A Chowhound feature published August 1 and syndicated through AOL is circulating again the record that M Cantina, a Mexican restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, set for the largest commercially available selection of agave spirits at any restaurant in the world. The piece, credited to writer Abbe Lewis, points readers to chef Junior Merino's restaurant on Michigan Avenue as the place to find the country's deepest tequila and mezcal list.
The underlying record is not new. Guinness World Records certified M Cantina's collection on June 10, 2025, after an adjudicator counted 1,825 distinct bottles of 100 percent agave spirits on site, a tally first reported by Detroit outlets including WXYZ and The Detroit News.
The count behind the number
Guinness credited M Cantina with 1,825 bottles spanning tequila, mezcal, raicilla, bacanora and sotol, a total that beat the prior record of 1,033 bottles by nearly 800. Adjudicator Chloe McCarthy said every bottle in the count met a quality and authenticity bar, and confirmed the availability of each one before certifying the title. Coverage of the count also noted that the collection excludes mixto tequila, the cheaper style cut with non-agave sugars, meaning the entire tally is built from 100 percent agave product.
Who set the previous mark, and how fast it fell
The record M Cantina broke belonged to Meximodo, a restaurant in Metuchen, New Jersey, owned by Le Malt Hospitality Group under Saurabh Abrol. Meximodo opened in November 2023 and was certified by Guinness on July 24, 2024, National Tequila Day, with more than 1,000 hand selected bottles ranging from mainstream brands to small artisanal producers. M Cantina's tally arrived less than a year later and cleared that mark by a wide enough margin that the turnover reads less like an incremental improvement and more like a full changing of the guard.
Who is behind the list
Merino, who markets himself as "The Liquid Chef," has been recognized by the Mexican government as an ambassador for gastronomy, tourism and Mexican beverages, and built the collection over years of sourcing trips through Mexico to find spirits from small producers not widely distributed in the United States. A representative from the Jalisco state government, Giovanni Alcalá, attended the certification, a detail that outlets framed as recognition from tequila's home region rather than a domestic industry group.
What is actually on the shelf
The Chowhound account highlights a handful of higher end pours on M Cantina's list: a Casino Azul Añejo Jaguar in a handcrafted gold jaguar bottle retailing near 235 dollars, a Crotalo Extra Añejo aged seven years in French oak and port barrels near 143 dollars, and a Fortaleza Winter Blend 2021 Reposado priced near 600 dollars, aged six months in American oak and then ten months in French oak barrels previously used for port. We have not blind scored that specific 2021 Winter Blend release. We have scored standard Fortaleza Reposado at 93 and Verified Pure, and separately scored the 2019 and 2020 Winter Blend vintages at 90 and 89 respectively, both Unverified, so buyers should treat vintage specific claims about the 2021 bottling as unconfirmed until it is tested on its own.
Why a bottle count is not a purity claim
A record for volume says nothing about what is in any single bottle. Guinness verified that M Cantina's inventory is 100 percent agave rather than mixto, which rules out one category of dilution, but it does not verify additive use, diacetyl, glycerin or coloring agents batch by batch. That distinction matters more to us than the header number: a restaurant can hold a record for breadth while individual bottles on its shelf still carry Unverified status in a database like ours, because breadth and independent lab or sourcing verification are different questions entirely.
What we are watching
Whether Meximodo or another operator files a new Guinness attempt now that the bar sits at 1,825 bottles. Whether M Cantina publishes a full bottle list that would let outside reviewers, including us, check specific SKUs against purity and NOM records. Whether the Jalisco government's presence at the certification signals any formal promotional tie between the state and the restaurant going forward. And whether any of the higher end bottles cited in this round of coverage, particularly limited Fortaleza vintages, turn up for blind scoring where we can verify the claims made about aging and cask history rather than take a menu description at face value.