Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Move over, Mary: Bloody Maria is the best hangover drink there is

Ease that hangover and upgrade your cocktail game at the same time with the help of your new friend, Maria

Lindsay Parrill
By

It’s a brand new year, and while that comes with a glittering heap of possibility and optimism, for some of us, it can also ring in a slightly shaky, headachy morning. If what you really need to get your year started right is a little hair of the dog, we feel you. We’ve been there. And we’ve got you covered.

Sure, a Bloody Mary is the typical choice in this crisis — it’s flavorful, passable as a breakfast (or at least brunch) beverage, and does the job just fine. But if you stop to consider the spicy, savory, warm flavor profile of the drink’s ingredients, cool and calm vodka doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Vodka certainly has its place, but not in this cocktail. Tequila is a much better fit in the peppery, sweet heat of this tomato juice drink.

Recommended Videos

Enter the Bloody Maria. Essentially a Bloody Mary with tequila rather than vodka, a Bloody Maria is, hands down, the best hangover drink in town. Not only will your hangover be but a distant, hazy memory, but your palette will be much happier sipping on the spicy sweet nectar of the agave, so perfectly paired with smoked paprika and citrus.

Related

Bloody Maria recipe

Isabel Eats

(From Isabel Eats)

The substitution of tequila for vodka in this recipe just makes sense. The spicy tomato flavor almost drinks like salsa in cocktail form. And who in the world would order vodka with chips and salsa? Tequila is the obvious, superior choice. Just give it a try, and we promise, after a taste of Maria, you’ll never go back to Mary.

Ingredients:

  • 4 ounces tomato juice
  • 1.5 ounces tequila blanco
  • 1/4 lemon, divided into 2 wedges
  • 1/4 lime, divided into 2 wedges
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  • 1 pinch celery salt, plus more for rim
  • 1 pinch smoked paprika, plus more for rim
  • 1 pinch black pepper
  • For garnish: olives, pickle spears, peperoncini, celery stalks

Method:

  1. On a shallow plate, mix a bit of celery salt and smoked paprika.
  2. Run a lime wedge along the rim of glass, then dip it into the mixture to coat the rim.
  3. Fill with ice.
  4. Pour tomato juice, tequila, juice from 1 lemon wedge, juice from 1 lime wedge, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, celery salt, smoked paprika and black pepper into a cocktail shaker.
  5. Shake and pour into a pint glass. Garnish with additional ingredients, if desired.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lindsay Parrill
Lindsay Parrill
Contributor
Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…
Here are a dozen great gins worth drinking straight
Some gins are good enough to be enjoyed on their own. This list spotlights a dozen of them
Bluecoat Barrel Finished Gin

Gin is an assertive drink, meaning you don't always want to have it neat. It's an aromatic spirit that tends to play very well with things like tonic water, sparkling water, citrus, and more. But there are some standout gins out there that have all the complexity and layers of anything else you'd enjoy neat, from a good pinot noir to a refined Scotch whisky.

Mix with it all you want; we're not here to stop you. Some of the best cocktails in the galaxy involve the clear spirit, from a Corpse Reviver to the Ramos Gin Fizz. But do not overlook gin if you're after something to enjoy on its own in the glass. Don't let the neutral appearance of the stuff fool you -- gin can be wonderful stuff even all by its lonesome.

Read more
End the day right with the 5 best nightcap cocktails
Want the perfect end to the day? Try one of these delicious nightcap cocktails
Two cups of hot toddies with cinnamon sticks on a piece of cloth.

A nightcap is not just a funny hat that people used to wear long ago to bed. It's a kind of cocktail, too, one that warms the soul and can send you right off to slumber town. Here, we break down the end-of-day drink and offer some quality recipes to boot.

These recipes involve all your favorite spirits, from rye whiskey and cognac to bourbon. You can make them individually or as big-batch cocktails to keep your evenings cozy all week long. So, before you slip into your favorite pajamas, visit the home bar and whip one of these great nightcap cocktails up.
What's a nightcap?
Simply put, a nightcap is a drink one has just before bedtime. The drink itself is meant to promote sleep and, arguably, some do this better than others. Most cite the hot toddy as the original nightcap drink, but there are actually quite a few that function in a similar fashion. These are not the tequila shots and coffee cocktails that start the party.

Read more
A dozen of the best tequilas for margaritas, according to bartenders
Want to make the best margarita for Cinco de Mayo? Start with one of these bartender-approved tequilas (and mezcals).
A served margarita sitting on a bar

Despite its greatness in the glass, there's not much to a good margarita. Meaning that the spirit in question — traditionally tequila but sometimes mezcal or even sotol — needs to be solid. It's the foundation on which the complementary citrus, sweetener, and salt are stacked.

While we have a good palate for these things, we like to put our trust in the tried-and-true professionals. In this case, we're talking bartenders, the skilled mixologists who have made countless margaritas. They've had the good fortune to test many tequilas and have come away with some of the best options when putting together this timeless cocktail.

Read more