Antarctica

In a tropical country, the most seductive name you can give a beer is the coldest place on earth. Antarctica, a pilsner brewed in São Paulo since 1885, is one of Brazil's two great heritage beers — the other being its century-long rival, Brahma of Rio.

That rivalry ended in the least expected way. Companhia Antarctica Paulista and Brahma spent a hundred years contesting Brazil glass by glass, then merged at the turn of the millennium to form Ambev — the company that went on to help assemble AB InBev, the largest brewer on earth. Which makes Antarctica, penguin mascot and all, one of the grandmothers of global Big Beer.

Inside Ambev's crowded portfolio it survives as the beer of the boteco — the Brazilian corner bar — where the classic order is a shared 600ml bottle kept in an insulating sleeve and poured into small glasses before it can warm. Old name, old penguin, and a very specific kind of cold.

A textbook Brazilian pilsen: pale straw, brisk carbonation, light body, with a touch more grain and a slightly firmer, drier bite than its mass-market rivals — loyalists usually point to that clean bitter snap as the reason they stay. Best from a frost-beaded 600ml bottle, split into small glasses, boteco style.