narrative can get clunky.

And again, Cuervo being a regular dude with minimal background is not the author’s fault. This isn’t fiction. But it also doesn’t make for the most compelling read. Still a fun book and a good reminder that capital usually drives conflict, as I saw many times with tequila barons backing various politicos so they could traffic their wares.

[Bethany Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that tequila got it's name from the city of Tequila, where it was first produced? Did you know that Jose Cuervo was a real person? I didn't until I read this book! The book follows the rise of both the tequila industry and the Cuervo distillery in the 1800s. That story isn't complete without discussing Jose Cuervo's political influence and the Mexican Revolution. I particularly enjoyed learning about how Jose Cuervo brought the railroad to Tequila and his efforts to expand the export of tequila. This book brings you the history of all of it without feeling like a textbook.

Based upon the book's synopsis, I did think the book would focus more on the distillery process and be a full biography of Jose Cuervo. While the distillery process is mentioned, it is more of a story of the Tequila Valley and the Mexican Revolution.

The book is clearly the result of extensive research! If you're curious about the famous tequila brand, this is the book for you!

*Thank you to RBMedia and NetGalley for the ARC of this book*

[Kevin C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author did a lot of research for this book and was clearly passionate about the subject. However I have so many issues with the book:

1. From everything you read, Jose Cuervo and his entire family were rich, corrupt, insolent assholes who do NOT deserve a book written about them. They stole indigenous land, cheated, thieved, murdered, and corrupted the government at every level. After reading the book, I will likely never drink Jose Cuervo’s trash tequila again.

2. The book was 300 pages or so and around 100 of them were more about the Mexican Revolution.

3. The parts about the Mexican Revolution were told in far too many details that were unnecessary, but also excluded more interesting details.

4. Why did Ted Genoways think the Cuervo family deserved a book? They were terrible people and terrible businessmen. The book is described as honoring or even holding Cuervo on a pedestal of some sort - when in reality he is no one that we should ever read about or know about.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook) This work talks about one of the founding fathers of tequila, but it is not as much about the production of this famous drink. This work is more a discussion about the political and military history of Mexico as it is about the production about a famous brand of alcohol. Cuervo was about his business first and foremost, but he was also in the middle of a very turbulent time in Mexican history. Between the long reign of Diaz, the rise of revolutionaries like Villa and dealing with American intervention into Mexican politics, businessmen like Cuervo might not be surprised to find themselves in the middle of such chaos. Not that Cuervo was a hero to the workers (making them renounce any revolutionary thoughts less they want to get fired) or of the government itself (in the middle of disputes on the role of his beverage in the actions of the population or government. Overall, an intriguing work that would rate the same regardless of format.

[Carson Wolla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very detailed and well researched look into the life of José Cuervo and his family in the tequila industry in the late 19th and early 20th century. It gave insights to the economic tribulations as well as dealing with business deals gone bad all while dealing with revolution and political turmoil. It is fascinating learning about how Cuervo navigated every situation with level headedness as well as his tactical awareness of everything/everyone around him. This book was well researched and you could tell every step of the way the work was put in which is very refreshing to get a most likely misunderstood name in the light to give people an understanding of what it takes to run one of the biggest liquor companies in the world and where it came from. Would definitely recommend this book to those who like history as well as economics a because of the extent of business knowledge and resources provided by the author.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually do reviews as I tend to not deeply analyze books but I felt I had some interesting comments to make regarding this book and anyone who might be wondering if they should read it or not. I'm a tequila drinker so I was intriqued by this book when I saw it on display at my library. It was a little difficult at the beginning to keep up with so many players but it did calm down a little bit. I would have like to have rated it 3.5. I'm selective with my ratings. 3 means, good story enjoyed it, but I reserve 4 and 5 for books that blow me away and I think others should really consider reading. For this read I enjoyed learning the influence of the tequila distillery owners in the history of the Mexican government and economy but that's not for everybody. It was very soap operaish, lol. I feel like it would make a great series like Yellowstone or similar. Now I find myself wanting to head to Guadalajara and go on a tequila tour!!

[Jeremy C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I badly wanted to enjoy this book, but it did not happen. It is a well-researched piece of little known history, but there is no overarching narrative or throughline. Despite being a history guy, I knew very little about the Mexican Revolution, which is the book's principal subject - albeit told with a focus on Tequila (more the place than the spirit). I believe there is a compelling story here within this subject matter (both the revolution, and the building of a business empire), but this particular book doesn't quite get to either of them in a satisfactory way. If focuses on one particular Mexican state (Jalisco) and thus does not give a full telling of the revolution, and ends the Cuervo story at Jose's death, at which time the foundation for the business empire has been laid, but had yet to be realized.

[YoBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this was a fascinating, underexplored and well researched history, I felt the narrative was very clunky, hard to follow, sometimes dry and lacking in crucial information for the less informed. I would’ve liked a little bit on the history of tequila/mezcal/pulque instead of just assuming we know it. Then you have these casual references to aspects of Mexican history, again assuming we know what happened. The book barrels along at a brisk pace, but fluctuates between detailed deceptions of events and glossing over or skipping years of history. I guess this is from the lack of historical documents except the recollections of Lupe? The book is written from a relatively neutral perspective but all of the main players were pretty terrible people. I listened to the audiobook so some of the issues might be do to the monotone of the narrator. Idk if I’d recommend

[Jennifer Bagley · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Round up from 3.5 stars***

I love nonfiction and, having grown up in Texas and learning Texas History in middle school, this was a really fun refresher of that history with the added twist of the biography of Jose Cuervo. I never knew that he was a real person - I really just enjoyed the tequila!

My favorite parts of this book were the personal stories about Jose including how he married his wife and everything leading up to that. The historical aspect do get a bit dry at points but necessary for the storytelling of Jose’s life.

Overall, it was so intriguing to learn about an icon and the story of tequila through this historical lense!

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for an advanced audiobook copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Yari]

Tequila Wars: Jose Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico by Ted Genoways (book cover is in image) provides the reader with the rich and complex history of the rise of tequila as not only a powerful symbol of Mexican culture but its contribution to the development of modern Mexican Cartels.

The Narration by Andrew Joseph Perez is well done and keeps the reader engaged through this entire history. I strongly recommend this book.

Thank you HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4 Stars
Release Date: May 06 2025


#HighBridgeAudio
#TequilaWars
#TedGenoways
#AndrewJosephPerez
#yarisbooknook
#netgalley

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this upcoming book***
Like a lot of people, I have happened to drink Jose Cuervo without knowing anything about the man who was the company's namesake. This book covers the history of the Cuervo family that also serves as a history of Mexican tequila in general.

The book is well researched and interesting but runs into the issue I have with a lot of history books in that it is a bit dry (pardon the pun). That being said, I found it very interesting and would recommend it to history buffs interested in the subject matter. Give it a read!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jose Cuervo’s Tequila history during a time when Mexican government was turbulent and its effects on how it affected the brand. There was a lot of history told, from the government to the family, history buffs unite. It was well researched and captivating, I was hooked. I found this book to be extremely fascinating because I know this region well, and the Mexican Revolution is a topic I am fascinated about.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for an ALC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched book that seemed more about Tequila, the town and not the spirit itself. I learned a lot more about Mexican history in the 1800s and early 1900s, the revolution, the political climate, the feud between the Cuervos and Sauzas, the perseverance of the people of Tequila (the town), etc. It was a challenge, at times, to keep track of all of the historical characters and the amount of history was overwhelming too. A good book, but not quite what I expected when I read reviews and bought it.

[Sam Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Highbridge Audio for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook Tequila Wars by Ted Genoways. Narrated by Andrew Joseph Perez.

I felt the narrator did a good job. His voice is light and kept my interest.

We are guided through a timeline of information as well as messy family history. We are introduced to different family members and events I never knew of. I felt this was a decent balance between facts and family drama. I recommend to those who are curious of the history.