I am continuing the food theme with a phenomenon that I had noticed, but until my parents were here and my father questioned it, I had not tried to find an explanation:
What’s with the light beer??
It seems like all the common beers (i.e lager for a Brit / European) are LIGHT in this part of the world (read: the US and Puerto Rico). The local beer is called Medalla Light, but the same goes with Bud Light, Coors Light etc. However, the popular beer from our neighbours in the Dominican Republic – The Presidente beer is just cerveza tipo Pilsener, and does not claim to be light.
So is there a normal non-light version of these beers? No, not necessarily and that is what makes it an even more intriguing issue! So, this is how our light beer discussion went last week:
Is it light in taste? Most Europeans would say that yes, American beer doesn’t have a lot of flavour… but no, that can’t be it!
Light in alcohol? Well, for some bizarre reason Medalla Light has an undefined alcohol level, and I quote: Alcohol by volume over 4%, not more than 6% ! Doesn’t the manufacturer know how strong the beer is??
Maybe it takes a Swede to wonder this, seeing that in Sweden we have 4 classes of beer depending on the alcohol percentage: Light (lättöl – contains max. 2,25% alcohol), People’s* (folköl – 2,25-3,5%) Medium (mellanöl – 3,5-4,5%) and Strong (starköl – above 3,5%)…
But then we found the answer: apparently it is light like Diet Coke is light… i.e light in calories!! 
So, people can drink beer without feeling guilty about their weight? Can that really be the reason? I am completely flabbergasted!!
My favourite Medalla Light ad:
A cool way to tell people not to drink and drive!! Si bebes no guies!
And here’s another ad where you can see some pictures from San Juan – the Convention Centre, the Old town and Hotel Normandie… it gives you a certain Caribbean feel, doesn’t it!?
*) Don’t ask me why it is called people’s beer, maybe because Sweden used to have a socialdemocratic government? And it is the only class of beer (together with light beer) that can be found in ordinary supermarkets while stronger beer is exclusively sold in the special state-run alcohol shops called Systembolaget.
