Put the Mexico Back in Your Michelada

Nowadays, michelada is a term that you can throw around for just about any synthesis of cheap beer, tomato juice, and spices. A pilsner splashed with V8 and a couple of shakes of Cholula? An inverted Corona in an empty kombucha bottle half-full of Clamato, doused in Old Bay? Sure, they're micheladas.

But just as some girls are bigger than others (in the eternal words of The Smiths), some micheladas are better than others.

A michelada doesn't have to be fancy, and it certainly doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to hit all of those proper notes that are refreshing, zesty, and spicy.

Fernando Lopez knows this. As the founder of Guelaguetza, a restaurant that has been named "one of the best Oaxacan restaurants in the country" by Jonathan Gold of the LA Times, Lopez knows his stuff when it comes to micheladas—and now slings them from a converted vintage VW bus in Los Angeles.

You'll need a Mexican beer, of course. Make that a six-pack, since your whole crew will want one too. And if you've got limes, hot sauce, tomato juice, and Worcestershire sauce—or can easily acquire them at the corner market—hell, you're in business.

Mix the stuff up, do a little one-two pour-over, and pretend you've just found a great patch of shade under the Oaxacan sun.

Enjoy with some chapulines tacos for the full effect.