Boozin’ Blog

The ultimate Mexican drink, at least from our perspective from here north of the border, is the margarita. A perfect margarita is a balance of sweet and sour brought together by the distinctive flavor of agave. A well mixed margarita is a beautiful thing to behold, a poorly made one is a shame and should be a firing offense for bartenders. So, you’d better practice up! Here’s how it’s done:

Get:
tequila
triple sec
lemon or lime juice
sour mix
lime for garnish
chilled margarita glass, salt the rim if you’re into that kind of thing

Pour:
1 1/2 ounce tequila, 1/2 ounce triple sec, a few dashes of the juice and 3 ounces of sour mix into a cocktail shaker. Shake.

Serve:
The mixture over ice in the margarita glass. Garnish with a lime wedge if you feel like it.

For a frozen margarita, take the tequila, triple sec, lemon or lime juice and sour mix as above and add them to a blender with a cup of ice. Blend until smooth.

But your margarita options don’t end there. For more varieties on margaritas I turn, as always, to our favorite mixologist here at the Boozin’ Blog, Colleen Graham. Check out her margarita recipes including apple and coco margaritas. My favorite? The jello shot margarita. Tell me you don’t want a dozen of those right now!

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Tequila has developed a reputation of being one of the toughest boozes out there. It really isn’t any stronger than other spirits with most being around 40% alcohol. It’s reputation probably comes as a result of the salt, slam, lime ritual of doing tequila shots. While old coots like me are at the other end of the bar clicking ice around in our Scotches, the college kids are knocking back tequila shots and sucking on lime. The process itself is great fun and happens so fast that it’s possible, even likely, to put a lot more alcohol in yourself that you meant to.

I’ve been there and it is a helluva a lot of fun. But you wouldn’t want to waste good tequila on it. Mid-range tequilas are just fine for doing shots. These are brewed with more corn than agave, the original source of tequila. They taste vaguely of tequila in much the same way that orange soda has a passing resemblance to oranges.

But, before you do your shots or when you realize that it might be time to slow down, try a glass of top shelf tequila. Make sure that your server understands you want to taste the drink otherwise it might arrive with a thick dusting of salt on the rim or a chunk of fruit floating in it.

Real tequila, made 100% agave, is a beautiful thing. The flavor is light but unmistakable. It has an under-ripe vegetable quality to it; it tastes like cool, spring air and is certainly worth savoring.

This is why it is such a great alcohol for mixed drinks. Unlike Scotch or bourbon whose flavors dominate anything that they are involved in, tequila blends.

So, doing tequila shots? Go for the cheap stuff. Taste isn’t really your goal here, is it? Wanting to enjoy a drink or make a mixed drink? Spend a few extra bucks. It is so worth it.

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There are really only two choices when it comes to Mexican beer styles - light lager and amber lager.

You know that most famous of the light lagers - Corona. There are a few others and they all taste about the same. There’s not a lot to say beyond that.

The amber lagers are a little bit more interesting. For a while there in the mid/late twentieth century beers like Negro Modelo and Dos Equis Amber were among a very few examples of an otherwise dead beer style known as Vienna Lager. The craft beer renaissance has reversed that but these Mexican amber lagers deserve our respect. With a fizzy profile and sweet flavor, these ambers are popular in texmex restaurants as they pair very will with the spicy, greasy food.

Lemons and Limes

If you have ever ordered a Mexican beer in a bar or restaurant, chances are it arrived with a wedge of citrus. For this reason, I have a theory that most fans of Corona and other Mexican lagers don’t actually know what they taste like. Without the fruit, the light lagers taste about the same as other light lagers from the rest of the world. That blast of citrus really adds a nice flavor to the otherwise bland beer. I say if this is the style you want to drink, go right ahead and add the fruit. At least you’ll have something to taste.

A recent trend among the big beer brewers like Miller and Anheuser-Busch Inbev has been to produce what I call pre-limed beers. They are packaged in clear bottles, clearly inspired by Coronna’s iconic glass bottle. These beers also come with a bit of salt added to the mix. Strange concoctions, indeed. If I’m going to add anything to my beer, I’d prefer to do it myself so I can choose the proportions. But that’s just me.

Red Beer

This is another addition to beer that’s popular in Mexico. I’m not sure where the practice of combining beer and tomato juice originated but red beers can be very tasty. If you try this yourself, start at about 1/3 juice and 2/3 beer then adjust the recipe to your taste. People like to add all sorts of stuff to this drink - salt, lime, hot sauce, clam juice - so pick your poison and enjoy.

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Have I told you about my buddy, Dwayne? Probably not since I just made him up.

See, Dwayne is an old drinking buddy of mine. He’s great to take along when I go out drinking because I never have to pick up his tab. He also drinks very little so if I find myself enjoying the juice a little too much, he can drive.

Also, he asks great, pithy questions that allow me to pull on my vast store of knowledge about alcohol. This is a great topic to be an expert on because the more you and your audience drink, the more credible the bullshit you’re pulling out of your ass seems.

It’s of little consequence that Dwayne is entirely fictitious. In fact, it can be quite useful to have an imaginary friend like him at times. Like right now - which is a big reason that I invented him just now - because when one talks about Cinco de Mayo as a holiday it takes a great deal of reality suspension.

Think about texmex. Dwayne calls you up and says let’s go out for some Mexican and a few beers. You probably don’t think of actual Mexican cuisine, you think of that food that came out of the Mexican American clash of cultures - texmex. So is true of Cinco de Mayo. Unlike Dwayne, Cinco de Mayo as a holiday isn’t entirely fictitious but it’s close enough.

The day remembers the unlikely victory of the Mexican army over the French back in 1862. It is an unofficial holiday and the limited celebrations happen only in one corner of the country.

Not so here in the US. At some point, someone, probably a beer marketer, noticed this holiday that sort of feels like Mexican Independence Day to an American - victory over a more powerful European foe named for the day and month on which it occurred - was happening right on the cusp of summer. What a great time to sell a lot of beer.

I’m not knocking this kind of genesis of a holiday. St. Patrick’s Day happened in much the same way and I celebrate it and my tenuous claim on an Irish heritage with much vigor every year. These days, St. Paddy’s is celebrated in Ireland just as enthusiastically as it is in Boston. I won’t be surprised to see the same thing happen with Cinco de Mayo. Each year, the day seems to get more attention here in the US, no doubt our interpretation of the day will begin to infect Mexican culture. I mean, given the choice between accepting a reason to drink and party and denying it, most level headed people will choose the party.

Dwayne tells me to shut the hell up and get on with it. Okay, so over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking to ways to drink like a Mexican on Cinco de Mayo. As I pointed out above, not a lot of Mexicans really observe the day so let’s call this the texmex version. When I say drink like a Mexican, I really mean to drink like we think the Mexicans drink.

Got it? Good.

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Often mischaracterized as Mexican Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo has spread well beyond Mexico’s borders and is enthusiastically celebrated here in the US. In the same spirit as St. Patrick’s Day when everyone seems to turn Irish, Cinco de Mayo celbrants in the US seek to embrace the culture of their neighbor to the south and what better way than to drink copious amounts of their beer? Here are four popular ways to do just that:

Mexican Light Lager – Cram a lime wedge into the neck of Coronna, Sol, Tecate or any of the other Mexican light lagers and you’re set for the fiesta.

Mexican Amber Lager – Almost as popular as Mexico’s light lagers are their amber lagers. Countries as warm as Mexico don’t tend to produce a lot of ales so the amber lager, a descent of the Vienna lager brought over from Austria in the 1800’s, is about as dark as things get for popular beer brands.

Micheladas – Want an authentic Mexican beer experience but just opening a bottle of Corona seems too easy? Well, how about the classic Mexican beer mixed drink, the Michelada. This is a drink that takes the practice of adding lime juice and salt to a beer to the next level. Check out the recipe for the classic Michelada here.

Mexican Ale – OK, I know what I said earlier but Mexico does produce a few ales if lagers just don’t do it for you. It takes some effort but Mexican ales can be found. Cervas Minerva brews a stout and one of the “Big Two” in Mexico, Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma – Grupo Modela is the other - produces a few English ales under the Castra brand.

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