(Mi)Chelada

Urban folklore places the phrase may you live in interesting times as an old Chinese curse. The implication is, of course, that if your life is anything other than peaceful and predictable, then the interesting events are probably not good.

Bearing this nugget of information in mind, I’ll tell you that the Chelada is an interesting drink. This one comes from Mexico and, judging from what I’ve been able to find, is fairly popular. The idea is that beer on its own is boring, which is actually pretty much right on the money if we’re talking about Mexican light beer. To give it a little more zing you first add ice to keep it really cold, and then add some lime juice and salt to give it a little more bite.

Weird, huh? It gets worse. The above combination is what gets called a Chelada, and is actually not as bad as it seems as long as you don’t go overboard with the salt. There is a more sinister variation that calls for pretty much anything hot or spicy that you can find. There is no fixed recipe since each person makes it as they prefer, much like a Spanish Sangría. I have seen versions calling for Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce (you can use it instead of salt) and many different kinds of hot sauce, among other ingredients — I found it interesting that some recommend you don’t use Tabasco, since it adds too much flavour to the resulting drink when all you want is to feel your mouth burning. This monster version is called a Michelada.

There are also variations in the beer you should use. Whereas most people will probably use Corona (Coronita in Spain) or Sol, a decent version can apparently be made using Negra Modelo, a dark beer made by the same folks as Corona. And I haven’t even begun to enumerate additional ingredients like Clamato, etc. You can find a bunch of versions in the Wikipedia Michelada entry. I found the Manuchelada to be especially disturbing because of how complicated the preparation seems.

Recipe:

Juice of 2 limes
1 bottle Mexican Beer
salt

Rim a pint glass with the salt and fill with ice. Squeeze the limes into the glass and fill with the beer.

For a Michelada add:

Hot sauce to taste (I used some Portuguese piri-piri sauce, a chilli pepper-based hot sauce).
Soy sauce to taste.
Worcestershire sauce to taste.

Notes:

There isn’t much to say, really. The Chelada on its own was ok, if a bit strange. But I can imagine getting the palate used to the interplay of lager and lime juice. The Michelada is reminiscent of a Bloody Mary, but much lighter. It’s not a bad drink per se, I just can’t imagine a situation where I’d prefer it over anything else.

Rating:

- Icy Spicy Beer. As odd as it sounds, but cool to whip up as a party trick for people who think they’ve had it all.