Meet Your New Favorite Michelada

This summery drink blends two styles of cocktails, a michelada and a smash. This cocktail is made with beer, lime juice, and hot sauce, the classic components of a michelada, a bright and fresh Mexican cocktail, but also features muddled fresh fruit, the key component to a smash. 

Tangy blackberries, smoky chipotle hot sauce and freshly squeezed lime juice are combined in a glass before being topped with an American-style lager. Built directly in the highball glass it's served in, the Blackberry Chipotle Michelada is surprisingly complex given its few ingredients and simple preparation— d eliciousness really can be achieved in under a minute!

The first step of this recipe, muddling the berries is totally key to the end result. To extract the sweet-and-sour, fragrant, juicy notes of the blackberries, use a rough-bottomed muddler and smash the berries in the bottom of the glass. The blunt handle of a wooden spoon will work as a muddler in a pinch, too. Choosing a heavy-bottomed highball glass as compared to something more thin and delicate will help you use enough pressure to break down the berries. 

 The fresh flavors of the black berries pair perfectly with the deep, savory notes of chipotle hot sauce. Micheladas are typically made with more fresh, vinegar-based hot sauces, but leaning into the flavor profile of more smokey chipotle adds depth and complexity to this drink. Two teaspoons is enough to have a bit of heat, peppery taste, and ample smoky flavor without overpowering the fresh ingredients. A big squeeze of lime juice helps amplify the flavor of both the blackberries and the chipotle — think of acid here as a helping season the cocktail in the way you might add a squeeze of lemon to a soup to help brighten it up. 

Top this drink with a light, spritz-y lager to round everything out and add some refreshing effervescence. Be sure to give it a stir before drinking to combine all the delicious ingredients. Cheers!