A michelada () is a Mexican drink made with beer, lime juice, assorted sauces (often chili pepper-based), spices, and chili peppers. It is served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass. There are numerous variations of this beverage throughout Mexico.
In Mexico City, the most common form is prepared with beer, lime, salt, and particular hot sauces or chile slices. There are several other optional ingredients, such as Maggi sauce, soy sauce, Tajín, Worcestershire sauce, chamoy powder, , or clamato.
One involves a man named Michel Ésper at Club Deportivo Potosino in San Luis Potosí. In the 1960s, Ésper began to ask for his beer with lime, salt, ice, and a straw, in a cup called "chabela", as if it were a beer lemonade (limonada). Members of the club started asking for beer as "Michel's lemonade", with the name shortening over time to Michelada. As time went by, other sauces were added to the original recipe. Today, it contains the same ingredients as a chelada, but contains ice and chili powder on the rim.
Another etymology states that michelada is a portmanteau of mi chela helada. The word is a popular term for a cold beer in Mexico; therefore the phrase mi chela helada means "my ice-cold beer".
In 2007, Miller Brewing Company began producing Miller Chill, a "Chelada-style light lager with a hint of salt and lime". Anheuser-Busch makes Budweiser Chelada and Bud Light Chelada, a combination of lager, clamato, lime juice, and salt. In 2012, Tecate began offering a michelada flavored with lime and spices. In 2015, Cervecería Centro Americana, a Guatemalan Brewery, released a Michelada under the trade name Dorada Draft Michelada Chiltepe. The beverage is spiced with chiltepe peppers, a small, fiery pepper popular in Central American cuisine. Since August 2022, Grupo Modelo has offered a wide variety of Michelada-flavored beers in the US.
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