Now, a beer for gays and lesbians

Mexico City, Feb 3 (IANS/EFE) A Mexican company has launched a new beer aimed at the gay and lesbian community that will also be exported to other countries, company officials said.

The “honey-flavored” beer will initially be sold in Mexico and later exported to Colombia and Japan.

“We’ve entered the market with great respect, with the idea of offering a product aimed at the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community, which has been neglected but is very important and very demanding,” said Dario Rodriguez Wyler, marketing chief of Bodega 12 beer.

The beer is being sold at gay bars and restaurants in Guadalajara, one of Mexico’s most traditional cities, as well as in Mexico City and beach resorts such as Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos.

In the coming months, the company will export over 1,000 cases of the beer to Colombia and Japan, Wyler said.

The beverage comes in two different types of packaging, Salamandra and Purple Hand, which recalls a famous gay-rights protest in San Francisco in 1969.

The label is designed in a way that enables consumers to remove it from the bottle and display it as a sign of gay pride, Wyler said.

The company is also planning to launch a strawberry-flavoured beer.

Guadalajara and its surrounding area are home to several micro-brewers who sell beers with attention-grabbing names like “10 Marado”, named after Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona.

–IANS/EFE