I developed a taste for clam juice at an early age. When I was little, my parents always used to keep Clamato in the house. They bought it strictly for their cocktails, but when no one was around, my brother and I used to like to sneak into the kitchen, chug huge glasses of it while eating handfuls of peanut butter … sometimes we even drank straight from the bottle (sorry Mom, Dad). Something about that clammy, salty, tomatoey (is that a word?) flavor was just really appealing.

I usually buy Clamato for making micheladas, but on the rare occasion that I make an actual bloody mary rather than a bloody beer, Clamato makes a far better one than plain tomato juice (unless you ask Shawn … he would rather chew on this than drink anything that has clam juice in it).

I like a spicy bloody mary and I tend to go with the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to making them. I like lots of tabasco (I like Mexican hot sauce y’all but some things just really need tabasco and this is one of them), horseradish, black pepper and one of everything I have in the fridge that’s pickled in brine.

I’m not listing amounts for most of this stuff because A. When it comes to things that are spicy, everyone’s tastebuds are different and B. I have a higher than average tolerance for spicy food, so I don’t wanna hear any of you complaining that it’s too hot. So just taste and adjust according to what you like.

OH. Also, this is a morning time drink, but I probably wouldn’t drink more than one of them unless you want to nap through the afternoon.

Spicy Clamato Bloody Mary

vodka or gin

clamato juice

horseradish

tabasco sauce

celery seed

black pepper

limes

jalapeño stuffed olives, with juice (you could go crazy here .. I’ve been known to add pickled okra, pepperoncini, or even a dill pickle spear)

celery stalks

1. Fill a pint glass or a pint sized canning jar to the top with ice. Add 2 oz vodka or gin—and 8 count if you have a pour spout, or roughly half the glass—and top it off with Clamato juice.

2. Add horseradish, tabasco sauce, celery seed, black pepper, a generous squeeze of lime juice, a few jalapeño stuffed olives and a splash of olive juice.

3. Stir it up with a celery stalk.