The Best Bloody

I recently became an avid Bloody Mary drinker. And by avid I mean when I go out to dinner once or twice a week, it's my drink of choice. I'd say I've made progress since my, "I'll have a Midori Sour," days. I'm not sure why I'm so fond of this classic cocktail. Maybe it's the spicy splash of tobacco sauce or maybe it's that fact that some would call the Bloody Mary a "healthy" cocktail?

Regardless, last night I decided that I wanted to learn how to make my drink of choice. Since I'm hopeless when it comes to recipes, I needed some help. Luckily, my boyfriend has some bar-tending experience and he gave me mixology lesson in the art of Bloody Mary making.

So we went to our local super market, and came home with this:

I've been advised to keep the actual proportions of the recipe a secret, but here's the basic idea with a few tricks:

• Pour over ice two shots (about 3 oz.) of the mix, and 1 shot (1.5 oz) of vodka in a 10-12 oz. glass.
• Stir
• Fill the glass to the rim with tomato or vegetable juice.
• Garnish with lemon, lime, olives, celery etc-the choices are endless.
• Finish off by squeezing the juice of some sort of fresh citrus into the drink
• Enjoy!

Tricks:

• Make a large amount of the actual mix to be saved for future use, it tastes better with time and can be frozen.
• Some people prefer a more classic tomato juice but I'm a fan of spicy V8. I think it adds just the right about of sweetness to an otherwise very savory drink.
• Try a flavored vodka such as Absolute Peppar or any Wasabi infused vodka for an extra kick.
• If you're feeling fancy, garnish the drink with a shrimp. It's reminiscent of a shrimp cocktail and adds protein!

Hopefully the finished product looks something like this*:

(Image from one of my favorite food blogs: http://realgirlskitchen.com/)

*I drank my homemade cocktail before I had a chance to take a picture of the finished product.