In a difficult economic environment, it is often wise for investors to consider stocks in more defensive and relatively recession-resistant sectors. And one such area is food and beverage stocks.

As the long-standing market maxim goes, consumers can pull back on spending for vacations, remodeling, and new cars, but they still need to eat and drink.

In that light, I turned to nine leading newsletter advisors who serve up their current favorite ideas in the food and beverage sector:

"Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP) is a way to drink your way to profits," jests Jonas Elmerraji. In The Rhino Report, the advisor suggests that the brewer is well-positioned to benefit as consumer scale down from more expensive beer brands. Here's his review.

"The stock price of TAP has slid in price in recent months, largely the result of underwhelming Wall Street in its latest earnings release a month ago.

"The company posted earnings of $96.8 million, or $0.44 per share, missing analyst estimates by 30 cents per share. But digging deeper reveals a quarter that wasn't quite as bad as Wall Street made it out to be.