Super Bock

Ask for "um fino" in a Porto café and the tap it comes from will almost certainly say Super Bock. This is Portugal's best-selling beer, a golden lager born in 1927 that rules the north of the country and follows Portuguese speakers wherever they have settled abroad.

Start with the name, because it is a bluff: Super Bock is not a bock. It comes from the brewery at Leça do Balio, on Porto's edge, and despite the Germanic label it has always been a pale, easy lager rather than a dark, strong one. The bigger story is geographic. Portuguese beer loyalty splits along a north–south line — Super Bock in Porto, Sagres in Lisbon — and ordering the wrong one in the wrong city marks you as a tourist faster than a camera does.

The brand still runs from Leça do Balio, where Super Bock Group keeps its headquarters, with Viacer and Carlsberg interests behind the company. On home turf, do it properly: a fino, ice-cold, next to a francesinha — Porto's molten meat-and-cheese sandwich, which demands nothing subtler.

Bright gold with a thin white head, best served very cold. The first sip is lightly sweet cereal malt, the middle soft and fizzy, and the finish carries just enough hop bite to reset your palate. It peaks in a small frosted fino glass on a hot Atlantic afternoon.