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Michelada

What: A popular way to drink beer all over Mexico, micheladas are cervezas preparadas that add lime juice, ice, and assorted sauces and spices—often including tomato juice and some combination of Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce, and black pepper—to beer in a salt-and-chile-powder-rimmed glass. It’s akin to a beery Bloody Mary: refreshing and pleasingly (if unexpectedly) savory.

Where: Bars/cantinas and restaurants all over Mexico. Our photo is from Oaxaca, a michelada with Negra Modelo beer (32p) at a friendly, nearly 95-year-old cantina called La Farola (Calle 20 de Noviembre 30 nr. Las Casas, map).

When: Daily, 11am-2am

Order: We recommend micheladas con cerveza obscura—with dark beer, like Negra Modelo, Victoria, or Indio. It’s a personal preference, of course, but we find the more flavorful darker beers stand up better to the michelada’s various additions. 

Note: At some places, like Mexico City’s Restaurante Bar Montejo, a classic cantina in Condesa, a michelada means beer with just lime and salt (a.k.a. chelada). Ask if you’re not sure.