Mix it up: How to make the best Bloody Mary in the world
The best Bloody Mary you’ll ever taste should be the one you make yourself. After all, every bar, pub and airplane makes it differently, and probably not to your liking. In fact, far too many places make them spectacularly badly.
You may even be under the impression you don’t like Bloody Marys. I certainly was, until drinks guru Alex Kammerling came up with his lush riff on the theme, the Sunshine Mary. Now it’s the go-to hangover cure.
The doubters are usually put off by the tomato juice. But unless you simply don’t like tomatoes, the odds are high your Bloody Marys have been made with juice either thick enough to block a drain or as thin and tasteless as a Shoreditch hipster.
Just as a misspent youth devoted to knocking back shots of tequila bad enough to unblock your juiced up drains can put you off the spirit for life, bad tomato juice can destroy the Bloody Mary. If this is the case, a trip to the Ketel One Kitchen may be the perfect cure.
The brand has just launched a Bloody Mary Ketel One Kitchen to celebrate King's Day, an annual celebration where Amsterdam’s canals are jammed with boats, all vibrating to the beats of DJs and Orange-clad revellers. It’s like the Notting Hill carnival on water but without the jerk chicken or knife crime.
The Folly on Gracechurch Street takes the tomato out of the Bloody Mary, replacing it with other fresh fruit and vegetables (it's gone through so many manifestations that moving away from tomato is the next logical step). The key to the success of each concoction is the balance of water content, citrus and spice. The most important thing is that the ingredients are fresh.
The Ketel One Kitchen has plenty of masterclasses so you can find out exactly how you like your Bloody Mary. Here are a two excellent recipes to set you on your way.
LIGHT & FRESH
Ingredients
- 50ml Ketel One Vodka
- 30ml freshly-squeezed orange citrus
- 80ml juice – cut up a quarter head of lettuce, quarter of a cucumber and two single stalks of celery to put through the juicer. Spices – finely chop some chilli and grate a fresh chunk of ginger
Method
- Add all these ingredients to your glass, stir vigorously & fill with ice before garnishing ornately
BOLD & SAVOURY
Ingredients
- 50ml Ketel One Vodka
- 10ml freshly-squeezed lemon citrus
- 80ml juice blend – take a whole beetroot from the green-grocer and cut into quarters and two ripe tomatoes, then put through the juicer
Method
- Spices – add a pinch of ground cinnamon, grate some nutmeg and some smashed cloves
- Add all these ingredients to your glass, stir vigorously & fill with ice before garnishing ornately
- Remember: the key to both of these recipes is finding what works for you. You may need to drink more than a few to get it spot on.