Not that we need an excuse to enjoy a crushable, crisp, easy-drinking Mexican beer, but Cinco de Mayo is coming up fast. And pairing tacos, burritos, and any manner of cheesy, meaty, spicy Mexican foods with a traditional Mexican lager, pilsner, or Vienna-style lager is a no-brainer. Sure, the “Mexican beer” convo often starts and ends with the wildly popular Corona — but is that brand really the best? Doubtful.
This year, instead of simply traipsing through your local beer or grocery store and grabbing whatever Mexican lager you see vibrantly displayed on an end cap, why not journey with us on a tried and true blind taste test? We picked readily available Mexican lagers, pilsners, and lighter-style beers so that the tasting class was as similar as possible. Then we blindly nosed and tasted each beer, taking into account the various aromas and flavors (or lack thereof).
Keep scrolling to see how everything turned out and whether your favorite beer got praised or dunked on.
The Lineup:
- Pacifico Clara
- Corona Extra
- Modelo Especial
- Estrella Jalisco
- Carta Blanca Original
- Victoria
- Sol Cerveza
- Dos Equis Lager Especial
- Tecate Lager
- Bohemia Pilsner
Part 1: The Taste
Taste #1
Tasting Notes:
Corn, light skunk, cereal grains, light citrus, and honey are prevalent on the nose. The palate is all skunk, yeast, grass, lemon, honey, cereal grains, and sweet corn. It might seem like I listed a lot of flavors, and I did but… it’s still overall fairly muted, albeit highly crushable.
Taste #2
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all toasted malts caramel, sweet corn, and floral, earthy hops. The palate follows suit with more caramel, toasted malts, and floral hops. It might seem like this beer has a ton of balance. But it’s also fairly sweet and malty, and not overly exciting.
The finish is dry, crisp, and sweet.
Taste #3
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of herbal, earthy, floral hops followed by toasted malts, cereal grains, sweet corn, orange peels, and lager yeast greeted me before my first sip. This definitely intrigued me. Sipping it revealed notes of yeasty bread, flaked corn, clover honey, orange peel, and herbal, earthy, floral hops. It’s bright, snappy, and crisp, but also sweet and malty.
Taste #4
Tasting Notes:
Here’s yet another beer that smells like almost nothing. If I had to reach, I’d say there was some corn and maybe grassy hops. But really nothing else. The palate doesn’t even help. There’s more corn, grass, and maybe some citrus. Overall, this beer is extremely muted, boring, and sweeter than a beer should be.
Taste #5
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, I found faint aromas of sweet corn, cereal grains, boiled sweets, and grassy hops. It sounds like a lot was going on, but there really isn’t. Drinking it reveals a little more flavor. Corn, caramel malts, grass, and lightly herbal, floral flavors. It’s more exciting than some beers on the list, but overall, fairly watery.
Taste #6
Tasting Notes:
Light skunk, sweet corn, cereal grains, honey, caramel malts, citrus, and a nice kick of floral, earthy hops make for a memorable nose. The palate continues this trend with a little more skunk, barnyard hay, cereal grains, sweet corn, bready malts, citrus, and floral hops.
It might not seem like it — because maybe there aren’t as many notes — but this was one of the most flavorful, memorable beers I drank all day.
Taste #7
Tasting Notes:
This yellow, fizzy beer has little to no aroma on the nose. I really tried and I found the faintest hint of sweet corn. Really, that was it. It even smelled a bit stale. The taste wasn’t much better. There was more sweet corn, but it tasted kind of generic. Almost like someone made some kind of corn candy or something else sugary sweet and then let it soak in a beer for whatever reason.
All in all, this was a pretty awful beer.
Taste #8
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, I found yeasty bread, light skunk, cracker-like malts, and corn. There’s more of the same on the palate. It’s made up of notes of freshly made bread, a bit of skunk, sweet corn, and some floral, earthy hops. It’s unoffensive, but not something to write your pen pal about.
Taste #9
Tasting Notes:
A nose of cereal grains, sweet corn, honey, lemon peels, and floral, earthy hops greeted me before my first sip. Drinking it revealed notes of bready malts, sweet corn, cereal grains, more honey, lemongrass, and floral, bright hops. It’s well-balanced, sweet, crisp, with little to no bitterness.
Taste #10
Tasting Notes:
The nose is citrus peels, yeasty bread, corn, grass, hay, and floral hops. It’s a fairly inviting nose that made me want to take a big sip. The flavor is surprisingly sweet, but not cloying. There are more bready malts, sweet grains, honey, and a surprisingly candied orange peel flavor. It ends with a dry, lightly bitter, floral flourish that makes you want to crack open another.
Part 2: The Rankings
10) Sol Cerveza (Taste 7)
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Named for the sun, this crisp, refreshing lager has been produced since 1899. This 4.5% ABV Mexican lager is known for its simple, no-frills, easy-going flavor profile. There’s not much to it, but that’s the point.
Bottom Line:
Sol Cerveza is exactly what it’s advertised as. It’s a light, easy-to-drink lager with little to no discernible flavor. It goes down easy because it literally tastes like nothing.
9) Corona Extra (Taste 4)
ABV: 4.6%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
When it comes to Mexican beer, there are none more famous than Corona. Heavily advertised, Corona is a household name whether or not you’re a big beer drinker. The most popular imported beer in the US, it’s known for its crisp, simple, refreshing flavor.
Bottom Line:
I wasn’t surprised to see that this was Corona Extra. It’s possibly the most overrated beer of all time. How could a beer be considered “good” if in order to even want to drink it you have to have a lime wedge?
8) Estrella Jalisco (Taste 5)
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Another sessionable (4.5% ABV), no-frills, crisp pilsner, Estrella Jalisco might not have the name recognition of some of the beers on this list. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t receive the same amount of respect. It’s known for its easy-drinking flavor profile and no bitterness.
Bottom Line:
Estrella Jalisco isn’t a horrible beer. It’s also not even close to a good beer. It’s almost flavorless but crushable. It’s okay.
7) Carta Blanca Original (Taste 1)
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Carta Blanca sounds like an exciting name for a beer, but just like Boca Raton, Florida translates to “Rat Mouth”, this beer’s name means “white card”. First brewed in 1890, it’s known for its corny, malty, sweet, easy-drinking flavor profile.
Bottom Line:
It’s still mostly fizzy corn water though. Slightly better than some of the other fizzy corn waters on this list.
6) Victoria (Taste 2)
ABV: 4%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
While many well-known Mexican beers (including many on this list) are classic, crisp lagers or pilsners, Victoria is a Vienna-style lager. The oldest beer brand in Mexico (it was first brewed in 1865), Victoria is known for its toasted malt and sweet caramel flavors.
Bottom Line:
This is a decent, highly drinkable beer. It’s well-balanced with malts and hops. It’s just more on the sweeter side than I prefer.
5) Dos Equis Especial (Taste 8)
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Dos Equis was first brewed back in 1987. But it wasn’t a Mexican-born brewer who created this now iconic brand. In fact, it was a German-born brewer named Wilhelm Haase who, after immigrating to Mexico, decided to brew a beer that took a little from the old world and his new home country. The result was this 4.2% ABV, crisp, sessionable pilsner.
Bottom Line:
I didn’t really know where Dos Equis would land on this list. I have fond memories of drinking it, but I couldn’t really tell you if it’s a good beer or not. It’s easy to drink and washes down Mexican food quite well. That’s about it.
4) Pacifico Clara (Taste 9)
ABV: 4.4%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This popular beer’s history begins way back in 1900 when a group of German-born brewers began brewing beer in the Mexican port city of Mazatlán. Unsurprisingly, this crisp, easy-drinking pilsner made its way to the US when a group of Americans, surfing in Baja found Pacifico and brought it back to the US. Since then, drinkers have been enjoying this light, crisp, sessionable lager.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason drinkers love Pacifico. It’s crisp, sweet, malty, and very well-balanced. It’s a can’t-miss Mexican lager.
3) Modelo Especial (Taste 10)
ABV: 4.4%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
One of the most highly-regard Mexican beers, Modelo Especial is a 4.4% ABV lager known for its clean, crisp, thirst-quenching flavor profile. Made with simple ingredients like barley malt, water, non-malted cereal grains, and hops, it’s sweet, citrusy, and highly refreshing.
Bottom Line:
Crisp, easy-drinking, and refreshing. Yet, it’s surprisingly well-balanced and flavorful. Modelo Especial is definitely a beer you’ll want to have in your fridge on Cinco de Mayo and every other day of the year.
2) Tecate Original (Taste 6)
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: $8 for a six-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
First brewed in 1944, this Mexican classic gets its name from the city of Tecate in Baja. It was first brewed as a beer for local miners to enjoy after a long day of work. Brewed the same way since its inception, it’s known for its crisp, refreshing, malty flavor profile. Luckily, you don’t have to work in a cold, dark mine to enjoy it today.
Bottom Line:
Tecate is sweet, lightly skunky (in a good way), malty, and surprisingly balanced for such a crisp, light beer. Definitely, a beer I’ll drink again.
1) Bohemia Pilsner (Taste 3)
ABV: 4.7%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Bohemia Pilsner definitely isn’t a household name like some of the beers on this list. That definitely shouldn’t stop you from trying it. You might be wondering why a Mexican beer is called “Bohemia” — it’s because this sweet, malty, crisp pilsner gets its Stryan hops from the Czech Republic.
Bottom Line:
If you only drink one beer on this list, make it Bohemia Pilsner. It’s the most well-balanced, flavorful beer I drank today. Your friends will be glad that you brought this one to the Cinco de Mayo shindig.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Rating these beers was not a simple task. Many were thirst-quenching and drinkable but lacked any substance whatsoever. As always, balance was the name of the game. The beers that faired best were flavorful and well-balanced, while still crushable. They still need to be paired with heavy, cheesy Mexican food and a good bit of spice, but you also want to taste something.
