Returning to Los Angeles for the first time in years, I decided to meet up with one of my longtime friends, Wendy, who lives in Bellflower. Wendy is a planner. When I told her earlier in the week that I wanted to hang out, she rounded up a group of friends (our best friends and their spouses) and made a few stops at the grocery store to buy ingredients for a casual carne asada we’d make in our own backyard.
Her husband, Fred, was in charge of the drinks. He lined the rim of an ice-cold mug with chamoy, sprinkled some tajin on it, poured in some Clamato juice, doused it in Worcestershire sauce and Tapatio hot sauce, and finished it off with a Modello. The michelada takes me back to lazy Sundays in the San Fernando Valley where I grew up. Accentuated by an avocado-heavy shrimp cocktail, with notes of juanes, cafe tacuba, or meringue humming in the background, the mix of spicy and salty, citrus and sweet. I wished someone could offer this experience in a package complete with all the necessary accoutrements that would make it feel like a glamorous, custom-made creation. It’s the perfect way to get the party started.
Wendy, it seems, did. She started selling michelada kits to friends and family at barbecues before Dodgers games. The kits included a small bottle of Clamato, a foam cup rimmed with chamoy paste and sprinkled with tajin, a tamarind straw, and a few sweet and spicy Mexican candies for good measure, all neatly packed into a Dodger Stadium-approved, reusable, clear plastic shoulder bag. All her customers needed to do was buy a beer at the ballpark and enjoy the ultimate michelada bliss.
Watch on TikTok
Wendy and Fred used to be good at bringing their own drinks to Dodgers games. Tired of the high prices and disappointing selection at concession stands, Wendy often brings her own snacks, like ceviche and fried chicken (which are allowed at the stadium). But on TikTok, post Earlier this year, Tapia’s Fuego With her own twist on the stadium-approved michelada recipe, Wendy’s side business was born.
According to LoreThe origins of the michelada date back to the late 1970s in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, when country club patron Michel Espert was thirsty and in need of refreshment, so he asked for his beer with ice and lime. Since then, the drink has come a long way, adapting to changing tastes and More and more baroque Along the way, the drink gained widespread popularity on menus and many different variations appeared in bars. South and North of the borderThe michelada is now the star of a grassroots movement that reaches far beyond the cocktail world, driven by a growing number of people taking up the side business of DIY micheladas.
in Pop-up Shop In my adopted hometown of Detroit, chamoy paste comes in flavors like watermelon, mango, and spicy tamarind and is sold in 7-ounce containers and squeeze bottles perfect for pouring into a cold mug or pint glass. In Phoenix, on the other hand, Follow He gained fans through his drinking videos and jumped on the Miche trend. His own chamoy pasteHe regularly Promote other home michelada mix makersBased in Texas Golda’s Mixetc.
The DIY michelada craze online could be mistaken for just a social media trend if it weren’t for the IRL craze. Last year, Modelo Especial, a beer often used in micheladas, went out of business. Beat Bud Light Retail sales have increased. And in July of this year, Chicago’s Oakwood Beach Tribune The city’s premier Latin music festival, Michefest, or Michelada Festival as it’s sometimes called, drew approximately 10,000 visitors each day of the two-day festival to see a lineup of well-known Mexican-American regional artists, along with chart-topping headliners such as Kali Uchis, Los Azules, and Junior H. The centerpiece of the ticketed event was Michelandia, where more than a dozen michelada stands competed to wow passersby with their own unique micheladas, which included shareable micheladas served by the bucket, or topped with tortilla chips and ceviche, or gummy candy. Mexico City’s Michelada.
While Miche Fest quickly expanded into Chicago’s already crowded summer festival market, Miche Fest also helped establish a burgeoning independent Micheladamix brand, including: Big MitchFounder Javier Garcia, who grew up in the predominantly Latino Chicago suburb of Cicero, launched the brand with his wife Natalie in 2017. A former restaurant worker, Garcia quit his job and used his last paycheck, $600, to buy several cases of mason jars, limes, and other ingredients needed to make the first batch of the savory, spicy mix.
To make his first sales, he drove his Volkswagen Passat around the Chicago area’s predominantly Latino neighborhoods, starting in Cicero and stopping in Pilsen, Little Village and elsewhere, weaving through alleys and stopping when he saw other people gathering. On May 6, 2017, more than one million viewers tuned in to watch a boxing match between Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., billed as the “Mexican Showdown.”
Garcia handed out bottles of the new product at parties and told people that if they liked it, there were plenty more to come. Today, the Big Mitch brand is sold in about 350 locations across Chicagoland, including about 40 restaurants and bars, supermarkets and liquor stores. In addition to the OG classic flavor, Big Mitch is also sold in mango, tamarind, smoky lime and cucumber versions, as well as a Bloody Mary mix.
Garcia sources her ingredients from local wholesalers (mostly Latino) at South Water Market, keeping her profits local. “Big Mitch’s is definitely about micheladas first and foremost, but it’s also a platform where we can all give back to the community,” Garcia says.
Meanwhile, Wendy is already thinking about plans for next summer, when her husband will prepare a pre-game barbecue featuring spicy chicken wings and the neighborhood staple, thick-sliced tasajyo. La Carniceria Meat Marketattracting more than 300 visitors.
Wendy finds having that circle of friends makes sales of her DIY Michelada Kits a reality, and she says she inherited that entrepreneurial spirit from her mother. “My mom was always the type to look at things and think, ‘Oh, I could do that better,’ and she does,” she says.
During my visit with Wendy, I purchased a tote bag from her most recent Mischkit pop-up as a souvenir, minus the materials, and it will be just right for next year to hold whatever she comes up with next.
