Desperados, World's First Tequila Flavoured Beer

Desperados Beer

http://www.desperados.com/gb

Brewed by Heineken France.
Style: American Pale Lager
Rueil-Malmaison, France

You like Beer? Check. You like tequila? Check. Then Desperados Tequila Beer should be right up your street. Desperados is the world’s first Tequila Flavoured Beer, a lager with a kick of tequila.

Now when you think of Tequila you think of Mexico, but this is the strange bit. This beer was brewed in France and is owned by Heineken Inc. Despite all the exotic imagery on the can/bottle and the fancy Spanish sounding name, Desperados comes from France!

Tequila Flavoured Beer

The Fischer Brewery, founded in 1821 in Strasbourg, first produced Desperados, but with the recent success of the beer, production has now moved to the Netherlands, not surprisingly as Heineken took over the brewery in 1996. Does this make it any less exotic or “cool”? Hardly, it’s only a lager after all, with a bit of tequila thrown in.

The beer is sold in more than 60 countries and has just recently arrived on the shores of America, after some success in the European markets for the last 10 years. Heineken are hoping that the beer is seen as an alternative to spirits and shots on a night out, and is specially targeted at the young’uns who like to get wasted and quick. As traditional beer sales decline breweries are looking for alternatives and also exciting new products to push in the emerging Asian markets. Desperados offers something different than some stale boring lagers and is less bitter and so more appealing to softer palettes. Either way it’s always cool to try something different, and a tequila flavoured lager isn’t the worst idea in the world. (Note: mixing beer and spirits isn’t perhaps the most novel idea in the world, but let’s not burst Desperados marketing bubble just yet!).

So how much tequila is in this beer? The blurb says that Desperados is made by combining lager that is aged in tequila barrels for a few months, then blended with beer that is mixed with tequila and lemon flavors, leaving trace amounts of tequila. The tequila does come from Mexico, which is important to note! (Does any other nation produce tequila?)

Ok so let the tasting begin!

Review: Can of Desperados Beer: 5.9% ABV

As a fan of tequila, and straight (none of that salt and lime shite), anything that has the devils juice in it has my backing. So Desperadoes is an interesting brew alright, one definitely to try. With an ABV of just under 6% giving it an added incentive.

Desperados, world’s first Tequila Flavoured Beer

The appearance isn’t the best to be honest, pretty clear showing a golden orange colour with an initial decent frothy creamy head that dissipates quick enough. Some good lacing, but also dies soon after, looks like a lot of chemicals in this beer.

There is a very strong smell as you would expect ,very very sweet, like a fruit juice, mostly of citrus.

The taste has a very sweet and citrus taste to it, a bit tangy, tasting of lemon, lime and I guess Tequila. I say I guess because I’m not so sure of you can pick up the taste of the tequila. There is also an interesting deep sour aftertaste.

Having said all that I have to say the beer isn’t that bad. Once you get over the initial shock at all the sweet tastes, you do grow into it, and it does become a relatively smooth enough beer to drink. I think these beers would be a great accompaniment to a night on the town, perhaps have two or three to give you a little kick in your drinking during the night, or before you hit the clubs. Any more than that and I’m not sure how they would go down. I don’t think I could drink more than two or three to be honest. But overall its a good effort and I like the idea of Desperadoes. Have I found the taste of the tequila? Not sure, but then does it matter, the beer has a certain function which is to set you up for the party or the night, and this beer does that perfectly. A good party beer.