Food & Beer Culture

At a cantina, you pay for the beer, and the kitchen provides the botana—small bites that come with the drink. This is the tradition of the Mexican drinking den: first the beer, then something to snack on, then a conversation that's in no hurry.

Typical dishes in the capital include tacos al pastor—thinly sliced, marinated pork from the vertical spit with pineapple, onions, and cilantro. The heat of the salsa calls for something cold, and the light lager, with its clean finish, cools it down nicely without taking anything away from the meat.

From Toluca comes chorizo verde, the green sausage made from pork with herbs and green chilies. Its smokiness and spice pair well with the beer, as its sweetness tempers the heat.

Drinking follows its own sizing logic. The caguama, the large bottle, holds nearly a liter of beer, shared at the table. Michelada comes with a salted glass rim, lime, hot sauce, and often tomato juice, serving as breakfast or as refreshment after a long night. It's a mixed drink many find milder than beer on its own.

The cantina is a place made for staying put: you order round after round, and the botana arrives at the table without any rush. Anyone sitting in a Mexico City cantina for the first time won't need to read a menu to understand what's going on. The curious should try both in turn—once straight with a taco, once as a Michelada. That's how you see just how versatile simple lager can be in Mexico.