Beer, the Costa Rican way
My husband and I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica- land of rainforests, volcanoes and yes, beer. It’s true that the small country, with rolling green hills and warm ocean breezes, is not known for its beer, but it did help ease the muscles after three-mile hikes in search of waterfalls and monkeys.
Costa Rica always gets dark at roughly 6 p.m., every night, every day of the year. So whether you like it or not, outdoor activities like hikes and tours cease, and it’s all about chilling out, going to the bars and drinking.
Imperial beer and sickly sweet "tropicales" juice sit in the same fridge
There’s not a whole lot of variety when it came to beer. There were some malt beers like Mike’s Hard Lemonade or this thing called Rock Ice, which was like water. I did see some Heineken there, as well as Corona occasionally. There was plenty of tequila on hand, as well as vodka- liquor you would normally see at a bar. Sometimes we splurged and had a few margaritas. We were concerned that they would taste supersweet, and not tart, like what we found when we visited Key West a few years back. But it was good and strong, served in a round short glass instead of the typical martini glass.
This was like Budweiser, but worse
The two beers that were available pretty much everywhere was Pilsen and Imperial. Cerveza (Spanish for beer) Imperial is known as the beer of Costa Rica. It’s rather like a glorified Budweiser, not much dimension to it. After a couple of bottles of Imperial, I quickly switched over to Pilsen and that was my drink of choice for the majority of the trip. Pilsen is kind of rich and has a lot of depth. It’s actually quite refreshing and I was surprised, since I don’t normally think that way about beer. I stuck with Imperial or Pilsen because they were the cheapest. Neither beer is anything great- it’s what you get when you don’t have a lot to spend.
Note the bottled water in the background; if you weren't drinking beer you were drinking bottled water.
Wherever you go in Costa Rica, you’ll see huge Cerveza Imperial posters, or brightly lit Imperial signs outside tiny Tico bars or restaurants, hotels, car repair places, etc. The motto in Costa Rica is “Pura Vida” which means pure life. Ticos (what Costa Ricans sometimes call themselves) generally take it easy, have a cold beer, and just chill out to escape the heat and humidity.
Beer never cost more than the equivalent of 2 U.S. dollars. An extra bonus- the bartenders don’t take tips. We left some coins on the table once and they never moved. Cheap beer means you can get some food too, which was usually beans and rice, or chicken and rice, or soup and rice. That doesn’t mean the food was bland, it was always delicious, just not a lot of variety between restaurants.
If you ever get the chance to visit Costa Rica, it is well worth it. It’s beautiful country and the people are very friendly and welcoming, even when there’s a language barrier. All you need to say is “Dos Imperial, por favor!”
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