Ingredients

1 1/2 oz. low grade blended Scotch
V8 vegetable juice
black pepper (optional)
ice cubes
8 oz. rocks glass

Place three to four ice cubes in rocks glass. Pour shot of Scotch over ice cubes. Cascade V8 juice gently into glass, letting it sift and mix with the Scotch (something of an acid and base effect). Sprinkle pepper over mix if desired, according to taste.

History and Uses of

During a college contest many years ago, someone you may or may not be familiar with won $100 be presenting this combination under the "worst cocktail concept" category. The only rules of the contest were that the ingredients be commonly consumable drinking/beverage items. Only one of the six contest judges was actually willing to taste the final product.

Years later, the drink took on a life of its own and was sometimes presented to incoming freshmen as "a really cool drink." One could automatically determine the mindset of the newcomer by his reaction, which usually fell somewhere between a refusal to drink the cocktail and drinking the cocktail and pretending to like it. Drama students were always the easiest to identify through observation of their drinking practices*.

Over the nearly two decades since its inception, Scotch and V8 still comes up in conversation with those who knew. For some reason, they prefer to remember it by the name "Bloody Mary, Queen of Scots."


* My experience led me to believe that all drama students made experimental mixed drinks all the time, together and as a group. There have been many, many questions about this. More than 800 questions from everyone from Ouroboros to Tiger Beat magazine. This is a terrible generalization and I should be shot for it.