Mexico City's Malted Water

Captain Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?

Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.

Rick: I was misinformed.

Teotihuacan

The Pyramid of the Sun

“Early groups settled in Mexico City because it has enormous sources of water,” our guide tells us from the bottom of the Temple of the Moon, as we look southwest down Teotihuacan’s Avenue of Death toward the city.

I am taking in the huge circle of rounded volcanic mountains, all about the same circumference - some taller, some shorter - that surround Mexico City.  It’s as if a giant dragon had curled up around the city to form the uneven spines of its famous geological bowl. The sides of these mountains are so verdant that one understands why the Mexican Tricolor is one-third green.

A few minutes earlier, I’d been trying to absorb the fire hose of information our guide was giving us about the Totonac, Nahua and Otomi people who had first settled Teotihuacan, amid the realization that my textbook knowledge amounted to no more than a caricature of this place’s importance in world history.

The Avenue of Death

“These groups came together to form a society, despite each having different languages.  That implies a long period of peace, prosperity, and cooperation.  The Avenue of Death was mistakenly named because later explorers thought that the residential apartment mounds that line the Avenue were communal graves.”

“In fact, the Avenue is a series of basins, where rain was allowed to pool in order to reflect the stars, as a celebration of water’s role in the Cosmos and in creating agricultural fertility, but also for this culture’s astronomers to observe and map the stars.  For this society, the single most important practical, symbolic, and religious element of life was water.”

Mexico City

Indeed, Mexico City is centered on Lake Texcoco, even if that lake has since been engineered into the reservoir of Nabor Carrillo so as to decrease flooding and reclaim buildable land.  The city is surrounded by a large number of other lakes, most notably Lakes Chalco, Xochimilco, and Zumpango.

I was in Mexico City for a wedding, but I took advantage to see as much of the city as possible, including one of the most jaw-dropping museums I have ever visited: the National Archeological Museum of Mexico. I also saw several museums highlighting the incomparable works of the city’s many muralists, Diego Rivera being the best-known.

My lone regret was not seeing the Frida Kahlo Blue House (Casa Azul) because - word to the wise! - I had not realized that tickets must be reserved at least one week in advance.

Malted Water

Of course, I did not want to leave Mexico City without learning something about the “malted water” there.

The Tasting Room

Beer is a big favorite in Mexico City, and indeed, in all of Mexico. The beer market in Mexico, as one might expect, is dominated by the massive Corona and Modelo beer conglomerates.  The heat and humidity in Mexico City means that residents prefer this lighter beer, lower in alcohol, that can accommodate a 2-3 beer session.  The major beers are also inexpensive; the same sized Corona or Modelo beer is 1/3 the price in Mexico as it is in the United States.

As a result, although quite a few trendy craft beer tasting rooms exist in Mexico City, I was only able to unearth eight that actually brew their own craft beer.  All are located in the upscale, commercial/residential borough of Cuauhtemoc, and one gets the impression that craft brewing in Mexico City caters to tourists and city residents with disposable income.

I ended up visiting the Cerveceria Morenos craft brewery, founded in 2017 in the Roma Norte neighborhood.  Cerveceria Morenos was originally called “The Tasting Room,” and was actually started even earlier by brothers Ernesto and Rodrigo Mora “en el garage de su mamá.” (In their mother’s garage.)

Cerveceria Morenos

Today, the brewery produces 35,000 liters (almost 10,000 gallons) of beer per month, and its simple tasting room contains 20 taps at the bar against the far wall.  The brewery also bottles and sells beer to retail shops and restaurants throughout Mexico.

Coming off the street, customers pass through a tidy patio.  Inside, the atmosphere is akin to a tasca. Of course, instead of tapas, the comestible vehicle is the taco, but the taco shells and fillings have a similarly impressive variety and range.

As in a tasca, two- and four-seat tables predominate, the atmosphere is elegant, with a steady hum of banter, and customers order rounds of beer and food as fancy strikes them.  A single waiter, calm but deadly-efficient, has the half-filled room fully under control.

I tasted four beers in 4 oz. half-glass portions: the “El Germán” pilsner; “Lager Local” Mexican lager; “Hablame de Passion (Speak to Me of Passion)” chilanga weizen with passion fruit; and the “Different Breakfast” mocha stout.

Using the word “chilanga” in the name of the passion fruit beer bespeaks the brewers’ pride in their city; Chilango used to be a pejorative word for a resident of Mexico City, but it is now carried by many residents as a reappropriated badge of honor.

El Germàn Pilsner

The El Germàn Pilsner was particularly impressive, with full malt flavor and body, but a classic lager cleanliness that made the beer cool and light going down.  The hop bitterness was well incorporated, as it should be in a pilsner.  The beer had very good carbonation, and no faults except for an almost imperceptible hint of diacetyl (popcorn/butter flavor).

Lager Local Mexican Lager

Just as the name states, the Lager Local is a lighter lager in the Mexican style.  Easy to drink, good hop-to-malt balance, but still rich with flavor.

Hablame de Passiòn Chilanga Passion-fruit Weizen

Hablame de Passion is really a sour beer.  I wasn’t clear where the weizen style came in, but no matter: this was delicious beer with exactly the right balance of fruit and malt flavors.  Not a juice bomb, but not a joyless, used-tea-bag, may-as-well-be-a-seltzer, either.  Passion-fruit is somewhat unusual in beers, but other experiences in Mexico City made me realize that Mexico owns this fruit and knows how to bring out all of its complexity.  That command was evident in this beer too.

Different Breakfast Mocha Stout

Different Breakfast has a full, rich body and a full head. This beer had a nice coffee taste that stayed in the background, where it should be.  Some sweetness, but on balance, tending toward the savory.  No thought that I was having a Frappuccino disguised as a beer, the way so many craft breweries make stouts these days.  And yes, it was heavier.  Which was a perfect drink shortly before retiring for the evening.