Michelada

Mexican lager, lime, hot sauce, and Worcestershire with a Tajín salt rim — the cantina classic from mi chela helada, as much a hangover cure as a brunch drink.

The Michelada is a Mexican beer cocktail with deeply embedded roots in the country's cantina and bar culture, documented in various forms since at least the mid-20th century. The drink's name is most commonly explained as a contraction of mi chela helada — my cold beer — with chela being Mexican slang for beer. An alternative etymology credits the name to a variation on a drink called the chelada (beer with lime and salt) as popularized by Michel Esper at Club Deportivo Potosino in San Luis Potosí, though this attribution is disputed and the chelada-to-michelada evolution is itself contested among regional Mexican bar traditions. The core michelada combines Mexican lager with fresh lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (most commonly Valentina or Cholula, both produced in Mexico), and sometimes Clamato — the tomato-and-clam juice produced by Mott's since 1966 — served in a glass rimmed with salt and ground dried chili, often Tajín. The combination of beer's carbonation and mild bitterness with the umami of Worcestershire, the acid of lime, and the heat of chili produces a drink that functions as refreshment, hangover remedy, and brunch cocktail simultaneously. The michelada spread from Mexican cantina culture into the mainstream American market through the growth of Mexican restaurant and bar culture in the Southwest and eventually nationwide, and Clamato's widespread availability made it a staple ingredient.