Star street artist and designer Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, has teamed up with Japanese culinary giant Nobu and the tequila maker, Qui Tequila, in—you guessed it—a luxury tequila collaboration, dubbed 2025 NOBU Rare.
Created to celebrate the Nobu restaurant and hotel empire’s 30th anniversary, chef Nobu Matsuhisa—a longtime collector of KAWS’s work—says the limited-edition, 25-year-old extra añejo tequila combines two of his passions.
“It’s like my dream come true—my favorite tequila, my favorite artist,” he told Qui Tequila’s founder, restaurateur Medhat Ibrahim, in a clip on the company’s website.
“I met KAWS more than 20 years ago,” Matsuhisa remembers. His paintings are, “colorful, simple, for me, clean. A lot of passion I feel, from his art.”
Donnelly, who began as a graffiti artist on the streets of New York, is now globally known for his recurring, cartoon-inspired characters, including a Micky Mouse-like figure with crossed-out eyes. His works are currently on view at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and have appeared in several high-profile collaborations, including a 2017 Nike Air Jordan release that famously sold out within seconds. The shoes can now fetch thousands of dollars on the secondary market.
The 2025 NOBU Rare bottles each bear Donnelly’s signature, bubble-cartoon lettering, stacked in the vein of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculptures to spell out “Nobu” in muted shades of gray, red, or blue. Donnelly brings the letters to life playfully, outfitting them with crossed-out eyes and puffy white gloves reaching for the next letter. A similar design is printed on the bottle packaging.
2025 NOBU Rare limited-edition, extra añejo tequila. Photo by Jenny Lin
“I’m honored to design this bottle for your 30th anniversary and to have a friendship for the last 15 years!” KAWS wrote in a statement addressed to Matsuhisa on his Instagram account.
For the first of several launches this fall, a collector’s series set containing all three shades of 2025 NOBU Rare bottles are now available for pre-order at $3,000 a pop. Limited to 300 sets, they were still available at the time of writing. Additional 750 ml bottles, priced at $1,000, will launch this fall, including the blue version coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach.
Visual artistry aside, Matsuhisa says he noticed a similar “passion” in how Qui Tequila crafts their agave spirits without sugar or additives. The two have joined forces in the past, releasing a few editions of a Nobu Rare Blend tequila, though this latest drop stands apart, due to its age. In fact, according to Ibrahim, 2025 NOBU Rare is one of the oldest available tequilas on the market.
Chef Nobu Matsuhisa speaking to Qui Tequila founder and restaurateur Medhat Ibrahim. Photo by Jenny Lin
“We selected a truly unique extra añejo tequila, harvested and distilled in 1999,” Ibrahim said in a press statement. Aged in oak barrels and rested in stainless steel tanks, it has notes of cherry, honey, toffee, dried orange, white pepper, and cooked agave. Based in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, Qui Tequila has also won awards for their “crystal-clear” extra añejo, thanks in part to a small batch distillation process that only uses the “heart” or middle, and best part of each aged tequila.
In terms of the ultimate, taste test, some early reviews are in, and so far they are glowing. “What struck me about this bottling was the light hand, which allows the agave to shine through,” wrote Bloomberg’s contributing spirits critic, Kara Newman. “Instead of tasting like a tequila-dipped candy bar, the honeyed agave core was evident from the first sip, accented by hints of jalapeño and even a smoky waft.” Would she pair it with sushi? Perhaps not, but to a sip alongside Nobu’s “famous miso cod,” the answer was a resounding, yes, please.