Tecate

Brewed by FEMSA - Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma (Heineken)
Style: Pale Lager
Monterrey/Veracruz-Llave, Mexico

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

tastes of rice, wheat, and slight malt. Dishwatery, disappointing, far from exotic. Very drying and chemic. Dirty.

500ml can at a Mexican restaurant. Not a strong smell or taste on this one, maybe some faint corn malts. The flavour of the lime in the glass the server gave me overpowered the beer, which I think is responsible for the slightly sour taste it seemed to have. Went good with spicy food. A respectable stand in for Corona should the opportunity present itself.

Bottle, 330ml from Bellingers Garage, Grove, Oxon. Yellow gold with fizzed head. Corny, grainy on the nose and palate, sweetish, grainy malt with a hint of sweet lemonade in the hop. Not to my taste.

Originally rated July 2007. Mexican swill in a can.... alright ! Pours a golden colour with a foamy white head that leaves dirty lacing. Because of the heavy carbonation, the head minimizes to a 3mm thickness, and stays over the brew. The aroma is grainy with the scent of corn. Typical watery mouthfeel of these kind of warm weather countries’ brewskies. The taste is mild, with a mix of grain, corn in the finish and a little citrus in the aftertaste. Overall, not a bad swill and mostly good for the humid warm weather we are having tonight.

~Sweet corny aroma with a little bit of spicy hop, slightly sour. ~Pours clear light golden color with quickly diminishing head. ~Sour flavor, with light sweet malt and corn, very light spicy hop. ~med light bodied with med high CO2, slightly sweet finish. ~Another boring macro lager.

Mexican lagers have a reputation in America for being adjunct-filled, watered-down, bland fizzy yellow beers on par with "economy" brands (the ones that make Bud, Miller and Coors seem gourmet in comparison). While it’s very difficult to find a truly good beer of these styles, there are many out there that garner the indifferent compliment "not bad" like Schlitz, Schaeffer and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Tecate is the Mexican equivalent of those beers.

I poured a 12oz bottle into a tumbler.

Appearance: crystal clear dark gold/amber hue with tons of carbonation bubbles evident. Forms a small, bright white, soapy head which doesn’t last long but manages to live a trace of lacing - wow.

Smell: Definitely a fizzy yellow beer in the nose, only without the repulsive qualities often find in the cheaper brands. Grain, corn, a touch of cardboard are all present. Thankfully there is zero skunk and no metallic smell either.

Taste: After drinking craft beer for so long it’s actually difficult for me to drink a macro lager and think of it as beer. As is the case with the better of the adjunct macro lagers, Tecate is as flavorful as they can get. However, in the big scheme of things that’s not saying much since the actual palate is very generic. Lot of grain, toasted corn and a cardboard-like aftertaste. While this may sound pretty bad, the truth is it’s actually more neutral-tasting than it is off-putting. In fact, as the beer finishes I get a quick burst of honey sweetness. It’s actually a pleasant surprise, but at the same time disappointing since that means the brewers are deliberately not emphasizing that component of the palate.

Mouthfeel: Thin, light, clean and extremely fizzy - so much so that the carbonation stings my tongue and mouth ever so slightly.

Drinkability: Tecate is a very gassy and crisp beer from start to finish - be prepared to burp (a lot). It’s somewhat refreshing due to its mild taste and mostly clean finish, although the cardboard aftertaste begins to wear on me by the end. The 4.5% ABV is totally appropriate as this is truly a light beer with a little more flavor. Ideally paired with potato chips and pretzels.

Overall, not the worst Mexican lager but far from the best. As an economy beer it’s top of the line considering its price point. As a beer in general it’s only average at best, so why bother if you don’t have to?

This is a stereotypical American-style lager, of which I’m partial, with a thick, white head, and a very clear, golden color. Carbonation is high. The aroma had a slightly off grain smell that I was unable to place. But, as I drank it it was not as prominent in the glass. The taste is okay, with a decent barley-grain-hop balance. Mouth-feel is light and watery and it finishes crisp and refreshing. Certainly, this is an ordinary type beer, but I’d say it’s as good as other run-of-the-mill lagers. I think it’s worth a try. I drank this sample poured from a 24 oz. can.

Bottle, gift. Light golden color with almost no white head. aroma, almost nothing, hints of hops. Taste, corn, hints of caramel, slightly sweet with short bittersweet finish. In hot day could be better choice than water, but nothing else.