Tap Handle #867: Los 5 Muchachos - Lolita's Cherry-Bomb Chocolate Stout

Tap size:  12.25"

Rarity:  10 or less seen, possibly only 50 produced

Mounting:  custom 3/8" red metallic ferrule

What's so special about the Los 5 Muchachos Lolita's Cherry-Bomb Chocolate Stout? To quote Winston Churchill, "it's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Let's start with the tap itself. The level of detail on this tap is astounding. The character is a fetching luchadora, a Mexican female lucha libre wrestler. She wears a large black and red sombrero with white patterning on it. Her black hair, with orange highlights in it, flows across her shoulders and down her back. Two lavender-colored roses are tucked behind her left ear and under the sombrero. She wears a red mask with a black border and white patterning that matches the sombrero, as well as a matching red with black-bordered wrestling bikini top and bikini bottom. Her fingernails are painted orange to match her hair, and her right hand is extended, holding a palmful of chocolate cherries. Black bands adorn each wrist. Her lower legs disappear into the base of the tap for stability and strength. A decal appears below her legs with the name of the beer and an amusing character that looks inspired by the Dia De Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Below the signage is an area that resembles stitched white leather with red laces; presumably this is an abstract representation of what the luchadora's boots would look like. At the very bottom is a custom red metallic ferrule. There are even patterns and white rope on the top of the sombrero.

Everything about this tap suggests that an amazingly creative imagination went into producing it, from all the small details to the color palette, from the shape and form to the decal....IT IS GORGEOUS! Sorry for yelling, but it has to be said: in my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful taps ever made. It was manufactured in 2016, and in 2017 it started to slowly trickled out on the secondary market to the tune of about 1 per year, until 2021. Scarcity helped to keep the price high, with a low of $238 to a high of $450. I do know that at least 50 were made, but there could be more. Some sales happened off of the secondary market through other channels.

Brewery name on box

So here's where the "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" comes in: there is no information to be found on Los 5 Muchachos anywhere. No BeerAdvocate entry, no Untappd check-ins, no news articles of the brewery starting or folding...absolute and total nothingness. The name doesn't even appear on the tap itself - it only appears on the manufacturer's box. One good source told me that this was a concept, a prototype. Another source told me they called the manufacturer and they told him the tap was made for a real brewery that never got off the ground, but I can't verify the truth behind that. It could also be a commissioned tap from a hobbyist, although that seems unlikely given the capital that would be needed to produce this, and it contradicts the Tap Handles rep's info. Whatever the tap's origin story is - and we may never know - there's no denying it is special.

The Fake

So special, in fact, that someone commissioned a knock-off from China that pales in comparison (see photo inset). It lacks in detail, the color palate is off, and the mask looks like my grandma's gold horn-rimmed glasses. The bikini bottom completely disappears in the back, the sombrero is smaller and says "Harvest" on the front instead of the patterns on the original, and she's not holding chocolate cherries. This imitator removes a lot of the fine details that make the original so amazing. Another missing piece is that the original comes in a Tap Handles box, while the fake does not. It's pretty easy to spot all the differences between the fake and the original. While I never would purchase this cheap looking imitation, I get the appeal to some people. Once the price hit $450 consistently in 2021, most buyers were locked out of purchasing one at that price point, and someone saw an opportunity to steal intellectual property and profit off of it. The knock-off consistently sells for between $85 -$125, although the very first one sold for $200.

Since the fake version started appearing in 2022, the original has almost completely disappeared, with a lone tap selling for $370 in 2024.

There is no address, website or source material given, since nothing could be found regarding Los 5 Muchachos or Lolita's Cherry-Bomb Chocolate Stout.