Bloody Mary
50 ml Vodka, 120 ml Tomato juice, 15 ml Lemon juice, 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce, 2 dashes Tabasco, 1 pinch Celery salt, 1 pinch Black pepper, 1 Celery stick
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 300 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 300 ml line. Vodka
- 120 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 120 ml line. Coffee liqueur - A little more if you like it sweeter
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Pour the two over ice and stir.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 420 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Fill a rocks glass with ice.
- Pour in the vodka and the coffee liqueur and stir for 10 seconds.
- Float three coffee beans on top, if you have them.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Black Russian
This was made in 1949 at the Metropole Hotel in Brussels by a bartender called Gustave Tops, for the American ambassador to Luxembourg, and it was named for the vodka rather than for anybody's politics. Two ingredients and a stir is a hard thing to make badly, which is why it has been on the back of every bar's list since.
Getting it right
The quality of the coffee liqueur is the whole drink, so use one that tastes of coffee rather than of syrup - a good one is bitter, rounded and slightly boozy. Keep the vodka in the freezer and the liqueur in the cupboard, and stir rather than shake: there is nothing here to mix but the temperature, and shaking just makes it cloudy.
Tasting notes
Sweet, dark and warming, with coffee right through it and a clean alcoholic edge from the vodka. It is the last drink of the evening more often than not, and it is also excellent with an espresso alongside.
More Vodka cocktails
Cosmopolitan
40 ml Vodka, 20 ml Triple sec, 30 ml Cranberry juice, 15 ml Lime juice, 1 Orange slice
Espresso Martini
40 ml Vodka, 20 ml Coffee liqueur, 30 ml Espresso, 10 ml Simple syrup, 3 Coffee beans