Confession: I am an Anglophile. What's an Anglophile, you ask? An Anglophile is a person who has an irrational love for all things British. Anyone who knows me can tell you about my embarrassing infatuation with the British Isles and it's inhabitants. Most of my favorite bands are British, I'll watch any movie that takes place in England, and I've even been known to record reruns of BBC shows like Eastenders, Keeping Up Appearances and Fawlty Towers. It's no surprise then, also being an insane soccer fanatic, that I have a soft spot in my heart for the less than formidable (lately anyway) English national football team. Because of my love for the Three Lions (That's the English national team's nickname for all you noobs out there) I've cultivated an intense hatred for the Argentinian national team, which stems from the "Hand of God" incident in the 1986 world cup when Argentinian Super-Midget Diego Maradona dubiously punched a ball into the goal against England. As ridiculous as it sounds, this one incident has since caused me to have an aversion to all things Argentinian ever since.
One of my good friends Darlene is Argentinian, and one of my greatest past times is explaining to her how much I hate Argentina, Argentinians, Maradona....pretty much anything that reminds me of the "Hand of God" incident. To be honest, I really don't hate Argentina at all, but still it's fun to wind her up by insisting that Argentina is the methaphorical sphincter of South America. When I told Darlene about the 365 beers project, She told me about Quilmes. Quilmes is essentially the Budweiser of Argentina in terms of popularity and sales. The label even claims that Quilmes is in fact "Argentina's favorite beer", and just like their hero Diego Maradona, every person of Argentinian descent seems to have an inexplicable love for the famous Quilmes. So I decided to see what all the buzz was really about.
Despite the hype from my small contingency of South American amigos, I had relatively low expectations for Quilmes. I usually like to reserve judgment about a new beer until I've actually tasted it for myself, and I never really get my hopes up because the truth is that in my life I've been disappointed by more bad beers than surprised by good ones. When I took my first sip of Quilmes, I was pleasantly surprised. I can't really remember the last time that I tasted such a smooth lager. I liked this lager so much that I didn't even really want to pour it into a frosty mug, because I didn't want to wait that long to finish drinking it. For me the greatest test of a quality beer is whether or not I would spend money on it again, and Quilmes is without question a beer that I will plan on mixing into my regular rotation. iViva Quilmes!
Salud!
Ian
http://www.quilmes.com.ar
2 comments:
Oh Ian! Well first off, I really enjoy reading your blog. It's been fun to see how you personally relate to each beer. Especially Quilmes. It's good to see that you have come to terms how divine Argentinians really are;) haha. Now we can talk about our new found thing in common. Beer. Cheers mate!!
Ian, how could you succumb to anything Argentinian? I am extremely disappointed.
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