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In our field, we learn something new every day—and we love to discover. Recently, we came upon beer salt, which, to the uninitiated, is exactly what it sounds like: salt to shake onto the top of a beer bottle, can, or glass. Meet our Top Pick Of The Week: Twang’s line of flavored kosher salts.
First, we thought: a lime wedge in a Corona bottle, yes; a salt rim on a Margarita, absolutely; drinking shots of tequila with salt on the dorsal side* of one hand (to lick) and a wedge of lime held in the other hand (to suck), certainly—especially if you’re a fan of Ernest Hemingway.
But who thought of actually salting beer?
BEER & SALT: A MEXICAN TRADITION
The ritual of putting salt and lime into a beer is a well-known Mexican-inspired tradition. The longtime practice crossed the border in 1986, when Roger Trevino Sr., having observed the practice in Mexico, created three flavors of Twang’s beer salt in San Antonio. (The innovation was adding flavor to the salt.)
While beer and salt was well-known in border towns, it wasn’t until Twang lime and lemon-lime beer salts appeared that salting a beer grew in popularity throughout the Lone Star State and beyond.
Instead of placing the salt and lime juice inside the beer, old school, Trevino placed Twang on the rim of the beer and called it “dressing your beer.” People learned to ask the bartender for a beer, dressed.
It took the better part of 40 years for this information to end up on our desk! Blame it on our location, New York City. Not only is it far away from Texas, but it’s a salt-concerned city that requires chain restaurant menus to state the amount of excess salt in each portion, to save consumers from ingesting too much salt.
But now we know, and we can choose. To paraphrase Proust, the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes [source].
Beer + salt: As a salted-rim Margarita fan, we like it! Dress our beer, please, Mr. Bartender.
While a salt rim is a natural with Mexican beers, we’ve enjoyed it with more complex craft beers. Truth to tell, we didn’t have a bottle of Bud on which to try it. But in our [perhaps jaded] opinion, beer salt can only improve the pallid American mega-beer brands.
BEYOND BEER SALT
Over the decades, Twang has expanded into flavored salts for food, cocktail rimmer blends, Michelada mix, and more.
After you read about the products, celebrate Cinco de Mayo using one of the Twang-A-Rita cocktail rimmer blends to create the Red Clay cocktail recipe below (photo #6).
Are you ready to dress your canned cocktail or juice (photo #2)? And your popcorn (photo #4)? And your ice pop (photo #5)?
TWANG PRODUCTS
Twang’s small-batch products are made with all-natural colors and flavors, quality kosher flake salts, and pure cane sugars.
Twang Beer Salt
Dress (i.e., salt) your beer, be it in a bottle, can, or glass. It’s easy to carry the pocket size (photo #1) to your favorite watering hole.
Choose from Lemon Lime, Lime, and Michelada, in both standard and pocket sizes.
Beyond beer: dress your cider, canned cocktails, and vegetable juices.
Not sure how to properly dress a beer? Watch this brief video.
Twangerz Flavored Salts
Use these flavorful blends for topping a broad assortment of foods and snacks. They’re also “eating salts”: from the shaker to the fingers to the mouth!
In Chile Lime, Lemon, Lemon Lime, Mango Chile, and Pickle Punch.
As a seasoning salt for chicken, fish, grains, potatoes, salads, sandwiches.
As snack seasoning for crudités, fresh fruit, ice pops (paletas), nuts, popcorn.
Twang-A-Rita Rimming Salts
Add a salty-sweert rim to cocktails, fruit juices, and anywhere you’d like some seasoning.
In Citrus Splash, Nectarberry, Paloma Love, Safari Spice, Sunrise Spice, and Unwind Lime.
Reserve Michelada Cocktail Mix
Twang introduced bottled Reserve Michelada Clásica Mix after years of research (photo #3). Add it to a glass of beer for an instant Michelada. You can even add it to an open can or bottle—just drink a bit of the beer first, to make room for the Michelada mix.
And don’t forget the rimming salt.
In Classic, Pickle, and Spicy.
> VISIT TWANG.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO ORDER.
RECIPE: RED CLAY TEQUILA COCKTAIL
This recipe (photo #6) was created at the B-Side Cocktail Lounge, at JdV by Hyatt Hotels in Baltimore.
Ingredients For 1 Drink
Twang-A-Rita Safari Spice flavored rimming salt
Lime wedge
Fresh juice of 1 lime
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz Cointreau orange liqueur (or another brand)
1/4 red bell pepper, sliced
2 slices serrano chile pepper
1.5 ounces reposado tequila
Garnish: dehydrated lime wheel (recipe) or fresh lime wheel
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[1] A beer stein with a pocket-size bottle of Twang Beer Salt (photos #1 through #4 © Twang).
[2] You can use the Twangerz flavored salt rimmers on canned cocktails, of hard seltzer, juice, etc.
[3] Make a great Michelada at home.
[4] The flavored salts can also season popcorn, other snacks, salads, and other foods.
[5] Ice pops, too. In Mexico, ice pops are commonly flavored with sweet-salty heat.
[6] The Red Clay cocktail, made with a rim of Safari Spice Twangarita (photo © DJ Impulse).>
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