Cold Brew Coffee Bloody Mary

I love a Bloody Mary. It's always my tipple of choice when on a aeroplane for some reason. I've never used it as a morning after the night before hangover cure preferring to stick to a Virgin Mary, fry up or Irn Bru for those purposes. However BRITA, the filtered water people, have come up with a fab mocktail recipe with a kick. Instead of alcohol it uses cold brewed coffee. Genius! Devised by the Gentlemen Baristas for this year’s UK Coffee Week this is an energy drink for those with a gourmet palate. A fantastic flavour combination which perhaps shouldn't work but does. Wake Up Mary definitely punches above her weight. A caffeine hit and one of your 5 a day. If you want to add a shot of vodka too I won't judge you for it.

So, cold brewed coffee. It's one of those slightly hipster ideas that has crept up on the foodie scene in recent years. Much more appetising that perhaps it initially sounds sounds and far removed in flavour from hot coffee left to go cold. You don’t even need any particularly fancy equipment, just time, an airtight container and a cafetiere or standard paper coffee filter. You’ll end up with a smooth, concentrated extract that can be diluted with water or ice, enhanced with milk or syrup, used as a recipe ingredient or turned into a creative cocktail or mocktail. When you make any cup of coffee up to 98% is made up of water, so it’s important to ensure you use the best quality. By using a BRITA filter jug you reduce the impurities in tap water like lime scale, chlorine and domestic plumbing leftovers such as lead or copper and the result is great tasting coffee.

Before you Wake Up Mary you'll need to plan ahead and make your cold brew. For this you'll need ground coffee, BRITA Filtered Water, an airtight container and a cafetiere or coffee filter paper. Add the ground coffee and filtered water to the container in the ratio of 1:5 (100g coffee for 500ml) water. Stir the mixture thoroughly until all the coffee is floating on the top. Give it a final stir and leave it in the fridge for 12-16 hours. Filter twice through a cafetiere or other coffee filter and it's ready to enjoy. Any remaining coffee can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.

Wake Up Mary with BRITA Cold Brew Coffee

Ingredients

75ml cold brew coffee

15ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

75ml tomato juice

15ml sugar syrup

Tabasco, Worcestershire Sauce and Black Pepper to Taste

Garnish - Celery Stick & Rosemary Sprig

Method

Make the sugar syrup using 1 part sugar to 2 parts BRITA filtered water.

Fill a glass with ice, add the cold brew, lemon juice, tomato juice, the sugar syrup and mix well.

Adjust to your personal taste with Tabasco, Worcestershire Sauce and freshly ground black pepper.

Garnish with a celery stick and a sprig of rosemary.

For further BRITA Cold Brew Coffee inspiration take a look at the following posts from fellow food bloggers

• Cold Brew Coffee Berry Blast - Recipes from a Pantry
• Perfect Camping Coffee - The Hedgecombers
• Cold Brew Coffee Ketchup - Sneaky Veg

Disclosure : This is a commissioned post for BRITA. All views expressed are my own.