Review: Mike's Hard Jalapeño Lemonade

Before I was ever a fan of beer, I was a big fan of Mike's Hard Lemonade - it was sweet, lemonadey, and had booze? What 17 year old wouldn't love that (Thanks mom for the booze). I haven't reviewed any Mike's products in pretty much a decade.. most of their products I'm just not fond of, though when their Mike's Harder Lemonade goes on sale, I usually pick up a can or two.

I went to a liquor store in Saskatchewan and they happened to have single cans of Mike's Hard Jalapeño Lemonade in stock. I wanted to try it but I didn't want to pay for a four or six pack of it just to hate it. The store clerk told me that they did that because of that exact same reasoning.. people wanted to try it but not have to spend $15+ and turns out you hate it immediately.

From what it sounds like, Mike's Hard Jalapeño Lemonade is Mike's Hard Lemonade with a little bit of heat to make it exciting. 5.0% ABV. Made with Carbonated water, vodka, sugars (glucose-fructose), Concentrated lemon juice, Citric acid, Sodium citrate, Potassium sorbate, Natural flavour, Acacia gum, Ester gum. I'm assuming the "jalapeno" is in the natural flavour.

Appearance: Pours a real fizzy, light whitish beverage with a good amount of transparency to it. It looks more like a slightly cloudy seltzer more than a lemonade. I remember Mike's being a very opaque white colour and this looks not like what I remember. Lots of carbonation in the body.

Aroma: A very vegetal/jalapeño aroma right from the beginning. Reminds me a bit of celery or the non spicy parts of well, a jalapeño. The citrus/lemonade aspect to it has a very fake smell to it, and frankly that smell is reminiscent of baby wipes. 

Taste: In a Mike's Hard Lemonade.. I want that very sweet lemonadey taste with that kick of Vodka that punches in the end. So far from my first few sips, this tastes like a completely different beverage than your classic Mike's Lemonade. There certainly is a spiciness to the beer - once the sweetness of the lemonade-ish drink diminishes I get a moderate amount of heat from the peppers. Is the heat aggressive? To me.. no. To someone like my own mom? Probably. It tingles all over the mouth leaving a slight amount of heat to it but it's not really aggressive. I get a bit of the vegetal taste of the jalapeños, which is kind of a celery-ish vibe for me. Pretty light otherwise and it really didn't take me long to drink the entire can of it. 

Overall Thoughts: One - it needs the trademark Mike's Lemonade taste to it as it feels like the recipe was tweaked quite a bit to allow for there to be any heat in the drink. Two - it needs more heat.

Will this be popular? I've asked and people have been pondering it but lots are scared to try it if it's "too" spicy. Well, the Pringles' Scorchin' Buffalo 'crisps' I had the other day had much more heat than these.. and those ones took a good moment for the heat to go from "these are supposed to be Buffalo.. where's the heat?" to "Oooookay, there it is, that's definitely spicy!" It could sell well or maybe if you're reading this in 2026 looking to find if anyone still sells it.. who knows? Try it or don't, I really don't care. I'll go back to drinking Mike's Harder Lemonade.  

PS: Bring back Mike's Hard Orange. No, not that creamsicle one you have now - the stuff you had in 2003-2004.

Edit: I had a can of regular Mike's Hard Lemonade.. did they change the recipe recently?