I came across this today. A writing prompt I had written for Medium last year that somehow never made it here. And then I thought, how is it freaking possible that I have never written about my devout love for this island’s ice-cold Presidente beer on Drinking the Whole Bottle? Like, really? Drinking that ice-cold ish is my favorite pastime on this island and I’ve never written about it? What the f…? Anyway, the writing prompt was this: With my last ten dollars… Here’s what I wrote:
I live in a land where the sea water is refreshing but not as refreshing as the beer. I live on a rock where the beer is stored in specially designed sub-zero fridges set at -3 degrees celsius so that the beer is as cold as it could get without freezing. I live on an island where there is a name for the frost that forms on the beer bottle when it is taken out of the special fridge and connects with the warm Caribbean air; it’s called un vestido de novia which translates to wedding dress. This place that I live in doesn’t sell forties (40 ounces), they sell jumbos and sharing has nothing to do with social media but rather what you do with these jumbos. So with my last ten dollars, how could I not buy a jumbo of Presidente — actually — screw it, I could buy three jumbos and have a 25 cent piece left over, just enough for a bag of chips.
See, a Presidente isn’t just a beer, it’s a symbol. The green bottle and gold label are a sign of a good time, a celebration, a reason to sit back and relax and enjoy the Caribbean air and the people around you. And while you are more than welcome to drink an individual, a pequeño, to yourself most people would rather share a jumbo. Like breaking bread. And no one worries about who is buying this round because it all comes back around.
This is an island where there are regular power outages, where I go to the supermarket to buy spinach but there is none, where coffee creamer is a luxury both because of its expense and because of its availability. But I’ve never had trouble finding a Presidente. This is where their priority lies.
And I’m just fine with that.
What would you do with your last ten dollars?
~ until the next bottle ~
Picture Credit:
Presidente — Torrey Wiley
Drinking the Whole Bottle
September 17, 2015I’m not a huge beer drinker anywhere but here. I really like how refreshing such a cold beer on such hot days. I’ve seen some come out of the fridge so cold that they’re slushies.
Barbara Schutt
September 15, 2015A very good beer. We have tried them Puerto Rico and prefer them over their own brew of Medalla which is kind of wimpy, lol.