Equlan: Oh! I also have a question for the folks from southern Europe! I'm here thinking of pretty much everyone south of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. I don't know if it's a commonly held belief. But my impression has somehow become that it isn't that common to drink beer in those countries. Wine being preferred or some such. Is there any validity to that?
svmariscal: Not at all, at least here in Spain; although I guess we drink a lot more wine than most northern european countries, we still drink A LOT more beer than wine. Of course it's a generalization but, in Spain beer is a drink for almost any social occasion, while wine is more closely associated with food. You won't see folks in a pub drinking wine while watching a soccer match.
As an example, when you're on a dinner with people, it's very common to have one or two beers for starters and then go for a red wine with the main course.
And a last word of advice: never, repeat, NEVER buy bottled sangria when you're in Spain. Spaniards very rarely drink sangria, It's a mixture of cheap wine with soda and fruit juices we only make and consume when in summer parties and such, very much like your punch. And when we do, it's never one of those poisonous bottled concoctions.
Thanks, that sounds just like here. Wine is usually drunk with food as well. I think recently beer has become more acceptable in such circumstances as well, though. Specialist brews and stuff like that becoming more "high brow" than beer normally has been considered.
