Summer is just around the corner, and you are no doubt thinking of your favorite Mexican beers — among the best in the world, like their death metal — to relax in the sun with. Do not drink Corona Light, of course, but the newly-minted Corona Especial in twelve-packs for the American market might bring out a smile. Alternatively, you can try a Modelo Especial Chelada.

This concoction tastes like V8 juice poured into seltzer water with a faint hint of beer in the background. It is slightly spicy and salty with an inner sweetness, and you can even feed it to women and sociology majors without them having a heart attack or complaining that it is “too beery.” You can experience the added lime juice mostly as aftertaste, but it adds a tangy dimension.

This brew will not please your beer purists or alcohol gourmands, nor has it quite made it into Anglo-Germanic culture. However, it is quite tasty and refreshing, and if you had to pick something to drink for a mixed audience, this might come close enough to pleasing everyone and not giving anyone a chance to complain.

On the downside, it is low alcohol at 3.5% which seems like an absurdity in this day and age of high powered opioids, killer attic hydro, and spice drugs that make you eat people’s faces. It is also not cheap, coming out to about $3 for a 24 oz can, or $0.12 an ounce which makes it more expensive than the Sierra Nevada Torpedo hanging out one shelf over at Wal-mart.

Yet this beer mixture is great for a hot day when your beer snob is too drunk to complain and your beer gourmand is working off a hangover from last night. Goes surprising well with maduro cigars, the smell of fresh gunpowder, and hot Texas days at the lake. Might be a bit much to drink a whole half-rack of these but for casual drinking it is a flavorful and different experience.

Tags: beer, beer mixture, chelada, Grupo Modelo S.A. de C.V., modelo, modelo especial