Great Mexican restaurants routinely pair their best dishes with quality alcoholic beverages, because pairings create a more complete experience for diners. Often the pairing is with tequila or a wine from one of Mexico’s burgeoning wineries. But sometimes it’s with a great Mexican beer, such as Dos Equis Ambar, first brewed in 1897 at the Moctezuma Brewery in Monterrey.
A best practice for pairing food with alcohol is to match the geographic origins of both. That’s a key reason Dos Equis Ambar works so well with many Mexican dishes – they share a terroir. Dos Equis Ambar is a Vienna style lager with a fuller body than traditional lagers, yet it retains a distinctly smooth finish. With its signature amber color and subtle hints of roasted malts, it is adventurous enough to be uniquely flavorful; its delicious explosion of caramel and slightly burnt sugar notes cut through the spiciness of Mexican cuisine. Its medium body makes it palatable to a wide range of beer drinkers and is perfect to sip and savor throughout a meal.
Bricia Lopez, one of the family owners of Guelaguetza restaurant in Los Angeles, pairs Dos Equis Ambar with tacos de barbacoa. The Oaxacan specialty features marinated goat meat cooked in its own broth flavored by avocado leaves. They serve the tacos with a bowl of the broth on the side for dipping. The crisp beer is a perfect complement to the spiciness and smokiness of the tacos, Lopez says.
Another great pairing example comes from Chef Matt D’Ambrosi of Mezcalito in San Francisco. D’Ambrosi created a fish taco made from locally caught rock cod dipped in a batter laced with Dos Equis Ambar. The beer adds a bubbly lightness to the batter and a hint of beer flavor to the finished taco. He wraps the fish in a housemade tortilla and tops it with cabbage carrot slow and chipotle aioli. Of course, customers love to wash down the fish tacos with a cold Dos Equis Ambar. (Click here for the recipe for Chef D’Ambrosi’s Rock Cod Tacos.)
The next time you’re looking for a way to add some interest to your food and alcohol pairings, consider the smooth, full-body flavor of Dos Equis Ambar.