When I was a kid, you couldn’t pay me to drink a root beer. Something about the smell, which seemed to have a lot in common with the spoons of sticky medicine my mom tried to shove down my throat when I was sick. When I finally worked up the courage to try one (I think it was an IBC), I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what took me so long. All those years of choosing Sprite over root beer: a youth wasted. I took a similar closed-minded approach to the Michelada, that blend of hot sauce, tomato juice and beer. To be fair, putting all those words together sounds like a gross mistake, so it took me a while to come around to it. But just like with root beer, my eyes have been opened and I don’t know what took me so long. Years wasted.
Consider the Michelada the more refreshing cousin to the Bloody Mary. You get all of the spicy, savory notes that have you reaching for a Bloody Mary in the first place, but in a lighter, less boozy concoction. Each cocktail only uses half a beer, and that beer cuts the soupiness of tomato juice and gives it a bubbly kick. And sometimes you don’t want a lot of booze in your drink. Like at breakfast. On a Wednesday.
Traditionally, the Michelada is made with an easy-drinking lager, which plays the mellow straight man to the rest of the wild ingredients in the cocktail. And it’s a good way to dress up a crappy macro lager. But listen, the beautiful thing about a Michelada, is that it begs for experimentation. Not only can you interchange the juice (clamato or tomato?) and the spices and hot sauce, but you can get jiggy with the beer too. Lagers are great, but an IPA can add a fruity component to the cocktail. Play with the beer selection, and you can bring out new dimensions to this refreshing cocktail. Here are four variations on the Michelada for you to try at home.
Traditional Michelada
Even with the original Michelada, there’s room for interpretation. Some things are a must (lime juice, hot sauce), but I like to add a briny element with olive juice, and take the acidity off of the tomato juice with a couple of pinches of brown sugar. Start with this recipe, but then get creative.
Ingredients
6 oz. of lager (feel free to use a cheap beer for this. We won’t judge.)
6 oz. of tomato juice
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
5 dashes of hot sauce
Dash salt
Dash pepper
Dash garlic powder
Tsp. olive juice
Tajin, a sea salt and crushed chilies seasoning for the rim
Directions: Rub a lime wedge around the rim of a pint glass and salt the rim with Tajin seasoning. Add all ingredients (except the beer) to the glass. Add ice, then top with beer. Stir and garnish with a lime wedge.
