Mexican Booze

[THE PILGRIM]

Since it looks like from the other thread that a bunch you guys have spent a fair amount of time in Nexico, let's do a thread on Mexican booze.
And lets don't take the easy route, and start with the really good stuff.
Let's start with the cheaper low end stuff.
Back in the old days we would buy a brand named Oso Negro, Black Bear.
It's about a grocery store class booze and they bottle and sell just about everything.
Then there is a bourbon called Waterfill and Fraser.
They are supposedly a Kentucky company Who went to Mexico during Prohibition.
The last time that I had it, it didn't seem to have much connection with Kentucky.
I heard a buddy of mine talking about some real bad 'Scotch' That he got in Mexico, but I never actually had it. He said it was really bad and why would I not believe him.
So did you guys drink any bad Booze or is it just me and my buddies?
They make some really good booze and beer in Mexico, but that's not this thread.

 

[ringo1597]

Modelo Cerveza muy fria..

 

[Jinglebob]

Bohemia is the best beer out of Mexico. I don’t like any of the Mexican hard liquors.

 

[Big Stick]

Anything with a dead worm.......

 

[Marshwheeling]

When we used to go down there in the 60's, we got Presidente brandy. I dunno if this is high-, low- or middle-brow brandy; to me all brandy is hangover bait and Presidente is no exception. The best buzz came when you added Alas cigarettes soaked in paregoric.

More recently, my tequila of choice was usually Cabrito ("Look for the sign of the goat"). The locals kept telling us for the same money we could get Cazadores, but most of our crew preferred the goatish brew.

For real rotgut, try lechugilla, named after the variety of the agave plant it is brewed from. Batopilas, at the bottom of the canyon, is nominally a dry town, but there is a tienda in the upper plaza where the padron will, for the price of a decent bottle of tequila, fill two dirty grapefruit pop bottles with a few hundred cc's of this nasty Mexican moonshine. Not only does this stuff taste nasty (my daughter described it as "dirt on fire"), if you try to switch to good tequila, the lechugilla will make that taste nasty too.

As for beer, I never saw Mexicans drink Corona, but I never saw them drink Bohemia either, which I agree is mexico's best beer. Tecate appears to be the most popular brew, with Carta Blanca, Sol and Indio running somewhat behind.

The best way to drink Mexican beer is in a michelada, that is, in Clamato mixed with salt, pepper, chili sauce, chilis, soy and lime.

 

[diamonback68]

Oso Negro was fine as long as you stuck with their Vodka, Gin or Tequila. Any attempt at anything like bourbon or Scotch or Canadian was usually a total undrinkable disaster. JMHO

 

[rwsmith]

I was genuinely wondering.....

Is there something 'different' about Mezcal? I drank part of a bottle one night and later I gave it away because it seemed to do me a little differently than 'normal' alcohol. Something about tequila seems to make people act crazy.

 

[Kinman]

Only thing I remember about Mexican Tequila or Mezcal was never drink any that didn't have a completely preserved worm at the bottom...from what I was told if the alcohol content wasn't enough to preserve the worm it could be bad for your health. It will do things your head that normal alcohol won't.

 

[JohnSW]

If memory serves, Anthony Bourdain's Mexican drinking included (apparently homemade) Pulque. I think that's as downscale as you can get. I vaguely recall that his was served from a plastic bucket.

I have only been to Mexico once, as a teenager, with my parents. They got me mixed up with somebody else, and almost arrested me at the airport. It was a big production with the plane being stopped on the runway, and multiple law enforcement officials.

 

[wuluf]

Gusano rojo mescal. I like it, but i don't like getting the worm.

 

[schgsd]

Sigh, it's been years since I've been able to locate a bottle of Dos Gusanos.

 

[Onomea]

Seems to me some guys used to claim the worm was the best part...

 

[bentcam]

1960 Eagle Pass, 1gal. tequila .99 cents sq. glass jar with brown paper bag label, taped on. in grease pencil said TEQUILA. you didn't we had to have drank it! jim

 

[soFlaNative]

Is there something 'different' about Mezcal? I drank part of a bottle one night and later I gave it away because it seemed to do me a little differently than 'normal' alcohol. Something about tequila seems to make people act crazy.

Ain't that why it's called liquid panty remover?

 

[Cyrano]

I prefer Dos Equis (XX) beer, the oscura variety, not the clara. Drank gallons of it. Like it better than most American beer. When my friend from New Zealand visited, I fed him that as being the nearest thing to Speights. He agreed.

When it was safe to go to Juarez, I drank a lot of Cuba Libres over there with Cuban Bacardi rum. Never could make them the same over here; I got Mexican Bacardi, Mexican Cokes and limes but they still didn't taste as good. Finally decided it was the ice that gave Mexican Cuba Libres their distinctive flavor. Tequila, Mescal and Sotol you can have; I'd rather stay sober. The effect of mescal is from mescaline, a pschodelic drug.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I can't drink mescal because I feel intimidated by the worm.

 

[ATF]

I can't drink mescal because I feel intimidated by the worm.

That's the best part. Didn't you ever try the booze with snakes and lizards in it in Vietnam?

 

[jlrhiner]

No worm.
I didn't drink any good tokillya until I got away from Tijuana.
NO worm.
Once, several disreputable characters and myself were at the beach with some local color and Jimmy was proving how tough and sophisticated he was. When I woke up, the tide was just washing over the primary cover on my '58 Duo-Glide. (Have you ever tried to drag a Harley through wet sand?)
NO WORM!!!

 

[Maddog 521]

I got a bottle of this 7 years ago. Do you think it still good?
100 ANOS
Tequila
Blanco
It's made by Sauza

BTW it doesn't have a worm it in.

 

[Arik]

I can't do the cheap stuff. Let me know when we get to the good stuff!