I'm a beer drinker. I wish that wasn't the case. But I am, there's no denying it. My favorite things combined together are beer and spice because savory always prevails over sweet in my hands. When I scroll through my social media feeds I see lots of celebrations, desserts, good meals and fine looking craft cocktails but nothing stops me dead in my tracks like a photo of a michelada. The downsides to these tart yet sweet yet salty libations is that they can be time consuming to make and don't really taste the same in pitchers for large quantities. They need to be poured into a salt or Tajin rimmed glass and often garnished with limes, jalapeños or saladitos. If you ask around ingredients will vary and include Clamato, lime, chili powder, Tabasco, Tapatio, tamarindo, Worcestershire, Maggi and of course your desired authentic Mexican beer. 

 

Yesterday, I wanted a michelada. It was 90 degrees and I thought about whipping up a michelada popsicle and then decided this was going to be the day. I Googled but didn't find much as far as recipes went. I drew it all out in my head how it was going to work out and stopped what I was doing to drive to Target for popsicle molds and a few ingredients including beer. When I get something stuck in my head, I have to make it happen.

Well...they were out of popsicle molds. I had a mini meltdown because I didn't want to spend an hour looking for them and was determined to do this here and now and then it came to me. Make michelada ice cubes! Though the popsicle idea is great, it isn't that practical anyhow (this was me talking me out of my own ideas in my head). I mean, they melt quickly and after one the novelty may melt away with it. BUT! If I make michelada ice cubes I don't have to use beer since they go IN my beer, I don't have to add agave or extra sugar to make it stick together and I can make large quantities at a time. DING DING DING! So here's what I bought:

I wanted to be prepared to try something from scratch, plus cubes from a can if that didn't pan out and lastly a concoction using the Sriracha Bloody Mary mix I found as option three. We have an automatic ice maker so I had to buy the overpriced tray for $10 as it's all they had but you can find them at any dollar store. Then, I raced home and pulled the extras (I didn't have Worcestershire and used what was in my pantry. What isn't pictured that I included is chili powder:

I am not one for measuring unless I'm baking so this is my wing-it way but that's how these are made, anyhow. Anything that's too precise just isn't as much fun. I took the Clamato and poured it into a large mason jar. I added in several drops of Tabasco, a little salt, some pepper (enough that you could see it) and the juice of two limes and two lemons. I finished it by stirring in some chili powder because I was out of Tajin. I stirred it and dumped it into my Pyrex for easy pouring and prepped my ice cube tray with saladitos and sliced jalapeños:

Then, I poured my Clamato mixture in (keep in mind this entire thing only took about three minutes to do which is AWESOME)

I stuck this in the freezer for a couple hours and popped them out! My mouth was watering at this point.

I lined a glass with lime juice, dipped it in rock salt mixed with chili powder and tossed four of these in my glass. I poured a cold Modelo over it and took a photo immediately after, then five minutes after. It was so good that I never attempted the other options. I still had a little slush at the end of my beer, and enjoyed the gradual flavor without the thickness of a mix when you make it the original way. The best part? I had enough ice cubes to make one for my husband and another for myself without all the mess. If you're smart, you'll do this all summer long. Is it even ok to say this is a michelada hack? Salud!

Shopping List

beer - Modelo, Corona, Pacifico, __________

Worcestershire sauce

Tabasco/Tapatio

rock salt, pepper

saladitos

lemons/limes

jalapenos

Clamato, prepared Michi mix or Bloody Mary mix

chili powder/Tajin

EXTRAS: Cucumber, watermelon, tamarindo

The good news is most of it's sitting in your kitchen already. Send me pics on Instagram at @wifeoftheparty, tag #thewotp and let me know how it works out!