Bloody Mary in a Can

Cocktails, Gin, Spirit Reviews, Tequila, Vodka

Longbottom’s Virgin Mary in a can becomes an instant Bloody Mary if you add the vodka, or a Red Snapper if you add gin, or a Bloody Maria if you choose tequila.

Longbottom Virgin Mary Bloody Mary in a Can with Ketel One Vodka — Just Add a Quality Vodka Like Ketel One

I confess I used to hate Bloody Marys. Putting tomato juice with vodka just didn’t taste right to me, especially with a stalk of celery in it. Celery in a cocktail? What’s that all about? However, I’m glad to say that somewhere along the way I definitely developed a taste for a well-made Bloody Mary. Now it’s hard to imagine going out for brunch without ordering one.

Bloody Mary in a Can

Making a proper Bloody Mary at home is another matter altogether, though. All those ingredients! Getting the spiciness just right is always tricky. Or you find you’d forgotten that you’d run out of Worcestershire Sauce.

Now the problem is definitely solved. A British company called Longbottom & Co. has produced all the ingredients for a perfect Bloody Mary – apart from the alcohol – and put them in a can. This effectively creates a Virgin Mary, which is an alcohol-free Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary Cocktail Variations

If you add vodka to a can of Longbottom’s Virgin Mary you naturally create a Bloody Mary. However, you can also impress your friends by using gin instead of vodka, which turns it into a Red Snapper. If tequila is your tipple, by adding a can of Virgin Mary you make a Bloody Maria.

Longbottom Virgin Mary Bloody Maria with tequila — Make an Instant Bloody Maria with Tequila

A Real Bloody Mary in a Can

Longbottom does also make a real Bloody Mary in a can, complete with vodka, though personally I prefer to add my own generous slug of vodka for a cocktail with an extra kick. In addition, Longbottom’s range has a Tomato Juice in a can, although they’ve added a dash of their own hot sauce, and some vegan Worcester sauce, to spice it up a little.

Longbottom also makes and sells their own hot sauce, and their own tomato ketchup, as well as selling their Virgin Mary mix in a bottle.

Longbottom Tomato Juice in a can just add spirits — Tomato Juice – Just Add Spirits

HMP Sauce

In an enterprising and worthy move, the company also sells its own take on the classic HP Sauce, which they call HMP Sauce. That’s because it’s made in partnership with The Clink charity. The sauce is hand-made in batches in Her Majesty’s Prison at High Down in Surrey, to help support the rehabilitation and employment of prisoners.

Longbottom Red Snapper Bloody Mary with Aviation Gin — A Longbottom Red Snapper

Tasting Bloody Mary from a Can

The bottom line, of course, is always: What does it taste like? And the answer is: Bloody marvellous! First we tried the spicy tomato juice, with and without vodka. In both cases the result was fantastic. In fact the vodka version was as good as some so-called Bloody Marys I’ve had in restaurants and bars.

Switching to the Virgin Mary mix then somehow manages to take things to another level, which we didn’t think was possible. It’s obviously a more complex mix of flavours, and was totally delicious. For £2.50 and a generous slug of vodka, we had a Bloody Mary that was easily as good as something you’d be happy to pay four times the price for if you were out.

In fact, it’s currently even cheaper if you’re in the UK and you buy a 12-pack on Amazon – less than £1.50 a can. ‘We have to buy some of this,’ was my wife’s verdict. ‘We absolutely have to have some cans of this in the fridge at all times.’ Safe to say this Bloody Mary mix in a can was a total hit.