Sol Chelada
Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A. de C.V.

 

 

I love a good Michelada, and for a canned one, this is pretty good. It’s got a nice mix of savory and spicy elements.

Hazy reddish tone, ample foam with a gelatinous texture from the tomato juice, sturdy head that lasts for the whole glass. Chunks of tomato pulp render the glass opaque.

Creamy smooth texture, savory with a little bite of lime and chile. Taste is a nice mix of tomato, lime, salt, maybe oregano or similar savory herb.

Overall it’s tasty with a satisfying full body and nice mix of flavors.

 

A good basic Chelada with solid taste and smooth drink ability, great on a hot day!

 

 

 

CAN: Blue with a red, white, and gold label. 24 fl oz.

3.5% ABV. "A flavorful and refreshing mix of Sol beer with tomato, natural line and spice flavors." Per 12 fl oz: 158 kcal, 20.3g carbohydrate, 0g fat, 1.8g protein."

Currently #153 in the Top Fruit and Field Beers list and #13 in the Top Rated Mexico Beers list.

Served as cold as possible into a shaker pint (I consider that fine since even pouring this into a glass at all feels fancy when considering how its target demo drinks it).

APPEARANCE: Thick, red, pulpy. No head at all. Difficult to tell if it's actually carbonated or not just looking at it.

AROMA: Canned tomato puree, artificial lime/lime extract, salt, mild vinegar-based hot sauce, dollar store Bloody Mary mix.

I can't say I detect any malts, hops, or yeast.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Matches the aroma but boasts surprising depth of flavour in terms of the pureed tomato/tomato juice flavour, which works well in tandem with its lime-bolstered acidity. Filling both because it's a thicker pulpier beverage and because it has a salty MSG-like sort of umami flavour to it...not necessarily what I want in my beer (and this is rougher on the waistline than the vast majority of similarily low ABV beers out there) but it's not unpleasant. Not spicy despite the presence of a vinegary hot sauce sort of flavour.

I have to say it's a hell of a lot better than Budweiser Chelada and it doesn't have the nasty clam juice and/or butyric acid/vomit-ridden flavours that beer suffers from.

Not unrefreshing despite how thick and rich it is. I'd call it smooth but it's too chunky and uneven for that descriptor. Wet, though, and quenching. Well carbonated given its weight on the palate. I don't love the texture, but if you're after a beer for the Bloody Mary drinker this is your man.

OVERALL: I don't love it but I have to admit it has its place. I could see myself enjoying this straight from an ice chest on a Mexican construction site or while mowing the lawn on a hot day when hungover, and that's kind of what it's for. I can't see where this would be as good as a michelada made at home using fresher ingredients and a normal budget beer (Pacifico, I'm looking at you), but if you must have a premade michelada this is a step above its more pandering competitors.

Pair with paella, chicken wings, or carne asada nachos.

C / AVERAGE

I made a beer advocate login just to review this sol chelada. This is by far the best of all the canned cheladas. If there was a score on cheladas specifically it would be a 10/10. Thank you for this amazing product. Great flavors of spice salt N tomatoes with a taste that sits on your tounge making you want more each sip.

Sol Chelada has a thin, fizzy pink-white head, an opaque pink appearance, with salt rind residue on the glass. The aroma is of raw, saltwater seafood and spices, and the flavor is of salty tomato, spices, citrus, & clams. The body is medium, and Sol Chelada finishes fairly dry.

RJT

 

 

 

 

The usual red-pink cloudy appearance with moderate foam. Quite spritzy and tangy. The aroma is quite full of spice and pepper. Taste is really like tomato, followed by a black pepper heat with green chile flavors. It's kind of beery, but also a little sweet.

I have to say this is the best of the several canned Chelada brews I've tried. So much better than the Bud versions. Actually tastes kind of "fresh" and tomatoey. The low alcohol is a plus since it's plenty flavorful and the heat lasts well into the aftertaste. From the extra large can purchased at a market in the Northwest.

I was hoping it was like the Sol Clamato I had in Puerto Vallarta recently. Me and the wife enjoyed those. But these are different but still enyoable. At only 3.5 %ABV you could put a shot of Stolichnya and barely notice. Make a bloody Mary with beer kind of strategy. Experiment.

24 ounce can into pint glass, canned on 1/30/2019. Best before 7/2019. Pours moderately murky/cloudy reddish orange color with a 1 finger foamy and fluffy off white head with solid retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Minimal spotty lacing on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Good appearance. Aromas of big tomato juice, lime, salt, garlic, onion, celery, chili pepper, peppercorn, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce; with lighter notes of cracker, corn, and herbal/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of tomato juice, lime, salt, spices, and light malt/hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big tomato juice, lime, salt, garlic, onion, celery, chili pepper, peppercorn, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce; with lighter notes of cracker, corn, and herbal/grassy earthiness. Light herbal, grassy bitterness; and peppercorn/chili spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of tomato juice, lime, salt, garlic, onion, celery, chili pepper, peppercorn, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, cracker, corn, and herbal/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of tomato juice, lime, salt, spices, and light malt/hop flavors; with a nice malt/bitter/spiciness balance, and no cloying flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitter/spiciness. Medium carbonation and medium-full body; with a very smooth, creamy tomato, and light grainy/sticky/saline mouthfeel that is nice. Zero warming alcohol for 3.5%. Mild increasing pepper heat through the glass. Overall this is a delicious michelada. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of tomato juice, lime, salt, spices, and light malt/hop flavors; very smooth and pretty refreshing to drink with the mildly bitter/spicy finish. Great balance of juicy tomatoes, lime, salt, and spices; with solid Mexican lager presence in the background. Mild residual sweetness with lingering dryness. A very enjoyable offering, and impressive style example. I have been loving these a lot more recently.

I live in a border state and I’m not new to micheladas - I was introduced to them a long time ago as a sensible way to down essentially any of the Mexican macro brews that you can find out here. I can’t really explain why the Clamato/tomato juice-heavy concoction works exactly but in border culture, it’s a thing. However, getting all the ingredients together every time you make them at home can start to make you question why you bothered buying cheap beer in the first place so I’m personally open to trying the pre-made varieties.

I got this in a 24 oz can from a local HEB and drank it straight from the can (for something like this, I find a pour pointless if not extravagant). Was surprised as I had never seen a Sol Chelada before - by the lack of other reviews on here, I’m guessing it’s new. (Although I definitely have had Sol’s regular flagship beer before, I can’t say that it ever particularly stood out to me).

Well, well, well, all I can say is that it’s a great approximation of what I think a michelada should be, at least given that it’s prepackaged in a can. The tomato notes are bullish and up-front. Yes, the drink only clocks in at 3.5% abv but the plentifulness of that full-bodied tomato flavor is worth it. Limon is also there on the tasting profile. Honestly, though, the big deal here is that this tastes like a natural drink you would get at a bar. Generally in these types of things you get a sort of metallic thin factory taste which I would generally attribute to some step of the mixing process. I’m not sure what the difference is here, but everything blends together well and ultimately you’re imbibing something that stands unified on your palette. Highly recommended if you’re into this sort of thing (read: michelada type mixes). Some people might not like the saltiness, but as far as I’m concerned, that is part and parcel of what you should be getting. I mean, if I’m making a michelada at home then I’m lining the entire rim with salt stuck there with lime juice, which is also what I see out in the wild.

Only real criticism in my mind that can be lobbied against this product is the aforementioned low abv but I’m not sure how you can get around that.

Cloudy red with two fingers of pink head. Lots of particles of tomatoes on the sides of the glass.
Smell is some bready malt with tomato juice some pepper.
Taste is tomato juice lime salt.
Mouthfeel is medium with good carbonation. Finish is wet and salty.
Overall a very tasty and refreshing Chelada.