Sweet cocktails are fine, but I rather prefer savory ones. Especially when it’s hot like these days and you need something refreshing and at the same time something to top up your salt level. Like my favorite one: a Bloody Mary, which I always order when I’m at a new location and want to test how well the cocktails are prepared. The balance has to be right: some salt to cut the sweetness of the tomato, just enough vodka or gin, some vinegary tabasco and maybe some worcestershire sauce for balance and freshly ground black pepper for a really refreshing spicy and pungent touch. If the flavors are in balance, you don’t even want to try another cocktail from the menu but stick to your Mary all night.

By the way: Why are most cocktails sweet anyway? There’s so much undiscovered potential in salty or savory drinks. There’s the Bloody Mary, then there are some with salt rims, the obligatory olive in the Martini – and practically that’s it. I think most Bloody-Mary-drinkers would be excited by a wider choice of savory (probably veggie) cocktails. Most of these cocktails could also be pretty calorie-reduced by dismissing sugar and cream from their ingredients.

In this recipe I changed the color of the Bloody Mary to golden yellow. I was inspired by the beautiful tomatoes currently in season. My only obstacle to overcome was how to juice the tomatoes without a juicer. Well, a juicer is basically a combination of a blender, a sieve and a centrifuge. So I simply blended the raw tomatoes and passed them through a fine sieve. I also learned that one standard size raw tomato yields about 100ml tomato juice, so 2 are perfect for one glass of Golden Mary. After juicing I proceeded just like preparing a common Bloody Mary. I prefer gin, because tomato works really well with juniper berry, but you can switch to vodka too.

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