How To Pick The Perfect Drinks (Alcoholic Or Not) To Pair With Tamales

Tamales aren't the most popular Mexican dish north of the border; that honor goes to nachos. Perhaps that's because they're a bit too labor-intensive for most fast food restaurants to offer. (However, Wienerschnitzel and Del Taco have been known to add them to the menu for the holiday season.) You may be able to find canned tamales and cook them in the air fryer, but if you're willing to put in the time to make homemade tamales, your efforts deserve to be celebrated. So, what beverages go best with this dish? Rick Martínez, author of the cookbook "Mi Cocina," says beer is usually a good choice.

Martínez says that some wines might be well suited for Mexican food (and yes, there are Mexican wines, some of which he calls "pretty amazing"), but on the whole, he feels that many wines have flavors that are too complex to pair well with tamales and might overwhelm the dish. He says beer is better.

"If you have a really nice pale ale or a light crisp lager, I think that's kind of what you want because you don't want anything that's going to compete," he explains. His preference is for Mexican lagers, yet he doesn't recommend using the beer to make a michelada. While he enjoys the drink, he says, "I almost feel like a good michelada almost is like a meal unto itself."

If you're not a beer drinker but you still want something alcoholic to go with tamales, a margarita would be a pretty obvious choice. A margarita mocktail would also work well, as would other options such as a Paloma or ranch water made with seltzer, tequila, and lime juice.

Rick Martínez likes fruit-flavored ranch waters, as well, calling such drinks "light and bright, cold, refreshing." He's also a fan of straight-up mezcal, explaining, "When plants grow together, they just taste good together." Agave complements the corn used in the tamale dough as well as the beans or chiles that may be in the filling.

Of course, you needn't accompany your tamales with a boozy beverage. In Mexico, Christmas tamales are often served with ponche navideño, or Christmas punch, a non-alcoholic mulled cider-like drink made from apples, guava, prunes, and spices. Horchata would also pair well with tamales, especially if they're super spicy. The milk and sugar can help to cool your mouth. One of Martínez's favorite drinks to go with tamales is limonada mineral, which is fresh limeade made with sparkling mineral water. He's partial to Topo Chico, but club soda or seltzer could be substituted with very little (if any) change in the flavor.