Desperados Beer Review – The Family Party Beer

November 21, 2022 Cameron Mackenzie

Desperados, the beer that combines the fun of tequila shots and the leisure of sipping a cold beer, is famous of course, for its combination of tequila and beer as well as its branding as‘the party beer.’ Despite the Spanish sounding name, tequila, and Mexican inspired packaging, the beer originates surprisingly from France. Created by a small family brewery, The Fischer Brewery founded in 1821. Eventually they were bought over in 1996 and in 2007 eventually shut down by Heineken Brewing Company.

The beer is now fully owned, promoted, and sold by Heineken and marketed as the party beer, due to the unexpected and sharp kick of the tequila. A complete shift from the small-town French brewery in which the beer was born. The marketing of Desperados completely erases any idea of a small-town family beer and now creates advertising that is loud, colourful and all about partying and nightlife. Although this marketing is eye catching and effective, the erasure of the beers true orgins could be slightly less innocent than just a marketing tactic.

Interestingly, when researching the beer, exact dates on its creation it is hard to find. The Heineken website says, ‘Born out of wild experimentation twenty years ago, Desperados dared to brew the world’s first Tequila Flavoured Beer.” However, they also said in 2017 the beer was 20 years old meaning the beer originated around 1997.Other sites say the beer was created as early as 1995. All these dates were when the beer was still in production by the Fischer Brewery, however most of this history seems to of been erased.

Potentially this could be due to the upset with the brewery's owners. Bruno Fischer, the at the time owner of the brewery spoke to the local news on Heinekens takeover of his family brewery, expressing his sadness stating ‘Our brewing tradition is going to disappear. It’s a family, a soul that will no longer be there. Once it’s gone it will be impossible to replace.’ You can imagine the devastation he felt when his words came true, and the brewery closed after nearly 130 years of being his family.

This unfortunately is an issue with smaller breweries owned by Heineken and a lesser-known controversy involving the famous Dutch brewing company. Fischer Brewery is one of many, Edinburgh's famous Caledonian Brewery is another example of a historic and loved home of beers being bought over and unexpectedly shut down by Heineken.

Needless to say, Desperados’ past and contrasting marketing is as unexpected yet interesting as the idea of tequila beer all together. The beer itself has pretty much zero tequila and is only tequila flavoured, hence the not too strong 5.9% ABV. The bitterness of the aged beer combined with the sweetness of the tequila and lemon used to flavour it is an interesting but refreshing taste. There are notes of citrus throughout with hints of lemon and lime all topped off with a nice fizz. The beer, like Corona, is usually served with a Lime to help boost this citrus taste against the bitter beer. Overall served cold Desperados is the perfect drink for summer and is enjoyable, hence the positive marketing saying it is the party beer.

So, Desperados is a party beer with a family background. A more unexpected beer history to say the least, and one that makes us question the morals of bigger breweries and the injustice for the smaller brewers like Desperados birthplace, the Fischer Brewery in France. The whole issue leaves the question,are the big breweries taking opportunity away from the little guy or simply bringing light to new and interesting beers?

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