Tasting

A Carta Blanca from Monterrey tastes first of grain with a hint of sweetness, followed by a faint bitterness. The head collapses quickly, and the carbonation prickles. The beer is light, leaves almost no aftertaste, and is best judged alongside a different style.

Three beers from the same brewery work well as examples: Carta Blanca as the classic, Bohemia as a second pale lager, and Noche Buena as a dark contrast. Tasting them one after another reveals how malt and roasting make themselves known, even though all three come from a single company.

Temperature is part of the style. Mexican lagers are served in Monterrey very cold, just a few degrees above freezing, so the bottle fogs up immediately. At that temperature you taste less, and that's intentional. Anyone looking for the subtler notes should let the beer warm up a little.

It's often drunk straight from the bottle. Then there's the frosted mug, the tarro, kept in the freezer. A draft beer pours best with little foam into a clean, wet glass. For the large bottle, small glasses are used and passed around the table.

Tasting calls for all the senses, and a small sip is enough: first look at color and head, then smell, then let a small sip move around the mouth. A dark beer like Noche Buena smells of caramel and coffee, a pale one of bread crust and grass. Pay attention, too, to how long the taste lingers — that's where the difference between a lean and a full-bodied beer shows itself.