I Tried the Corona Sunrise Hack and It’s Now My Go-To Happy Hour Cocktail

My mixology skills are not up to par with that of a seasoned bartender. Thus, I leave the drink duty to someone else in the house or bide my time with a glass of white wine — that is, until I saw Isabel of @isabeleats breaking down the how-tos of a Corona Sunrise on Instagram. I already had orange juice in the fridge, and it looked easy enough for me to confidently whip up on my own. So I set out to the store for a six-pack of Corona Extras, a small bottle of grenadine, and a shooter of tequila with the hopes of upgrading my summer happy hour at home. 

The first step couldn’t be easier: Drink a few sips of the Corona until you reach the top of the label. Then, measure out a shot’s worth of tequila and pour it into the beer bottle. Next, pour in a shot of orange juice (you can use store-bought or freshly squeezed). That’s followed by half a shot of grenadine, which gives the drink its beautiful rosy hue (to perfectly match a sunset, by the way). In goes a sliver of lime and you’re done. No shaking or stirring necessary. In fact, I’d actually refrain from that to avoid the drink exploding up and out of the bottle. 

Get the recipe: Corona Sunrise

It’s almost like a Dirty Shirley’s fun aunt — with tequila and beer instead of vodka and seltzer! Corona isn’t an abrasive beer, like an IPA, so it serves as the perfect base for the rest of the drink. Plus, the pungent taste of tequila is undetectable when balanced with the sweetness from the orange juice and grenadine along with the sourness of the lime. Isabel said it best in her caption: “It’s refreshing, boozy, and incredibly easy to make.” I can attest that it is, indeed.

• Pour in the ingredients carefully. First, make sure you really drink the Corona to the top of the label before adding in any more liquid. To avoid the orange juice from fizzing up and out of the Corona bottle, pour it in slowly. And for extra spillage security, use a measuring cup with a spout or a small funnel to pour the liquid into the narrow beer bottle opening. 
• Add the tequila before the juice and grenadine. If you add the tequila last, the first sip will be too strong; if you add it in first, it’ll be perfectly incorporated into the drink — you’ll hardly even taste it! 
• Make it fancy. Pour it over ice in a stemless wine glass or an old-fashioned glass to give it fancy cocktail energy. Add a slice of orange on the rim and you’ll be in paradise. 
• Scale it up. This cocktail recipe can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled … you get the idea. Carefully pour the beer out of the glass bottles into a larger vessel like a pitcher or punch bowl (pour on angle to avoid fizzing up). Then add the proper ratio of rest of the ingredients. From there, pour or ladle the mixed drink over cups of ice.