Beer cocktails offer a refreshing twist

Fans of Mexico's favorite beer cocktails love the combination of spice, ice and — of course — lime

Democrat & Chronicle - Karen Miltner, Staff writer, July 22, 2008

If you think popping open a bottle of Corona and shoving a lime wedge inside the bottle is as cocktailish as Mexican beer gets, you obviously have not yet met the michelada.

That's south-of-the-border slang for "my little cold one."

In my opinion, the possessive is imperative because once I start sipping this icy, spicy, salty and refreshing cerveza preparada (mixed beer drink), I don't want to share.

The michelada and its stunningly simple cousin, the chelada, have been staples at cantinas throughout Mexico for decades. But their popularity has been spreading from border states north, and now some Rochester-area Mexican restaurants are either serving them by request or flaunting them on
their menus.

The chelada has four non-negotiable accessories:

1. A tall glass (sorry, no drinking out of the bottle or can).

2. Salt, to rim the glass.

3. Ice cubes — yes, you actually serve this cerveza on the rocks.

4. Lime juice and wedge, as flavor enhancer and garnish.

To upgrade to a michelada, you add some salty flavorings, chiles and some tomato juice. The mixture is otherwise called sangrita, a tequila chaser with multiple applications.

In either case, the beer — preferably a Mexican import — has to be "a really cold one, the kind that gives you brain freeze," says Treena Moreno. She and husband, Eduardo, run Blue Cactus Mexican Grille in Fairport, where cheladas and micheladas are served.

"The chelada, there is no comparing it to anything else. It is so, so refreshing in the summertime. ... Michelada is what you drink after you drank too much tequila the night before and wake up with a hangover. The michelada supposedly gets rid of it," adds Moreno.

Personally, I try to avoid the need for such morning-after remedies, preferring a chelada or michelada as a delicious way to chill on a hot afternoon or evening.

Cheladas and micheladas are an inseparable part of Mexico's cantina culture, says Eduardo Moreno, whose late father operated a cantina in Chiapas and mixed countless cheladas and micheladas. Beverages were always served with botanas, complementary appetizers often featuring inexpensive cuts of meat such as beef tongue and liver or pig knuckles.

As confirmation that cerveza preparada is quickly becoming part of the mainstream American beer drinker's lexicon, last year Miller introduced Miller Chill, a "chelada-style" light beer with the lime and salt already added.

And earlier this year, Budweiser & Clamato Chelada and Bud Light & Clamato Chelada hit the national market. The former comes in a bottle; the latter, in cans.

Even before that, small specialty food producers have been making instant michelada mixes such as Habagallo Foods' Michelada Mix (www.habagallo.com) and Gitcho Michelada (www.gitchomix.com). Both companies are based in Texas.

But purists like the Morenos argue that it's worth the extra trouble to do it yourself, and I have to agree.

For the chelada, it's a no-brainer, as limes, salt and ice are readily available.

But variations on the michelada abound. Some recipes call for tomato juice, V8 and/or orange juice for sweetness. For salt and kick, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Maggi Seasoning Sauce are all acceptable. As for the all-important source of spicy heat, hot sauce, horseradish, reconstituted chiles or chili powder can each do the trick.

As for the type of beer you select, any pale Mexican lager such as Corona or Dos Equis works well for cheladas, though the Morenos will make theirs with Tecate unless requested otherwise.

(Adding salt and lime to cans of Tecate is a long-standing tradition in Mexico. Some, including Mexican cooking authority and cookbook author Rick Bayless, say the habit, which helped cover up the canned flavor, was where the whole tradition of adding a lime wedge to beer started.)

"There is no right or wrong way to make a michelada. The most important thing is that you make it the way you like it," says Treena Moreno.