As a brand in Australia, Tapatio is pretty much unknown outside of the bartending community. Eau de Vie, with their comprehensive collection of spirituous liquors does not have one of these amongst their shelves. There are however two (or, at least, their were four months ago) clustered in the hanging luscious fruits at Der Raum in Melbourne.
Tapatio is not sold outside of Mexico, possibly because of a trademark dispute with El Tapatio Hot Sauce. Bottles to be found in Australia are generally wrapped in layers of clothes and smuggled across the border, the result of big brand junkets or the occasional self-funded pilgrimage to tequila’s promised land, the mountain state of Jalisco.
Tapatio is the word for a local from Guadalajara in Jalisco. It can be used to associate pretty much any person or object with that location. For any of you pertaining to be semantic etymologists, the word has its origins in pre-Colombian times, from tapatiotl, a monetary unit of the Nahuatl language, spoken by the Aztec peoples.
The tequila itself, for me at least, defines the category. Well distilled, sweet & smooth with a wonderful body of earthy agave flavour. It is worth the effort of seeking out and finding a bottle, and certainly the one to ask for if you have friends in Mexico stupid enough to offer to be your tequila mule.
You might expect that a product as good as this must have made the leap out of the market and into the rest of the world. You’d be absolutely correct. Tapatio distills another brand at its home, El Tersoro de Don Felipe and I’ll be writing about that, next week.
Everyday Drinking 
This is rubbish, tapatio is available in the States and the UK. It is verybhighly regarded by the UK scene as one of the best tequilasbgoing and a great example of what makes highland tequila special. If you don’t believe me I have plenty of photos. Marty
I believe you buddy.
I found an article from 10+ years ago that talked about why Los Tapatio had started the El Tersoro brand. It talked about extremely limited distribution outside of Mexico. My experience of tapatio has definitely been ex- Mexico, your own bottle among them.
Apologies that my mistake Marty, my knowledge is mostly incomplete but my passion genuine. Luckily, I am but a humble blogger, unshackled by the extremely high burden of proof and exhaustive research exemplified by your fiancée and soon to be father in law.
I’d completely agree it is one of the best tequila’s going.
I guess it is just another of those wonderful products available around the world that just doesn’t quite make it down under.
To the rest of you, I would be happy to receive a bottle from any location, UK or otherwise. Apparently it is not that hard to come by.
This also from Nat Ng on my facebook account, good news for any Syndeysiders who want to get on board.:
Natalie Ng: there is a bottle of tapatio anejo at pacifico if anyone is interested to try. Truely one of my top 3 tequilas ever. Interesting to note this tequila coming from the same distillery as el tesoro…it is one of the only distilleries surrounded by lime trees that create a lovely citric acidity in the air that truely affects the agaves. Mucho mucho ♥ it! salud! xx
There is a very tasty bottle in my house so it also does make it Down Under, in fact, no doubt there is more Tapatio ‘per capita’ in New Zealand than there is in Australia