SOL
Coors
Mexico, ABV 4.5%
Like many others, I used to be a fan of Sol. A few years back, Sol was the new kid on the block; the future of bottled beer. It would be served in bars with a slice of lime in the bottle neck and was a favourite among the image-conscious who could afford to pose with it. They would be gawped at and ridiculed by those drinking pints of generic lager who’d pretend they didn’t secretly crave a bottle, all the while wishing they could cast away their pretensions and go back to basics. Sol was first brewed in Mexico by a German in 1899. No idea what he was doing making beer there, but he called it ‘El Sol’, Spanish for the sun. Since being the original poseur beer, it seems to have been overshadowed in recent times by the likes of Corona et al, mainly because they all taste nicer. Let’s face it, Sol is the kind of image drink where you get to the bottom of the bottle and wonder what you were thinking. No one was impressed and your palette lost all respect for you. So to save face, you start telling those around you that the idea behind the lime was to keep flies out back in the old country. That’s when one of your pint-quaffing mates tells you the real story; it was to mask the smell (and likely the taste). It isn’t too offensive, but it’s certainly on the wrong side of pleasant. SW
