Bloody Mary-ita

A good Bloody Mary could be the work of a lifetime. Finding the right balance of spices, incorporating unconventional ingredients, perhaps even growing your own organic tomatoes and distilling your own vodka to get it ... Absolutely. Perfect.
Naturally, I just threw mine in the blender.

The idea came after I added the tomato juice to the vodka and ice. The vodka-ed down juice looked alarmingly similar to blood splatter from a certain era of Italian horror movies, and naturally blenders came to mind.

I won't share the picture because it went from looking like fake blood to puke. In a glass, it was a dark red smoothie — still not visually appealing, but cold and very tasty.

I went a little overboard with the Tabasco. Spicy is good, but this overpowered other flavors. I've never been much of one for hangovers or Bloody Marys, but this bears some additional experiments, none of them involving blenders.

Manly or Girly? EOB (Equal Opportunity Buzz)

Appearance: See above.

Consistency: Smoothie.

Taste: Cold, spicy tomato soup.

Stomach acceptance: No worries, but it's making its spicy presence known.

Good drink for: Sunday morning coming down

Hangover factor: Too late. You're already hung over.

Would I actually order this in public? If the weekend of Oct. 2 goes as expected, you can probably find me with one in Igor's on St. Charles Avenue around 11 a.m.

Bloody Mary Anne

Ah, the breakfast of champions. Is there anything easier than the traditional Bloody Mary? (Well, I needed something simple after yesterday's experiment gone wrong ... Don't try to make me feel better, Alan. It won't work.)

But, back to the elegant simplicity and acidity of the Bloody Mary. Tomato juice and vodka. The rest is just window dressing. It's a good combo, easily tailored to specific tastes. For example, my friend Andy probably has his so loaded down with black pepper that he has to chew his drink. I like mine lemony and salty. This is truly a no-fail cocktail and my hat is off to it.

The only problem with a Bloody Mary is that it's part soup. There's a lot of volume taken up by non-alcohol, so you're not going to get hammered without a lot of effort. There's a reason why the college kids aren't known for the Bloody Mary parties.

Here's What You Need to Make a Bloody Mary:

• 1 1/2 ounces (1 jigger) vodka
• 1/2 cup tomato juice
• 1 lemon (1 wedge, and 2 teaspoons juice)
  
• Worcestershire sauce to taste
• Tabasco to taste
• salt
• pepper
• 1 celery stick for garnish
• ice
• shaker
• tall glass
  

Here's How Anne Made It:

Put the vodka, juices, Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt, pepper and ice into a shaker. Shake. Pour into a tall glass with ice and wedge of lemon and celery stick as garnish. Or, squeeze all that lemony goodness into the drink and skip the wedge.

Grading

• Manly vs Girly: Red, thick, spicy. That's manly
• Appearance: Red and thick. The green celery peeping through just makes me think of Christmas
  
• Consistancy: Somewhere just to the left of thick
• Taste: Tomato, lemon, salt ... essentially gazpacho
  
• Stomach Acceptance: Good times
  
• Would I Order This in a Bar: Absolutely, but only before noon
  
• Would I Drink This Again: Certainly
  
• Hangover: Low potential. There's such a high tomato juice to vodka cocktail that I can't imagine drinking enough Bloody Mary's to get a hangover. Plus, isn't all that Vitamin C supposed to be good for combating hangovers?
  

Tomorrow's Assignment: Brandy Alexander

Homework for tonight:

• ice
• 1 oz brandy
• 1 1/2 oz cream
• 1/2 oz brown creme de cacao
• shaker
• chilled cocktail glass