Continuing with Mexico's commercial beers, for this week's Beer Saturday Challenge I want to focus on Dos Equis, one of the beers that folks outside of Mexico may be familiar with. For all its notoriety, it is not one of the best beers here by far. However, since it gave me another bottle cap for my friend's collection, as well as a post for this week's challenge, it was certainly worth getting one.
The Beer's Suspiciously Familiar History
Dos Equis was founded in 1897 by German brewer Wilhelm Hasse, who named his brewery (and thus the beer it produced) after the Méxica ruler Moctezuma. This was the same brewery that merged with the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc, I mentioned in one of my previous beer reviews about Indio beer. Eventually the merged brewery Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma was bought up by Heineken International.
The beer's name was changed on the eve of the turn of the 20th century, as part of a general craze about the new and amazing times that were about to be unleashed on the world. The two Xs represent the Roman numerals for twenty, which has been the name of the brand ever since. While at first the equis reminded me of horses (blame it on the Latin imparted on me at school), that interpretation is just as incorrect as the double cross. (No State of Jeff in ol' México!)
Looking for that Special Something ...
Okay, so now I have presented four of the most typical Mexican beers Indio, León, Victoria, and Barrilito, with virtually no difference between them. (Okay, the last one is somewhat lighter, and considerably weaker than the rest). And not surprisingly Dos Equis turns out to be also very similar. Their flagship variety is the standard Lager, but I decided to go for the slightly darker (and indeed tastier) Amber. This beer ended up being so similar to Indio, León, and Victoria, that I don't think I could tell them apart just by tasting or looking at them!
However, there actually IS a distinguishing feature of Dos Equis. Not in the beer itself, but in one of their advertising campaigns. Though the actor Jonathan Goldsmith has been retired from Dos Equis commercials since 2016, his iconic role of "Most Interesting Man in the World" became immortalized in the I don't always ... memes. Here is even one about Hive!
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Come Join the Weekly Beer Saturday Challenge!
If you're growing tired of awfully similar commercial Mexican beers, my good news is that I'm almost through with them (haha, literally maybe...). Then I want to continue with less famous, and more delicious artisan beers from Mexico. In the meantime, why don't you check out the post for this week's #BeerSaturday, and if you have an interesting brew to share, you can also make a post about it. Take a look at the prizes you can win.
