The Bloody Mary cocktail continues to be among the top 15 most requested cocktails in bars worldwide every year. For some reason, I can’t wrap my head around this savoury tomato juice-based cocktail.
A Bloody Mary is known as a ‘morning after the night before’ drink. For many, it is a beloved brunch cocktail where the tomato juice and veggies pair well with scrambled eggs and bacon.
A nice, greasy breakfast to help you feel human when you wake up with a hangover. With a bit of alcohol to make the remedy (tomato juice) drinkable.
What exactly is a Bloody Mary Cocktail?
A Bloody Mary is a cocktail of tomato juice mixed with vodka, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, salt, hot sauce like Tabasco, and lemon juice. The Bloody Mary is traditionally served over ice in a tall glass, like a highball glass.
It is an easy cocktail to customise with what is on hand and lends itself to all kinds of variations. Popular additions include garlic, herbs, celery, olives, horseradish, and bitters. I have seen recipes that include bacon and even shrimp.
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Who invented the Bloody Mary?
The Bloody Mary cocktail has a history as rich and varied as its flavour profile. While the exact origins of the drink are shrouded in a mix of fact and folklore, it is widely believed to have been born in the early 20th century.
One popular account traces the cocktail’s roots back to the 1920s and a bartender, Fernand Petiot, who worked at the New York Bar in Paris. The Russians escaping the Revolution brought vodka, and the visiting Americans had canned tomato juice.
Petiot is said to have experimented with different vodka and tomato juice mixtures, finally striking the right balance and creating a drink he named the “Bucket of Blood.”
However, the name was deemed too disturbing when he moved to the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City in the 1930s. The drink was rechristened the “Bloody Mary” after a bar guest known for her fiery temper.
Another version of the story attributes the cocktail’s creation to a bartender named Henry Zbikiewicz, also known as “Henry of the Ritz,” who reportedly invented the drink at the Ritz-Carlton in Paris during the 1920s.
The Bloody Mary’s popularity continued to soar throughout the mid-20th century, with various bartenders and mixologists putting their own twists on the classic recipe.
Today, the Bloody Mary remains a beloved and versatile cocktail, with countless variations that cater to individual tastes.
The basic ingredients
Vodka: Grab your favourite unflavoured vodka. You are adding potent flavoured ingredients. Use the halfway decent stuff; you don’t want to use your very expensive sipping vodka.
Tomato juice: Good quality canned tomato cocktail juice.
Lemon or lime juice: Fresh is the nicest, but if you don’t have it, bottled works just as well.
Worcestershire Sauce: That unique flavour that will help pull everything together.
Hot Sauce: Tabasco or your favourite hot sauce to add a kick. Or a big bang, if that is what you are after.
Salt and Pepper: As savoury as you like it.
Garnish: This is where the sky is your limit, and you can let your creative juices flow. See what you have in the fridge. A celery stick, olives and capers, lemons, pickles or gherkins. A skewer with a bit of cheese and bacon.
The Bloody Mary Recipe
- 60 ml vodka
- 120 ml tomato juice
- 2 dashes Tabasco sauce
- 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- pinch salt
- pinch black pepper
- Ice
- Garnish
Add the liquid ingredients and salt and pepper in a shaker with some ice. Stir gently to cool everything down. Strain into a tall glass and decorate with your chosen garnish.
Simple as that. Now raise your glass to a drink that is as bold and colourful as its history!
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