Bloody Morgan (Like a Bloody Mary, but cowboy style)

50ml Woodford Reserve Bourbon

20ml Lemon Juice

10ml Pickle Juice (straight from the jar)

Pinch of salt (you've just used pickle juice, you will die if you use more)

100ml Tomato Juice

Splash of stout/red wine. Dealer's choice

As much of the following as you want:

Chipotle Tabasco (mate, it's bangin')

Worcestershire sauce

Black Pepper

Put all of that in a shaker

Watch this video on throwing cocktails (I have filmed one but I can't edit videos for shit)

Fill a highball with ice, strain the drink over and top with the stout/red wine.

Garnish with food. Pickles, beef jerky, crackling, a chicken wing... I really don't care. This is brunch, bitch. You need to line your stomach when you drink

First up, let me explain throwing before I get into the cocktail.

Throwing is a technique for mixing cocktails you would usually use for cocktails with wine and similar ingredients (Buckfast counts) because it aerates the drink in a way that stirring doesn't, but shaking dilutes the drink and creates larger air bubbles.

You're pouring it from one container to another, over ice. That's about it... really

The reason you do this with a Bloody Morgan (or any Bloody Mary variation) is because shaking tomato juice creates a weird texture. I honestly didn't believe this until I tried them side by side and the difference is astounding. Shaken tomato juice is almost fizzy and if there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's this:

Fizzy fruit juice bad. Make tum tum go boom

So, the cocktail.

I used to hate tomatoes. I still hate ketchup because it was created by an unloving god, but I used to hate all variations of tomato.

As I grew taller (I have never grown up), I started to appreciate it more.

Caprese salad? That's just tomatoes, cheese, and basil. That's sweet as.

Tomato soup and a cheese toastie? Prime dipping material there

So, when I started enjoying cocktails more, I thought I'd try a Bloody Mary. There is only one acceptable time to enjoy a Bloody Mary and that is at brunch. You know that point where you're like "I have been awake for a bit, so it's socially acceptable to drink", but then you look and it's like 2pm on a Tuesday? That is tomato juice and alcohol time.

I've had (and made) a few variations of this cocktail. For example, a Bloody Mary with gin is called a Red Snapper. Knowledge...

I did, actually, think about this cocktail before I made it. I wanted something similar to a Bloody Mary, but I wanted to bring out the bourbon more than you would expect to bring out the vodka in the original.

Pickle juice and bourbon was a no brainer. And Lidl had a sale on tabasco sauces and I stocked up on Chipotle Tabasco so that brought a smokey flavour I was looking for.

Not gonna lie, I like my Bloody Morgans spicy so I went to town on that bad boy. I was reaching for a second bottle of tabasco before I was politely, but firmly, advised to leave it be.

If you were wondering where the name came from, it's from Red Dead Redemption 2. Because Arthur Morgan is a goddamn treasure.