I remember walking along a beach in Koi Samui in Thailand with my wife-to-be many years ago, the feeling of cool white sand pushing up between our toes and the late evening sun warming our backs.

We stopped at one of the beach-side bars, under the shade of a palm leaf roof and ordered a cold Thai beer. I recall it being delicious, fitting just perfectly into that moment. It was, right then, one of the best beers I had ever had.

Now I don’t recall if that beer was a bottle of Leo, Thailand’s best selling beer. I suspect it was a Singha but to be honest it doesn’t really matter. What made it so special had everything to do with the circumstances and hardly anything to do with the beer.

Which is why when I got the chance to try Leo recently my expectations were not sky high. The white sands have after all long been replaced by white snow, the beach-side bars with cheap pizza restaurants and the warming evening sun has been a stranger in this part of northern Sweden for several months now.

So in fairness to my bottle of Leo I decided to cook a Thai red chicken curry, seasoned with lemongrass, coconut milk and lime in an attempt to help it fit a little better into the moment.

And guess what? It succeeded! Leo describes itself as having a “smooth and great taste”. Well I’d dispute the latter adjective but Leo is indeed pretty smooth. It has a classic pale lager look to it, all watery yellow with bleached white head.

Up front it has a pleasant sweetness that smothered the heat of the curry rather nicely. After that to be honest there is very little there – but then with beers like Leo that’s largely the point isn’t it?

I would probably never drink a bottle of Leo on its own when all its weaknesses are brutally exposed, but put it together with spicy Asian food and it becomes as good as it can be.

Leo Lager will be available from the Systembolaget’s beställningssortiment from April 1^st in both 33cl and 63cl bottles.