The perfect Virgin Mary

I stopped drinking about two years ago and I love it (more about why here).

But the one thing that I find really irritating is the range of non-alcoholic drinks in pubs. There are lots of expensive sweet drinks (coke, lemonade etc), loads of really expensive sweet drinks (J2O, Appletise etc.) and almost no non-sweet drinks at all.

The only two good non-alcholic drinks that most pubs can do is a lemon, lime and bitters or a Virgin Mary, and both drinks seem to prove a real challenge to bar staff. With the former I've been served a bitter shandy with angostura bitters (so wrong) and most Virgin Marys are just tomato juice and tabasco (just dull).

I knew I could do better so I've had a play, and here's my recipe for the perfect Virgin Mary.

Ingredients

• Chilli sauce, I'm using some awesome Bad Boy Chilli mash
• A small bowl of ground salt and pepper, mixed together
• Wasabi
• Lemon slices
• Garlic, I'm using garlic pureé because it dissolves more easily
• English mustard
• Worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce for vegetarians)
• Horseradish, I'm using grated fresh horseradish for extra fire
• Ice
• Tomato juice

Method

1. Turn your glass upside down, and dunk it 1cm into fresh water, then dunk into the salt and pepper to coat the rim of the glass, as shown on the left, below.
2. Mix all your ingredients (I'll leave the proportions to you) into a nasty brown sludge, as shown in the middle photo below.
3. Add the sludge and a small amount of tomato juice to the glass, and stir well.
4. Add the remaining tomato juice, stir well then add the ice and lemon.
5. Enjoy!

The finished drink

Any tips for other ingredients to make it extra super awesome?

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