Michelada
ClassicMexico's savory beer cocktail — cold lager poured over a spiced, tangy tomato-lime base.
Savory, tangy and gently spicy. Lime and salt sharpen a rounded tomato base, hot sauce and Worcestershire add umami heat and depth, and the lager keeps the whole thing light, cold and refreshing rather than heavy. The chili-salt rim seasons every sip. More brunch than nightcap — a drink you eat as much as sip.
Ingredients
- 1 oz Lime Juice
- 4 oz Tomato Juice
- 2 dashes Hot Sauce
- 3 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 pinch Salt
- 12 oz Lager
- Chili-salt rim · optional garnish
- lime wheel · optional garnish
Method
- 1
Rim a chilled pint glass with a mix of salt and chili powder, then fill with ice.
- 2
Add the lime juice, tomato juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire and a pinch of salt.
- 3
Stir briefly to combine.
- 4
Top slowly with cold lager, give one gentle stir, and garnish with a lime wheel.
The Story
The Michelada is Mexico's answer to the question of what to do with a cold beer on a hot afternoon: make it a meal. The name is usually read as a contraction of *mi chela helada* — "my cold beer" — and the drink spread from northern Mexican cantinas into a national institution, splitting into two broad camps. The lighter version is little more than beer, lime and salt; the fuller one, closer to this recipe, leans on tomato or Clamato, hot sauce and Worcestershire for a drink that sits somewhere between a beer and a Bloody Mary. It is the definitive hair-of-the-dog, and a fixture of Mexican brunch tables and beachside micheladerías alike.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
