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What´s The Best Local Beer To Drink In Cuba

Cuba is differently more famous for its Rum and cigars than it´s beer. Still, these days the local beer culture in Cuba is rapidly increasing, now there are two local craft beer breweries in Havana, and most of the larger cities in Cuba have their own local brewery, but the beer produced there is often only sold in the city it´s produced.

Some of most common beers in Havana Cuba

Some of the most common local beers in Havana.

Top Local Beers To Try In Cuba.

Cristal.

Style: Pale Lager 4,9%
Sold on both cans and 0.33l bottles, by far the most popular and common beer in Cuba.

Cristal pours a clear straw colour with half of finger of white head. The aroma of corn, hay and some bread.
Sweet grainy taste with slightly bitter hoppy grassy feel.

An easy and refreshing beer to drink, which is good since it´s available everywhere around Cuba.

Aroma: 5/10.
Appearance: 6/10.
Taste: 7/10.
Overall: 7/10.

Cristal beer in Cuba

Cristal the most common and popular of the Cuban beers

Bucanero Fuerte.

Style: Pale Lager 5,4%
Sold on both cans and 0,33l bottles. The second most popular and common beer in Cuba, if there´s no Cristal for sale, there´s always a Bucanero.

Bucanero Pours a clear dark golden colour with a small white head which rapidly vanishes. The aroma of sweet malt, corn, mushroom soup, hay.

Taste is moderately sweet, low bitter with a low dry finish, a good beer to enjoy in Cuba.

Aroma: 5/10.
Appearance: 6/10.
Taste: 7/10.
Overall: 6/10.

 

Bucanero cuba beer

Bucanero one of the two most common beers in Cuba. and best Cuban beers to drink

Cerveja Bruja Clásica.

Style: Pale Lager 4,5%
Sold only in bottles, some are green, others are brown.
One of the more local beers, not really sold in tourist areas since it´s more aimed for the locals, only sold in small local pubs since it´s cheaper than both Cristal and Bucanero.

Pours a clear gold colour with about zero head. The aroma is grain and wet hay. Taste is a generic lager, lots of grain with a bitter bready finish, not a very good beer.

Aroma: 2/10.
Appearance: 3/10.
Taste: 2/10.
Overall: 2,5/10.

Cerveja Bruja Clásica beer in Cuba

Cerveja Bruja Clásica a more local beer in Cuba, sold in both green and brown bottles.

Tinima Cerveza Clara.

Style: Pale Lager 5,3%.
Sold only in bottles, another local beer sold mainly to the local Cubans, only found in local pubs not frequent with foreigners.

Tinima pours clear yellow with a medium white head. The taste is mainly bitter with some sweet on top. Medium carbonated. With a metallic Aroma. Not the best beer in Cuba.

Aroma: 3/10.
Appearance: 3/10.
Taste: 2/10.
Overall: 3/10. 

 

Tinima Cerveza Clara.

Tinima Cerveza Clara. local beer in Cuba.

Cacique.

Style: Pale Lager 4,5%
Sold only on cans, another local beer more aimed for local Cubans than the foreign tourists.

Cacique pours clear golden with a small white head. With a clear aroma of yeast and malt, with notes of hops and touches of citrus. Bitter, hoppy flavour with notes of malt and yeast and touches of metal. Not the best beer, but ok to drink in the warm Cuba sun.

Aroma: 4/10.
Appearance: 3/10.
Taste: 4/10.
Overall: 4/10.

Cacique Cuban beer

Cacique a local Cuban beer

Mayabe Cerveza Clara.

Style: Pale Lager 4%.
Sold only in cans, another beer aimed mostly for local Cubans.

Mayabe pours a clear golden colour, with a small and fast disappearing white head. Malty aroma, sweet grains also present. Taste is sweet and malty, little bitterness, a bit watery. Not a great beer, but another beer to drink when it´s getting hot in Cuba.

Aroma: 3/10.
Appearance: 4/10.
Taste: 4/10.
Overall: 4/10.

Mayabe Cerveza Clara local cuba beer

Mayabe Cerveza Clara, a local Cuban beer.

There are also two foreign beers sold around the more touristic parts of Cuba, and to everyone surprises, it´s neither Heiniken nor Carlsberg but rather an unknown Dutch beer and a local beer from the Dominican Republic.

Presidente

Style: Pale Lager 5%
Sold on in bottles, it´s not a local Cuban beer, but it´s often named as one in the different bar, and the restaurant’s around the more touristy parts of Cuba.

Pours clear golden with a strongly lacing head. The aroma is like sausage water, sweetish grains. The body is light, with dominant carbonation over some sweetness and bitterness. Not a good beer at all.

Aroma: 2/10.
Appearance: 2/10.
Taste: 2/10.
Overall: 2/10.

 

Presidente beer sold in Cuba

Presidente local beer from the Dominican Republic a popular beer sold in Cuba in touristy areas.

Claro

Style: Pale Lager 4%
Sold only in bottles, similar to president often sold as a local Cuban beer, but this one is from the Netherland, often used in frozen Mojitos around Havana.

Claro used in frozen Mojitos in Havana

Claro used in a frozen Mojito in Havana.

Pours a clear pale watery gold with almost no head at all. Bit harsh aroma hits from far, grain, corn, vegetable cellar. Light and watery and sweet, a bit like bad lemonade.

Not a great beer, you better drink Cristal and Bucanero.

Aroma: 2/10.
Appearance: 2/10.
Taste: 2/10.
Overall: 2/10.

 

claro beer in Cuba

Claro beer sold in Havana.

What´s the best local beer to drink in Cuba

What´s the best Cuban beers?