Product Review: Miller Chill

Miller Chill is not good beer. Not not not not.

Let's back up to why I purchased this product in the first place. I was walking through the grocery store and passed the beer aisle, and the bright green packaging of the Chill caught my eye. And I flashed back to when I lived in Mexico City, and how the perfect drink for right after work or a hot Sunday afternoon was a chelada (or michelada, as the people I hung out with called them).

And I knew the Chill wasn't really going to taste like that, but I just couldn't resist and bought it anyway. Hope springs eternal.

Miller Chill tastes like the worst, weakest beer you've ever had, with some limeade in it, left out to go flat, then chilled again.

Do not buy it.

An actual chelada, however, is delicious. If you're doing any end-of-summer parties, or even just chilling out at the end of a long day, I highly recommend serving cheladas. You need:

• decent beer (A lager is best. Maximum chelada enjoyment can be had with a Bohemia or Sol, but I've made great ones with Heineken and Rolling Rock and even a regular Bud would work just fine. Light beers are going to be too watered down to taste good in this.)
• limes
• salt for rimming the glass
• ice

Squeeze the limes. Dip the rim of a chilled beer glass in the lime juice, then in salt so you rim the glass with the salt. Put about 2 inches (5 cm) of lime juice in the glass, then some ice. Pour in the beer. Disfrute!

Comments

[Mar]

Funny - your description is EXACTLY what my mental taste buds sensed when I first saw the commercial for Miller Chill. Thank you for validating!

[Simone]

I haven't tried Miller Chill, but everyone I have who has agrees with your assessment. (Actually, my friend Sonia said it tasted "like ass." More blunt, but very descriptive in my view.)

I personally am not a huge beer drinker. Though, I have tried Bud Light Lime and thought is wasn't bad. My favorite, though, is Leini's Berry Weiss. Hard to find, short season, but yummy. Cheers!

[Colleen]

Love a chelada, and a paloma--which is the same ritual with lime and salt plus tequila and grapefruit Jarritos instead of beer. . .

[SarcastiCarrie]

mmmm, berry weiss. It reminds me of this one time in Milwaukee....
And it was good.

If you're too lazy to squeeze the lime into a container and dip the glass, you can just run a cut up lime wedge around the edge of the glass and dip in the salt.

[Shannon]

In general, I find most beverage companies' efforts to bottle pre-made mixed drinks to be disgusting.

[Joy]

Yup, you nailed it... you're better off dropping a lime wedge into a bottle of Dos Equis.

[hush]

"Tasted like ass" - an expression we should use more often!

I'm going to make my "Moxie" with Fat Tire.

[lina]

ha- my parents love the stuff. if there isn't anything else and we're at their place for dinner we partake (free alchol; although the percentage must be between 2-3% for how it tastes...) but your description of michelada in mexico, now that brings back some good memories of warm oaxacan nights and salsa bars. thanks.

[pnuts mama]

my husband's aunt has a great summer beer drink- it's simple and easy and makes any crappy beer taste better- i can't remember the name she uses for it but i guess they used to serve this in bars back in the day:

all it is is 1/2 beer (can be crappy, domestic like bud or even bud light if you're stuck w/ it) and 1/2 lemonade (preferably the real stuff w/ pulp in it) and oh my is it tasty- i was skeptical at first but this aunt had never steered me wrong on anything before and didn't this time, either...

[Cloud]

@pnuts mamma- I think you just described a shandy, except I think a shandy usually uses what the Brits call lemonade, which is lemon-lime soda.

[Carmen]

I don't have a chelada memory to compare miller chill with so I actually kind of like it BUT we just buy cheap beer at home (usually Pabst) and squeeze 1/4 a lime into it and its pretty refreshing. The salt rim sounds like a nice addition!

[eccentriclibertarian]

This sounds sort of like a beer margarita...will have to try next summer, as I am currently knocked up!

[Brooke]

You seriously need to stop with the beer/margarita talk.

It sounds so good. I never thought I would miss drinking this much, but it's summer and Oberon is available.

A couple of sips with dinner is just not the same as getting my own.

Oh well, 10 more weeks.

[SarcastiCarrie]

Brooke -
Ditto the knocked up and it's just not the same. My husband ordered the most delectable glass of syrah in a fancy pants restaurant that we visited. I took a sip and gave it back. It was good. It sat on the table for the next hour as we ate. And then he commented that it was EVEN BETTER after it had a chance to breathe. Thems fighting words.

[eccentriclibertarian]

Yeah, and I'm really not even much of a drinker, but so many good alcohol-y things have come my way lately, only to be turned down! Mr. Baby is due a bit before Thanksgiving...

[Roya Rose]

My description is that it tastes warm even when ice cold and there is nothing refreshing about it other than when you finally dump it down the drain.

[Simone]

@SarcastiCarrie: I so feel for you...I've been there. When I was preggo with #2, I was on the executive board of our local chapter of MOMS Club, and we would have our monthly meetings at a restaurant. After "business" we would usually indulge in a libation or two, and I remember looking longingly at these impossibly refreshing and delicious drinks. I'd taste one occasionally, and that almost made it worse. Such is life, I s'pose.

Also--to Cloud and Pnuts Mama, Leini's also makes a new Summer Shandy Beer. I tried that at the cabin, and now that you mention it, it was a little lemony. (I promise, I really not NOT much of a beer drinker. :))

[Jezer]

Ahhh....where I come from, what you described is indeed a chelada, and a MIchelada has a dash or two of hot sauce like Cholula. One of my favorite summertime drinks.

[Ricecake]

Never go for domestic, mass-produced beer! Although perhaps the acquisition of Budweiser by Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev might give us hope....?

[Greeniris]

Just remember that salt will make the beer foam up, so be ready for it.

The best summer drink is what Mom calls Hop Skip and Go Naked - a can of frozen limeade, a can's worth of vodka, and four cans of your favorite cheap beer. After a few of these, you'll understand how it got its name!

[AmyinTexas]

@Simone--We used to drink Leini's when I was in grad school at the U of MN. Hard to find down here in TX, though I was surprised to see a little pack of them at the Target the other day... but I guess that's a natural Minneapolis connection! Yum!

And I L.O.V.E. micheladas. Ex is from Mexico... he made good ones!

[Deanna]

*whimper* I'll have to try that NEXT summer when I'm not in a baby way. I miss Mexican-style cocktails almost as much as I miss the Mexican food I used to love and that the smell of which now plunges me into the depths of first trimester nausea hell. Drink lots for me, ok?

[Allison]

Ok, I thought a Chelada was Budweiser & Clamato! It's Bud's latest!

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/29/37389

EWWWW! We bought one just to look, and it was pink.

[Sarah]

Mmmmmmm....I used to make them with a couple dashes of worcestershire and Tabasco to finish it off. Thanks for reminding me about this.

[marci]

me & ex went to dinner at a neighbor's once. neighbor (elderly man) asked me what hubby drank, and i told him hubby loved single malts.

man served zima malt beverage. scotch & zima not exactly the same. hubby had to be polite, force one down & appear happy. i had to not choke on my bubbling up laughter at his strained expression.

ah, good times...

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