BLOODY MIKEY

A Bloody Mary once saved my life and I’m not even lying

My friends and I rented a big ass mansion in the Valleys one cold weekend (there was a hot tub, we got very pissed) and I woke up feeling like I wanted the ground to swallow me up.

I don’t do well with hangovers and never have.

Luckily my good friend Andrew had the strength and seeming sobriety to put together a few jugs of Bloody Mary. He plonked one in front of me and told me it would make me better. I was dubious as to how this strange smelling cold soup was going to save me from spiralling into the pit of despair in which I belonged.

Reader, it saved me.

I then made a promise to myself that I would turn to Mary whenever I was hungover cos it was only she that knew how to save me from curling around the toilet and sleeping on the bathroom floor in agony.

Until I went to Cuba and tasted a Michelada.

A Michelada follows a similar structure to a Bloody Mary but introduces some tangy, fizzy lager into the fold. And cut to me, on the streets of Cuba absolutely DYING and looking for Mary. She wasn’t on any of the menus and so, in the name of vanity, I ordered a Michelada because it sounded like a fancy version of my name.

Again, I was saved.

Since then I’ve read a few different Bloody Mary and Michelada recipes that all differ in additions but one thing is consistent: tomato juice and alcohol. And who am I tamper with something so sacred?

I AM A TAMPERER AND TAMPER I SHALL.

So my Bloody Mikey starts boldly with a Bloody Mary but takes a left turn somewhere near Mexico. This cocktail is a lethal cross between a Bloody Mary and Michelada, as I like to introduce a small splash of lager into mix. Yup, lager.

It brings a welcome tang and fizz to the drink without being fully carbonated which adds a lot of guts to an already gutsy drink.

I know a lot of people throw in Tobasco and I’m all for this addition because I’m a Tobasco girl myself… however I have a fierce allegiance to Frank’s Hot Sauce, so mine includes this. Use whatever hot sauce of your choice, but I do recommenda  Franks… Frank is my baby…

Get yourself a big jug. This is so much easier to make in a jug, than in individual glasses – trust and believe.

To said jug, throw in 100ml of vodka. Seldom would I coax vodka into any one of my recipes as I, to the core, am not a spirit drinker (with the exception of an amaretto). But alas, this has to stay rooted in some kind of Mary and her Bloody traditions, so in goes the vodka.

Now here’s where we take a sharp left and add 200ml of lager. Any lager will do but speaking from a small whiff of experience (I brand manage a brewery… just saying…) the cheaper the lager, the bitterer the taste so go for something mid-market if you want a proper taste to it.

Pour in 500ml of tomato juice. This will feel very strange and you will feel like you’ve made an off-kilter cold soup but stick with it because it gets so good I promise.

Now throw in a small scattering of celery salt, a few shakes of Franks Hot Sauce (or your own hot sauce if you’re a loyalist like me…), the juice of one lime and a pinch of black pepper.

Stir everything together and of course, it would be sacrilegious of me not to encourage you to stir with a stick of celery.

Fill up some tumblers with ice cubes, slice a celery stick and add to the glass before pouring over the Bloody Mikey liquid.

Bacon slither garnish optional, but I recommend this recipe for bacon if you feel so inclined.