REVIEW 22: CORONA EXTRA

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Mexico

BREWERY:  Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V.

STYLE:  Adjunct Lager

ABV:  4.6%

PURCHASE:  Case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $29.99

SERVING:  12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. 20-second pour produced a standard one-inch head, more or less. Quick dissipation. A slower pour on the second go-'round yielded less than half an inch. For kicks, I tried a faster (10-second) pour on #3; still didn't get much more than an inch. FYI: Tonight's session was "Corona NFL." Meaning, no fuckin' lime!

APPEARANCE:  Highly transparent. You can just about read a computer screen through one of these! Graphic artists should get right on that. Pale straw color, bordering upon brass--it's an adjunct, whaddya expect? Standard white head. Decent lacing.

BOUQUET:  For the most part, malty and doughy. Aroma is rounded out by the smell of freshly refrigerated tap water. There isn't even a "cooked-veggie" element at play here, as with most North American macrolagers. 

PALATE: Fairly light body with mild carbonation. Almost goes down like a light beer, in fact. In other words, it goes down effortlessly while lacking beer-like characteristics. Specifics? Seltzer-like entry. In other words, it's neutral upon first sipping it, save for a tease of carbonation. A corn-like sweetness emerges somewhere between mid-palate and finish, and remains through the aftertaste. Malt factor seems to crescendo through each sip, peaking in the aftertaste as well. That aftertaste also hosts a tinge of hops, noticeably absent until that point. Essentially a bland beer in the front half, while somewhat redeeming itself toward the end of each sip. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Corona. The best-selling imported beer in the United States. Good "cut-the-grass" beer, as I call it. Great for quenching one's thirst and simultaneously taking a load off after getting some yard work done on a hot summer day. And without dehydrating you, no less. 

Corona always struck me as a yuppie beer; it was what yuppies and preps drank to convince themselves they had some sort of taste, some sort of social status. They drank it because, frankly, they were too good for Bud or Busch. 

Now, all in all, this is not a truly terrible beer, despite what Beer Advocate would have you think. It's one of the most easily drinkable beers in the world; that, by itself, is something. But let's not fool ourselves: This is not a connoisseur's beer. Further, from a price standpoint, why shell out for this when you can typically snag a Bud Light for half the cost? And it's as authentically Mexican as Taco Bell. 

But hey, sometimes Taco Bell hits the spot. Especially if you've worked up an appetite after . . . cutting the grass. 




GRADE:  C-

NOTE:  I actually bumped this up from the D+ I gave it when I reviewed it for a private message board a few years ago. I found it skunkier back then. Tonight's session lacked any skunkiness whatsoever. Probably because I bought my own case this time, and wisely kept the clear bottles out of the sun, and hence, out of the way of harmful UV exposure. I rule.