¿Cuál es la mejor cerveza mexicana?: A Mexican Beer Taste Off

The 2010 David Matthew Horn Mexican Beer Taste Off was held on February, 5th at La Casa de Horn, situated appropriately in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission district.

The event consisted of two concurrently conducted experiments: 1) to determine, through a blind tasting, which widely consumed cerveza reigns supreme; and 2) to determine the extent to which the participants could discern the maker in a blind tasting.

Methodology:

Six beers were selected: Corona, Sol, Pacifico, Negro Modelo, Dos Equis, and Tecate.

Over the course of the evening each of ten participants was given a non-descript, shot-glass sized shooter with an unmarked beer in it (each containing approximately 1 oz of cerveza mexicana sans lime). After imbibing, they were asked to rate the beer in terms of deliciousness on a scale of 1 to 10. They were then asked to hazard a guess as to which of the six beers they thought they were consuming. (The six types of beer to choose from were announced before the tasting commenced.) Guacamole and chips were offered as palate cleansers between rounds. The tasting continued in this way through six rounds, lasting approximately 90 minutes.

Results:

The rankings from the taste-off are as follows:

1) Pacifico – 72 taste points
2) Negro Modelo - 69
3) Tecate - 53
4) Dos Equis - 46
5) Sol - 43
6) Corona – 39

The results of the identification challenge are as follows:

1) Evan (4 of 6)
2) Benjy, Dave M., Jordan, Willy, Lauren (2 of 6)
3) Dan A., Dave Horn, Derek, Noah (1 of 6)

Confounding Variables:

A few words about the methodology and potential confounding variables are necessary.

First, it is important to note that this tasting sought to rank the most mainstream beers – i.e., those most regularly consumed and widely accessible – in the American market. Consequently, a number of more delicious beers were left out of the sampling. In other words, we sought not to judge the best Mexican beers; rather, we were attempting to rank those that are most familiar to the group (predominantly Caucasian, Jewish Americans).

Secondly, during the experiment a number of participants (read: Derek Vigon) vocalized their opinions regarding the ranking and the identification. As a result, the data collected suffers from this statistical bias, especially towards the misidentification of Tecate in the first round.

Thirdly, some participants drank beer prior to and throughout the duration of the tasting, which potentially diminished the fineness of their palate. A more rigorous examination would have limited consumption to the beers being sampled, and better isolated the potential confounds of mixing beers throughout rounds.

Fourthly, and similarly, tequila shots were consumed twice during the experiment, which undoubtedly affected the blood-alcohol-levels of all participants, and raises the specter of skewed results. As the participants became increasingly inebriated the precision of their judgment (and their overall seriousness) became increasingly dubious.

Fifthly, there was a disproportionate number of males participating. As a result, the male preference for darker beers is starkly evident in the results (with the two darkest beers, Negro and Pacifico, winning by significant margins).

Lastly, it is worth noting that Negro Modelo is a darker beer and is thus easily identifiable - especially when set against the other five lighter beers. It should therefore come as no surprise that every single participant correctly identified Negro Modelo.

Synopsis:

A few important observations can be gleaned from this simple experiment.

First and foremost is that there was a severe disconnect between the participant’s confidence in their abilities to correctly identify the beers and their actual performance. Throughout the tasting this taste technician heard confident proclamations – “I got ‘em all right”; “This is 100% Tecate”; “This is fuckin’ easy” – that subsequently turned to silence (or in some cases despondence) shortly after announcing the results.

The performance of Tecate is also worth brief mention, not the least because it is significantly cheaper than the other beers in contention and is sold in a can. Tecate has long been considered the dark horse of Mexican beers and the results of this experiment further corroborate this notion.

The overall range of the data is startling. The point differential between Corona and Pacifico is significant – 33 points – and demonstrates that the participants had a semblance of uniformity in their preferences, save of course for the occasional outlier.

That Sol, a widely overlooked beer, beat out Corona, the mainstay of Mexican beers consumed in America, should cause some pause. Both scores were very close (separated by only 4 points), but the preference is clear.

Your comments and observations are invited.