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The Juice
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I Like Cheap Mexican BeerA connoisseur’s confession |
There I was the other day, before the college football national championship game, in the store near my house, browsing the shelves for something game-worthy. I looked at the microbrews from all over and the intriguing imports that I should want to taste. But deep inside, I knew what I was going to buy.
I lingered, aware that the game had already started and that my football buddy would be arriving at my house at any moment. Finally relenting, I bought the one I desired, even though $8.50 is an absurd price to spend for a six-pack of beer as simple as Pacifico, when other, much more serious brews cost the same. But I brought it home and drank three during the game—with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lime in each.
I know I’m supposed to like microbrews and Belgian imports, beers with sharp hops, malty complexity, high alcohols, and rich heads … and I do. But Mexican beer, the light, vapid, pedestrian type, is a guilty pleasure. There’s something about that faint, citrusy zest, pale gold hue, and light carbonation that is soothing and refreshing. And not only with spicy Mexican food, but with Indian and Asian food, sandwiches, and fish. I drink finer, more complex beer with heavier foods or when my body craves something more substantial and enriching. My affection for Mexico’s listless beers puts me in a minority, as demonstrated by the fact that the paladins of RateBeer score my beloved Pacifico abysmally low. “A drinkable beer, but prefer not to,” says one of the raters.
I like many of them—Tecate, Sol, Bohemia, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, Mexicali—but my favorites are Pacifico and Modelo Especial. There was the beer I once drank down in Baja that haunts me, Estrella, though I’ve never found it here. The first beer I ever bought for myself was a Bohemia. I was 15 and in Paris on a family trip to Europe. My parents left me and my 11-year-old sister in our Latin Quarter hotel while they went out for dinner. I was given permission and francs to get something to eat. Just outside the hotel was a stand selling gyros and beer. I bought one of each, and I still remember the flavor.
I like the way Mexico does innocuous more than the way the United States does. I don’t buy the American analogues to the cheap Mexican beers: Bud, Miller, etc. There’s a brightness to Mexican brews that I just don’t get from domestic options. The one Mexican beer I will never buy is Corona. Perhaps it goes back to elementary school in Austin, Texas (Corona’s first major American market). For a time in the ’80s it was exceedingly popular for fifth- and sixth-graders to wear oversized white Corona Beach Club T-shirts (the girls snipped the sleeves off at the shoulders). I, the self-aware iconoclast, disdained the trendy people who wore them (it’s possible that I subconsciously wanted to be one of them). The grudge lasted. A couple of months ago, an article about health codes and that ubiquitous Corona-with-lime came out. My friend, a Manhattan bar owner, predictably scoffed at the ridiculousness of restricting bartenders from touching the limes they place in the necks of bottles of Corona, while all I could do was rant about the fact that the only beer mentioned in the story was Corona: “Why do they just assume that the beer is Corona in every example?” I cried. “Are no other Mexican lagers served in New York?”
I know I will go on for the rest of my life spending my money on comforting, feeble Mexican beer, which is really just a vehicle for a watered-down taste of lime with a touch of salt. But upon last month’s news that Bill Gates dropped $392 million on Tecate, I was glad to see that I was not the only one.
Negra Modelo is my beer of choice when out on the town. Luckily, there are a lot of bars and restaurants in Detroit and Ann Arbor that carry the stuff. It's relatively light and very refreshing, and the cool gold foil makes people notice what you are drinking.
I love a nice powerful German or Belgian beer, but nothing beats sitting outside on the patio in the heat of summer with an ice cold Pacifico and lime.
What do I think? I think Jordan Mackay should try to find "Tres Equis". I've had Tres Equis only once and found it to be a truly pleasurable quaff. I've looked for it time and again since that one tasting in 1963 at a "Buena Noche" festival at St. Hedwig's Church in Los Alamitos, California. Tres is a light-bodied lager made by the Dos Equis peeps ....don't know the name of the brewery, probably Dos Equis. The festival I attended those many years ago was to celebrate Buena Noche, I believe it translates, roughly, to Christmas Eve, but don't know for sure. All I know is that the Mexican community in Los Alamitos all comes together for this event ....the ladies of the community all make tamales (some of the best I've ever had), tacos, churros, burritos, et cetera, and bring them to the church grounds to sell. I believe all the proceeds go to the church. A fun event, but oh so fattening! Nevertheless, I found that the brewery makes Tres Equis only once a year, especially for Buena Noche and that it's not available at any other time of the year. A great Mexican brew. I've also heard that at the Corona brewery, all beer brewed for export to the U.S. has one final touch ....at the end of the export brewing process they bring in the burro for a little "miel de burro". Guess they figure that the "gringos" won't notice. Brings great pleasure to the brewmeisters. Never drink Corona in the U.S.!! So, if Mr. Mackay can do a little research and find Tres Equis, please let this old gringo know where to find it! Additional note: I think that the Buena Noche festival in Los Alamitos was cancelled in '65 or so ....don't know for sure, though.
OK, Mr. Mackay ....the comment I made was a little "premature equisujaculation". Went to Google (my God! what a phenomonen) and found that Tres Equis was discontinued a few years ago. Oh well .....what I said about Corona, however, stays ....that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! "Bring in el burro!" Also, I was incorrect in Buena Noche ....it should have been Noche Burna. My Spanish sucks! So, never mind.
i agree totally. time and a place for everything. i , too, love belgians and especially good german hefes, but hot summers justreally want a modelo. also, i seriously think the negra modelo is good beer. def not heavy like most real dark beers, but theres something slightly chocolate-y and pleasant about it.
Our new, Mercado Soriana superstore here in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, was selling off its 12-bottle cartons of Nochebuena at a 2 fer 1 promo.
We wouldn't want to let our beer get stale, would we?
We try to do our part.
http://mexkitchen.blogspot.com/
Bohemia is significantly better than the other common Mexican lagers, really in a different class. One of my favorites was Superior, which I haven't seen in a long time -- bueno.
Personally I just don't dig Mexican beer standards like Pacifico, Tecate, and the horrid Corona. The metallic flavor actually detracts for the experience (unlike Jordan I'd rather have a Bud anyday). However, I DO think, as noted above, that Bohemia is in a different class altogether--you can't rope it in with Pacifico, it's just a more refined (i.e. better-made) beer. Try it side-by-side sometime and see what you think. I also dig Negro Modelo, which really has more in common with German dark lagers (technically it's closest to a Vienna lager) than typical Mexican beers.
You must be far away from Mexico, is all I can think. Modelo Especial, Negro Modelo, and Corona are all real tasty beers, especially if one doesn't like getting "bitter beer face", and I don't.
the main problem with a lot of mexican Beers is that they need to be refrigerated or they can get REALLY skunky tasting.
The problem with the availability is that the market has taken a turn towards localization of beers. Superior is now mostly available in the south, Estrella is more of a central region beer.
As for my favorites: Bohemia (and it's dark version too), Indio, Victoria and Leon.
Personally, I've become addicted to chiladas - there's nothing like siting by the beach in Mexico, with a salt-rimmed frosted glass filled with Sol, ice, and a shot of fresh squeezed lemon juice.
True, Bohemia is more of classic pilsner style. It's got some hops and some bite, which the other top-tier (in sales) Mexican beers don't.
But would love to hear from anyone going to Baja or the Pacific Coast of Mexico this year, if they can find Estrella and what they think of it. I loved it, but then I was in a little, eco-fishing village on the sand with my girlfriend at the time. On such occasions, I surmise, it's hard to find a bad beer.
I had Indio once, on a field trip to Mexico, and I've been looking for it here in the States ever since. Unsuccessfully . . .
Thank God for all the good things Germans and Bohemians brought to northern Mexico and southern-central Texas -- beer, sausages, and oompah bands!
it'll soon be easier to find Estrella up there. Corona bought them & broadened their distribution.
Indio is impossible to find north of the border. Gracias a deus that my corner store sells it for 18 pesos a cagumamon!
For Jordan-no shortage of Estrella in Puerto Vallarta. Still tastes great.
Viva La heatherkay! I agree--being obsessed with both food and music, I think that the most fascinating and in-depth view of world history you can get is through investigating the diaspora of food and music. I love, love, love where Mexicans took the oompa sound of accordians and brass....
Also, HELLS YEAH! I live in the town where Bell's was born, but I still love the crisp light fruitiness of the Mexican beers, as well as the negro modelo. Props for saying so, author!
hoegaarden...other white ales. just as refreshing, much better.
The border region really is a fascinating mix of all sorts of cultures. Places were cultures meet are always great places to eat, drink, and dance.
In Manhattan, Estrella can be found at n 33 crosby, a small and fairly decent tapas place. I'm with you on that one, as well as Sol and Bohemia.
Getting back to the OP's title - wtf does he mean by 'cheap beer'? Since the inception of NAFTA the price of Mexican beer and spirits hasn't gone down one penny, despite the obvious lower labor costs. Most of the Mexican beers available NOTB are produced by a very few Mexican megacorporations which may explain lack of price competition.
I still think that a $6 sixpack of Sol or Pacifico is a more refreshing lager than the American mass market brew equivalent.
BTW does any Mexican brand contain rice? TIA!
A great Mexican beer is Leon. Only available in the Yucatan as far as I know. Every time one of my friends or family go to MX, I beg for a six pack...no one has brought one yet!
Mexican beer is great if you don't like beer.
Though Cucupa makes some really good stuff, like Imperial stout.
If these beers are so great, why do they need to be mixed with lime to make them palatable? It's one of my biggest pet peeves when I'm served beer in a bar with a lime on the rim that I didn't ask for... even if I toss it, the limey taste remains. I like lime in a G & T, not beer. Also, one of the biggest problems with the watery Mexican beers like Corona is that they are inexplicably shipped in clear bottles, which let light in and easily go "skunky".
Negra Modela, as mentioned by many commenters above, is one beer I *do* like. But it is much darker and richer in flavour that the beers discussed in the article, so I think it doesn't really count.
But in the end: to each his own! You should be able to drink what you like and not feel a need to apologize to anyone, so long as you have actually *tried* different beers, as the author has.
I cannot be sure.. it was so long ago.. the 1960s
No Corona
No dos equis
Thinking...
Maybe Bohemia back then
Tecate for sure.. every neighbor drank tecate out on their summer stoop in east LA.
We spread lime over the top of the can to kill bacteria, nothing more.
In those days canned Mexican beer was an adventure.
Brew 102 was safer and it was made just down the street on Mission I think
Wondering if the ubiquitous Mexican lime slice came from bacteria infested cans