Drinks

If you look up “what is in a bloody mary” on Google, you’ll get over 39 million results. Some of these results are drink recipes and some are horror stories about standing in a bathroom and talking to a mirror. I like the first option (I’m afraid of the dark and this is a food blog so the second option doesn’t really apply here). Anytime I’m hungover or just want to get a little crazy in the morning, I think of the most acceptable alcoholic drink to order before noon. Today, I will attempt to make one…from scratch. Personally, I like a Blood Mary that has great peppery flavors and a kick of spice but I don’t want my mouth to be burning so much that I can’t taste my meal. The basic ingredients include: tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, some sort of citrus juice, Tabasco and of course, vodka. I have a dream that I can make a Bloody Mary that will put all other Bloody’s to shame. To do this, I will add beer to the Bloody Mary. This idea is not totally original, but with the help from a delicious local brew, a ton of ingredients I picked up and the help of my best friend, I believe I can make my cocktail better than the rest.

Fast forward to an hour later. Abby and I started with a base recipe consisting of tomato juice, vodka, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and lime. From there we added whatever we saw fit. Two of the Bloody Mary’s were actually disgusting. We pretty much decided if you don’t add garlic but do add a lot of pickle juice, nothing good is going to happen. The first glass in the line had the most ingredients and turned out to be the best. We thought it was great but added another ½ teaspoon of Rail Yard Ale mustard…that was a mistake. It cut the kick and added too much sweetness. So, we remade the recipe without the added mustard and we found a winner. The flavors were great and we were a little tipsy. I think the thing that made it was the pepperoncini juice. It added the perfect amount of spiciness and flavor. One of the more obscure ingredients was Wickles juice. If you’re not sure what Wickles are, they are amazing little tangy/sweet/spicy “wickedly delicious” pickles. They sell them at Safeway but I have yet to find them anywhere else. If you can’t find this ingredient, I suppose pickle juice will do but regular pickles are nowhere near as tasty as Wickles, so do your best to find them. As for the alcohol, we couldn’t taste it, but it was definitely there. If you like drinking nail polish remover, I guess you can add more vodka. Personally, I think the way we did it was great. A shot of vodka and a half-cup of chile beer that comes in at 8.5% ABV was enough to get me going. The beer added chile flavors in the background and also reduced the thickness of the tomato juice, which overall contributed to the drinkability of this mighty fine cocktail. If you want to spice up your weekend, grab these ingredients and throw this Chile Beer Bloody Mary together. You won’t regret it.

For this recipe I don’t really need to give you directions. Cook the bacon first. Then throw all the ingredients in a cup, mix it up and drink it. I do suggest mixing the drink in one glass and then pouring it over ice in another glass. That way it won’t get watered down while you put your mixology talents to work and all the stuff won’t get stuck at the bottom. I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as we did. Cheers!

Recipe:

1 cup tomato juice

1 shot vodka

½ cup New Belgium’s Lips of Faith Chile Beer collaboration with Cigar City Brewing (Ale brewed with Anaheim and Marash chilies)

2 dashes (2 shakes, 6 drops, whatever) of Worcestershire sauce

1½ tsp lime

¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper

1 pressed garlic clove

¼ tsp horseradish

1 tsp Cholula hot sauce

½ tsp Wynkoop Railyard Ale mustard

1 tbsp pepperoncini juice

2 tsp Wickles juice

1 tsp bacon grease

Extras:

Skewer: 2 green olives, 2 Wickles

1 strip peppered bacon

1 celery stalk