What Is The Most Popular Mexican Drink?

There is no single answer, and any page that gives you one is guessing. Beer is the alcoholic drink Mexicans consume in the greatest volume by any common-sense measure, tequila is the spirit the country is most identified with abroad, and aguas frescas, fruit waters like horchata and jamaica, are the everyday non-alcoholic default that visitors often overlook entirely.

Each of those answers is correct for a different version of the question. If you mean what fills the most glasses at a beach bar in Playa del Carmen, it is beer, almost always a light Mexican lager with a wedge of lime. If you mean what a bartender pours when somebody says "something Mexican," it is tequila or its smokier cousin mezcal. If you mean what families drink with a midday meal, it is more likely an agua fresca or a licuado than anything distilled.

The useful question for a traveller is not which drink wins a popularity contest, since no sales or popularity statistics are cited here, but what each drink actually is, how it is served, and where in Playa del Carmen you can taste a good example of it. That is what the rest of this page does. It is worth knowing the background first, because it changes how you order, how much you pay, and how much you enjoy the glass in front of you.

Mexico's drinking culture is old and formally recognized. Traditional Mexican cuisine, the whole food culture that surrounds these drinks, was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, a point the cuisine of Mexico entry covers in detail. Drinking here is a food practice as much as a beverage choice, which is why the best introductions to tequila or mezcal come with something to eat beside the glass rather than standing at a bar with no plate in sight.

Which Alcohol Do Mexicans Drink The Most?

Beer, and it is not close. Across restaurants, cantinas, family gatherings and beach clubs, light lager in bottles and cans outsells every spirit combined in daily Mexican life, and tequila, while the most famous export, is drunk in smaller quantities, usually as a sip or a shot rather than a session drink. Mezcal, raicilla and bacanora fill the craft and connoisseur end.

That distinction matters when you order. A Mexican table at dinner will typically have lagers or micheladas in front of most people, with maybe one bottle of tequila or mezcal shared in small pours at the end of the meal. Visitors often invert this, treating tequila as the all-night drink, which is a fast route to a short night and a rough morning. The pattern you see locally, beer through the meal and agave spirits in measured sips, has a lot of practical sense behind it, and adopting it will make your evening feel more like a local one.

The michelada deserves a mention because it is where beer and Mexican flavour meet. It is beer served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass with lime juice, hot sauce or chamoy, and sometimes clamato, and it turns an ordinary lager into something closer to a meal accompaniment. Ordering one is a low-risk way to taste a genuinely local beer custom rather than just the beer itself. Craft beer has also grown along the Riviera Maya, with dedicated bars pouring Mexican-brewed IPAs, stouts and lagers alongside the big national brands, and the standard has risen quickly over the past few years.

If you want to taste that beer culture with structure instead of working it out alone, the Beer and Seafood Crawl does exactly that: roughly 3 hours, from $101.53 per person, moving between venues with food and drinks included and a group capped at 10. It is a young listing with 12 reviews so far, too few for a star claim, but the format, beer paired with seafood across central Playa del Carmen, matches how the city actually eats and drinks. You can check availability on the operator's page.

Tequila, Mezcal, And The Agave Family

Tequila and mezcal are both distilled from agave, and the difference is plant and place: tequila must be made mostly or entirely from blue agave in its designated regions, while mezcal can use many agave varieties, traditionally pit-roasted, which gives it the smoky character people notice first. Sipped neat in small pours, both are treated more like wine than shots.

The shot-and-lime routine is largely an export. In Mexico, a decent tequila is sipped from a small caballito glass or a tasting glass, often alongside sangrita, a mild tomato-citrus chaser, and mezcal is served the same way with orange slices and sal de gusano, worm salt. Asking for the good bottle and drinking it slowly costs little more and completely changes the impression of the spirit. Blanco expressions show the agave plant sharply, reposado spends time in oak and softens, and añejo goes further in wood toward caramel and spice notes. Tasting the three side by side is the fastest education in what the category can do.

Mezcal has moved from a niche Oaxacan tradition to menus across the Riviera Maya, and Playa del Carmen reflects that shift. Tasting flights of several artisanal varieties, with palate cleansers between pours, are now a standard offering in the town's better venues, and bartenders talk about agave varieties, villages and production methods the way sommeliers talk about vineyards. If your interest is in comparing agave spirits rather than just drinking one, a guided tasting beats ordering blind, because a good guide will pace the pours and explain what you are smelling in each glass.

The guided option on this site is the Tequila and Mezcal Gourmet Tour, roughly 4 hours from $209.61 per person with food and drinks included and free cancellation per the listing. It is another young listing, 6 reviews so far, too few for a star claim, so read the operator's page rather than relying on a rating. There is also the 5-Hour Class, Tequila and Mezcal, a cooking class in Playa del Carmen from $105.00 per person that folds a guided spirit tasting into a longer session, rated 4.9 across 158 reviews if you want the combined food-and-drink format with more of a track record.

One legal note that catches some families out: the legal drinking age in Mexico is 18 in all states and ID is required, as summarized by a reputable reference on drinking ages. Tastings and drink-focused tours are adult territory, so plan accordingly if you are travelling with teenagers, and bring identification out with you in the evening regardless of your age, since venues are within their rights to ask.

Beer, Michelada, And The Craft Crawl

Mexican beer splits into two worlds: the pale national lagers known worldwide, served ice cold with lime, and a fast-growing craft scene brewing darker and hoppier styles that you mostly find on tap in specialist bars. Both are easy to enjoy, but the craft side rewards a guide, because the best pours are spread across town rather than on the tourist street.

The lagers need no introduction; they are the default order at any taco stand and the correct one, since a cold light beer cuts salt, lime and chili exactly the way the food wants. Chelada is the simplest dressing, beer over ice with lime and a salted rim. The michelada, described above, is the fuller version. Beyond those, Mexican bartenders mix palomas, tequila with grapefruit soda and lime, which many locals would name as the country's most refreshing cocktail, and margaritas remain the international ambassador, served rocks or frozen with salt on the rim if you want it.

The craft scene is where a crawl earns its cost. Independent venues in Playa del Carmen pour Mexican-brewed stouts, wheat beers and aggressively hopped pale ales, and they sit streets apart from each other, so a guided route saves an evening of guesswork and usually lands you in rooms you would never have found on your own. The Beer and Seafood Crawl mentioned earlier is the natural fit here, pairing those pours with seafood rather than snacks, which is how the town's own cantina culture works anyway. Expect conversation with the group, since a cap of 10 guests keeps the format social rather than anonymous.

A table keeps the formats straight:

Non-Alcoholic Mexican Drinks

Aguas frescas, fresh fruit, grain or flower waters such as horchata, jamaica and agua de melon, are the everyday Mexican drink, poured by the litre at markets, fondas and family tables, and they beat any soda for both flavour and how well they suit the climate. Add licuados, fresh fruit blended with milk, and hot chocolate inherited from the country's pre-Hispanic roots.

Horchata is rice-based, cinnamon-scented and faintly sweet; jamaica is deep red, made from hibiscus, and tart in a way that resets the palate after spicy food. Each region and each market cook keeps a rotating lineup depending on what fruit is cheap that week, which is part of the appeal: you never quite know what the day's agua will be, and the best ones are gone by mid-afternoon. They cost a fraction of a cocktail and go with everything on a Yucatecan plate, from cochinita pibil to a simple plate of tacos.

For visitors, the fruit itself is a destination quality attraction. The tropics here grow varieties, mamey, sapote, maracuya, soursop among them, that never survive a northern supply chain, and tasting them side by side is the fastest way to understand what an agua fresca starts from. Names on a menu mean nothing until you have tried the actual fruit, and most visitors are surprised by how different a fresh mamey tastes from anything they can name. The Tropical Fruit Tasting, Budget Fare experience covers more than 15 fruits across roughly 3 hours from $22.00 per person, making it the least expensive guided option in town; it is a new listing with no reviews yet, so go in expecting discovery rather than polish.

Where To Taste Drinks Well In Playa Del Carmen

The honest answer is: with food, and with somebody who can explain what is in the glass. Drink-only evenings on the tourist street tend toward volume over quality, while the town's better experiences pair pours with plates, which is how Mexican drinking culture actually works. Guided options start at $22.00 per person for a fruit tasting and run to $209.61 per person for a four-hour gourmet agave tour.

Playa del Carmen's layout helps. Most drink-focused experiences meet around the Quinta Avenida corridor or in Centro, both walkable from the beach zone, so an evening tasting does not eat your night in transit. Group sizes matter too: the tasting and crawl options on this site cap at 8 to 10 guests, which keeps a tasting conversational rather than a coach party, and lets the guide answer questions as the pours land.

If you would rather make the drinks than taste them, Playa del Carmen has that covered as well. The 9 Recipes, Bottomless Drinks cooking class, roughly 4 hours from $85.00 per person, rated 4.9 across 39 reviews, builds a full meal with drinks flowing throughout, and the Drinks and Appetizers Class, 2 hours from $68.00 per person with pickup per the listing, focuses purely on cocktails and small plates. Either one teaches the paloma and margarita structure you can reproduce at home. For a broader look at pairing food with the town's flavors, the guide to Playa del Carmen cooking classes lays out the options, and the best food tours in Playa del Carmen page covers the walking format if drinks are only part of your plan.

Aside from format, a few practical notes make the difference between a good tasting and a rushed one. Drink water between stops; the heat here makes alcohol hit harder than at home, and the good operators build in food for exactly that reason, so treat the plates as part of the experience rather than an interruption. If anyone in your group has an allergy or a dietary need, message the operator before booking rather than assuming, since no tour can promise accommodation in advance. And book tastings for early evening, when the heat breaks and the town's pace picks up, which suits a four-hour gourmet format better than a midday start would.

A quick way to sort the table: the two hands-on classes sit close in price, and the jump from $85.00 to $105.00 buys roughly an extra hour plus a guided tequila and mezcal tasting on top of the cooking. The shorter 2-hour cocktail format, with pickup listed, suits an evening when you still want time to walk Quinta Avenida afterward.

Review depth varies widely across these options. The 5-Hour Class, Tequila and Mezcal carries the longest record at 4.9 across 158 reviews, the 9 Recipes class matches that score across 39, and the Beer and Seafood Crawl brings 12 reviews at $101.53 per person. The fruit tasting, as a new listing, has none yet, so you are booking on format alone.

The facts above also shape plans. With the legal drinking age at 18 in every Mexican state and venues expected to check ID, groups with younger travelers can lean on the fruit tasting or a cooking class, where food carries the evening.

Common Questions About Mexican Drinks

What Is The Most Popular Mexican Drink?

Beer is the alcoholic drink Mexicans consume most by volume, tequila is the spirit the country is best known for internationally, and aguas frescas like horchata and jamaica are the most common everyday non-alcoholic choice. Each answer is right for a different version of the question, so order according to the moment rather than the label of "most popular."

Is Tequila Or Mezcal More Popular In Mexico?

Tequila is produced and consumed in far greater volume and is the default agave spirit at most bars, while mezcal has grown from a regional Oaxacan tradition into a nationwide connoisseur drink. Both are sipped rather than shot when served well, often with sangrita for tequila or orange and worm salt for mezcal.

What Is A Michelada?

A michelada is beer served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass with lime juice and hot sauce or chamoy, sometimes with clamato added. It turns a light lager into a savory, refreshing drink that pairs naturally with seafood and grilled meat, and it is one of the easiest local customs for a visitor to adopt.

Can You Do A Drink Tasting In Playa Del Carmen?

Yes. Options range from a guided tasting of more than 15 tropical fruits from $22.00 per person to a roughly 4-hour tequila and mezcal gourmet tour from $209.61 per person with food included, plus a beer and seafood crawl at from $101.53 per person. Cooking classes that fold in cocktails and spirit tastings start around $68.00 per person.

What Is The Legal Drinking Age In Mexico?

Eighteen, in all states, and identification is required. That applies to tastings and drink-focused tours as well as bars, so drink experiences in Playa del Carmen are adult-only regardless of where you are visiting from.

What Should I Drink With Tacos?

A cold light lager or a michelada is the standard local pairing, cutting through salt, lime and chili. With cochinita pibil and other Yucatecan dishes, an agua fresca, especially tart jamaica, does the same job without alcohol. Save tequila or mezcal for small sips after the meal rather than during it.

Deciding what to drink is really deciding how to eat, and no page can settle it for you. Beer for the long evening, agave spirits for the ceremonial pour, aguas frescas for the hot walk home. Wherever you land, Playa Del Carmen Food Tours exists to connect that curiosity to a table, a glass and a guide who knows the difference.