Flickr: Sergio Dávila

Michelada: Bloody Mary's Beer Cousin

If you like beer cocktails, I'd like to introduce you to the Michelada. In the states, you'll find this drink in one of three places: beach bars, night clubs or great Mexican restaurants. If you've ever seen a bottle of Mexican beer upended into a giant margarita, you've gotten one introduction to the Michelada, maybe at a place like the Michelada Factory Sports Bar in Hemet, California. But there's more to the story.

To understand the Michelada, you need to know the two stories behind the name. The first is that it comes from the phrase "mi chela helada." Chela is Mexican slang for beer, so the phrase loosely translates to "my cold beer." But that doesn't get to why your cold beer is brought to you upside down in a cocktail.

The other story is that it was named for Michel Esper, a patron at Club Deportivo Potosino in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Michel ordered his cold beer with beer with lime, salt, ice and a straw, and it became known as Michel's lemonade, or Michelada.

Like a shandy, which is half beer and half lemonade, the Michelada is a mix of Mexican beer and a frozen drink, usually a margarita. You can find the drink at dive bars across the United States, but there are places that take the drink to the next level. Most authentic Mexican restaurants insist that a real version of the drink requires hot sauces, chili peppers and Clamato.

If you're looking for a place to try the a real Michelada, take a trip to the Mi Lindo San Blas Restaurant in Detroit, Michigan, which has a whole section on their menu called "Michelada Factory."

Mi Lindo San Blas has elevated the drink to basically the Mexican version of a Bloody Mary, in that it's not just a drink. You can get a glass piled high with shrimp, veggies and slices of lime, and depending on the size of the glass, up to three bottles of beer. If it's your first time ordering a Michelada, it's going to be hard to choose from your options.

If you'd like to visit, the Michelada Factory is located at 130 E Kimball Ave. in Hemet, and Mi Lindo San Blas is at 1807 Livernois Ave. in Detroit.

But you don't have to go all the way to Hemet or Detroit for this Mexican drink. Here are two great Michelada recipes you can make at home.

The Perfect Mexican Michelada Recipe

michelada factory
Ever in Transit

The classic version, easy to make at home and oh so good.

Get the recipe here.

Michelada

michelada factory
Leites Culinaria

This version works as a hangover cure for when you had too many margaritas with your tacos the night before.

Get the recipe here.

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