T for Tequila?

This week, the 175proofers were lucky enough to continue to sample more of the yet-to-hit-the-shelves specialty beers from Carlsberg, courtesy of it’s Singapore marketing head, Anto Setiadi. This time its the Tuborg T-Beer Mexicana. This light bodied, almost headless brew has the taste of beer but with an added twist of lemon (yes, its there) AND tequila (supposedly). You can expect to sample this at the upcoming Beerfest Asia 2010.

Classified as a flavoured beer, the taste and body is very much reminisce of your familiar Mexican varieties such as Sol and Corona or less common Estrella, sans fresh lime wedge. And it definitely not of the Bohemia (read full bodied) variety. Instead, the Tuborg T Beer Mexicana has its citrus taste pre-mixed. And if there is supposed to be a tequila flavour as well, I sure found it very mild, almost non-existent. The only indication that it might contain some of that wicked agave cactus plant goodness is the slight cats-tongue finish.

With a 4.9% ABV, it’s not exactly your mid strength variety so it’ll still pack a punch if you go thru a 6-pack. Although the packaging has a image of a cactus on our sample bottle, other countries may carry variations of the bottle design – let’s see. I guess I was expecting more of a tequila kick or taste in the beer when I saw the cactus motifs on the label – that got me really excited. But then again, its hard to make an easy drinking refreshing summer beer if it packs too much of a donkey’s kick in it, eh? Plus with the sun beating down on you perched on your deck chair beside the pool or beach, anything more than a light beer will quickly wrestle your sobriety down to the hot sand after a few. No fun. Now I know why many Mexican beers taste the way they do – light & refreshing but full strength – built for the desert.
The taste reviews from Ratebeer.com gives it pretty low scores, but then again, like wine, many alcoholic beverages are subjective. I’m sure the ladies wouldn’t mind nursing a light, fresh tasting beer in a trendy, colourless & slim clear bottle while out and about in Singapore’s perpetual summer climate. While in other countries Carlsberg markets the T Beer as a ‘summer brew’, our take is that this kind of beer is gonna be always welcome all year round here in good ‘ol Singapore.

According to Carlsberg’s website, T-Beer is Tuborg’s easy to drink, low flavoured pilsner beer. With it’s transparent bottle and easy-to-drink flavour it attracts the attention of consumers having fun in the summer time. And there is also a press release that states that ’5 million bottles of T-Beer produced and sold in Turkey since April 14, 2006′.

Various packaging in different geographies - this is the Turkish version

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of....

They were carrying a nice extensive range of mainly foreign beers, cos Singapore only have one, at most two, national beers. Archipelago, Hoe, James Squire, Golden and Ambers, Carlsberg Gold, Chimay, Duvel, Konig Ludwig Weissbier, Real Belgian Pil. Erdinger, San Mig Light and Pale, Sol, Corona, Chang. Tiger, of course.  I left out a few of the more common ones and the stouts. What stood out also was the wider-than-usual range of alcopops. Like the Singapore Sling – good grief.

Nice pretty pink packaging.. ahem

Here’s the gem: Organic beer. I had heard of it, but this is the first time I had seen one in my local mini-supermart. It costs quite a pretty penny (S$10.75) for a pint bottle but I guess that goes with the organic territory. The name? Duchy Originals Organic Ale.

Organic beer - looks like a small bottle of wine though