73/100) Mexican Inspirations

I have set myself the goal to review three beers or ciders every week for 100 weeks. I will be learning about beer and ciders more as I do this, and if I am successful in this venture, I will have tried about 300 unique drinks. If you're curious how I'm doing, the number in the post's title tells you which week I am in now.

Oculto, Cocoa Mole, El Mole Ocho

I'm not sure when the craze started, but a growing abundance of tequila-touched or Mexican-flavor oriented beers have started appearing. While most of us know or have experienced tequila, Moles (pronounced Mow-laze) can be a bit of an unknown. They manifest as dark sauces that vary in flavor from spicy and smokey to bitter and sweet, but all go very well with Mexican food or even Tex-Mex. I rather like moles so I am stoked to see that flavor profile is being set into beers.  

Also who could forget? Tomorrow's Halloween! What better way to celebrate than with a Dia de Los Muertos themed beer? Check out these one's from last year: Dia de Los Muertos Beers 

Oculto) First of all, this beer is not "craft." At best it is pseudo-craft, because its being produced by an offshoot of Anheuser-Busch. Doesn't mean it's not potentially worth a shot, but I just had to find out why practically overnight this beer spread all across the nation. When you're an InBev beer, you get all the perks of distribution that their massive company has to offer.

Oculto means "Hidden" in English. This drink is.. odd. I get the agave qualities, but there is too much tequila flavor. Truthfully, I'm still debating whether or not "tequila flavor" is an appropriate description. However, I can't say "the tequila" since there was no tequila in this beer. I had a lot of trouble drinking this one enough so that I can say I did not like it. I even added a splash of lime juice to fix that. It changed to tasting a bit like a Corona. I can't say that was an improvement. Funny thing is that I really wanted to like this one too. The bottle has some wicked ribbing and a cool day-of-the-dead skull. I didn't though. ☆  

Cocoa Mole) had lovely chocolate touches and a subtle burn on the finish. Even a bit of smokiness from the chipotle came through. The bottle's art though confused me. It's Day of the Dead-ish, yes, but that's not what baffled me. Why the odd color scheme? If anybody knows why, let me know. I couldn't figure it out. Regardless of the external oddness, the internal contents were excellent. I bet this one would go great with chips and salsa while I've got my legs kicked back watching a movie or a game. ☆☆☆☆

El Mole Ocho) First off, there is no El Mole Siete, Seis or any other permutation in Spanish. There is only this one, err eight?
As to the actual beer, it was very similar to the Cocoa Mole with a solid balance of heat, spices, and smoke. Something was different though that made me like this one better. I think it was the more robust chocolate, or some spice that might have been clove. However, this one looked amazing when poured into a glass. The golden amber's waters swirled below a wispy smoke of trailing foam. I'm adding this beer to my "must have on hand" list. ☆☆☆☆☆