[Summary : billions of dollars are spent on marketing worldwide on spreading the word on how flavorful, tasty and classic good, world-class beer tastes. With or without these billion dollar campaigns, do you think, as long as the brown bottle feels good, the millions of kabayan OFW the world over will actually care? thanks for reading! ]
“SIGE MAMILI ka na ng beer mo Mahal,” Mahal (we call each other the same thing) told me last Saturday on the grocery run, which signaled to me that it was one of the few times we had a little left over from the weekend pamalengke (grocery) budget, and I nearly stumbled running over to the liquor aisle of our corner supermarket.
I’m not an alcoholic by any means but I like my bubbly every now and then: The nice smooth buzz that a drink will give you the first sip, and after that, the superpower to become more talkative, charming and engaging.
Worldwide and anywhere you see an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), besides the adobo and sinigang, the karaoke and the money always set aside to be sent home, there’s the brown bottle that’s an essential part of OFW culture.
This time, in my haste, I selected without looking a six-case that looked almost exactly like the brand I like to pick, esp because they’re often on sale. But I didn’t notice first that they were a bit cheaper, and second that they were displayed apart from where the regular beer was placed.
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Imagine my misery when we got home, and Mahal pointed out that, wait, did you really want the ZERO-alcohol version? Since I never chose the non-alcohol version, it certainly wasn’t my intended.
The funny part was, the first two swings of the beer, I actually felt a buzz. Was this the beer, or was this the muscle memory of my brain and nervous system from several thousand bottles drinking the same thing over and over?
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The buzz disappeared in milliseconds. It was more a fragment of millions of memories of buzzes past, when I thought I was preparing myself for another fuzzy experience of funny juice, and all the exhilaration and embarrassment felt between the first and last drinks.
Which led to the question that I know every OFW everywhere all over the world will answer the same way, as it allows them to forget the work, the financial problems, the requests of the extended family back home, just for a tiny wee while:
Do you drink your beer for the flavor, or for the buzz?
The answer is so obvious we leave it unanswered for you, kabayang OFW.
PS. Please drink responsibly.
