Hangover Cures
What really is the best way to get over a night on the tiles? Topping up your body with more booze or sweating out the alcohol that's still in your system with a high intensity workout?
Time to put both methods to the test to find out the best hangover cure…
Bloody Mary breakfast at 45 Jermyn Street
We’ve all been there, Friday night comes around, you’ve had a long week, a quick drink after work turns into a quick bottle (well, you might as well finish it off), then perhaps on to diner, where you pair your sea bass with another bottle, and then on to a nightcap at a soho underground bar that you’ve been told does the best negronis in London... And now here you are, it’s Saturday morning and you’ve got brunch with friends, but the idea of any sort of alcoholic beverage is the very last thing you need, or even want. Cue the Bloody Mary; a long standing drink of choice for the hungover, brunching masses.
There’s no scientific fact that a bloody mary helps a hangover, but I can say from experience that it absolutely does. So with that in mind, and with heavy heads, a friend of mine and I took ourselves to 45 Jermyn street, where the bloody mary list is far from basic.
Firstly, 45 Jermyn street does a great breakfast, from favorites like Kedgeree and a full english, to buckwheat pancakes and crumpets with marmite and a fried duck’s egg. We settled in at our table, quickly ordered two strong coffees and perused the menu, drinks first of course.
While you can get the standard vodka-based bloody mary, there are a few other options to go for, including non-alcoholic versions, which my friend ordered as it seemed her hangover was a little too severe. I however wasn’t there to try the virgin drinks, far from it, so I went in all guns blazing at 9:30am and ordered a Dirty Mary; tomato juice, Dirty spice mix, citrus and tequila, topped off with rim of bacon salt, if this doesn’t cure a hangover, nothing will.
By the time the drinks came we’d polished off our coffees and had ordered our food. The first sip of my Dirty Mary hit hard; strong, good quality tequila with a citrus kick and the bacon salt added the much needed saltiness that I was craving after a night of pinot grigio. My friend’s Virtuous Mary (tomato juice, red pepper, cucumber, citrus and white wine vinegar) was equally as delicious, though perhaps not as satisfying if you’re craving a kick of booze.
We slowly made our way though baked eggs with spinach and ricotta and an open omlet of wild mushroom and gruyere, both of which not only helped soothe us, but were delicious, buttery and rich, the exact thing you need on a hangover. While my friend had another coffee and Virtuous Mary, I was on a roll with my alcoholic versions and ordered a standard Bloody Mary (Vodka, 45 spice mix, citrus and tomato juice), which was lovely and fragrant, with a good hit of vodka, though nowhere near as tasty as it’s tequila counterpart. After a leisurely breakfast and a couple of cocktails (virgin or not) we both agreed we felt a lot better, and even considered going on somewhere else for a prosecco brunch.
So, could ‘hair of the dog’ be the best way to cure a hangover? While perhaps not medically recommended, the Bloody Mary breakfast at 45 Jermyn Street is wholeheartedly recommended by me.
SoulCycle Outside at Selfridges
Work hard play hard is a mantra we all live by right? Right!? Well after a night of playing hard, could some really hard work be the answer to getting rid of that cloudy head?
I decided to put it to the test, by going out for several drinks then signing up for a 45 minute, full sweat, full workout SoulCycle class the morning after.
My boyfriend and I went out for a meal at our local Italian restaurant, then decided to do a mini-pub crawl home via the few Irish pubs in the area. Cut to the morning after and I cursed myself for even thinking that a notoriously hard workout class would be the answer to making me feel better.
Regardless, we hauled ourselves to Selfridges, where SoulCycle’s has it’s first outdoor studio in the UK, armed with big bottles of water and even bigger headaches. We were told to get there 15 minutes before the class to get set up, and my god, they were right. The class was set up in a tent with around 30 bikes all facing the instructor. You’re given special shoes that clip onto the pedals, and a towel, the rest is up to you. As my head was particularly foggy, and my mind not working to full capacity, I needed a lot of help to set up my bike. Luckily, a lovely member of the SoulCycle team came rushing over to help and clip me into position. As it was outside we were all equipped with headphones to hear the instructor and music. I was ready (but not willing) to go!
Liv, a petite girl from North London was our instructor, she introduced herself to us all and asked if there was anyone new. My boyfriend and I sheepishly raised our hands and were met with deafening whoops and a round of applause which hurt my tender head. Then the music began... a mix of rock, pop and dance beats which pump through your headphones that are turned up to the maximum volume (you can turn your own set down, but it’s not encouraged). Liv was full of beans, she bounced around to the music at the front of the stage, while shouting inspirational things at us like; “YOU’VE GOT THIS SOULCYCLE”. I felt very far from getting it. As the class continued, the workout got harder and harder, using hand held weights to work out your arms, and the stationary bike to continuously peddle, I was sweating out all the booze from the night before within minutes.
This class is loud, the music is pumping, people are screaming (you’re encouraged throughout the class to cheer, hoot and holla), and there is absolutely no let up in pace or activity. By the end of the 45 minutes, I’d gone from feeling fragile from the
hangover to fragile from the workout, and with a bigger headache than when I arrived. However, once I’d recovered from the shouting and Blink 182 being pumped into my ears, I felt fantastic. My body felt whole again, my mind was clear as day and I was ready to take on the world, just perhaps not the SoulCycle world.