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 The Bloody Mary was invented by a French-American bartender working at Harry’s American Bar in Paris in the Roaring 20s.
October 2006 |
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Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cocktails & SpiritsThe Best Bloody Mary MixesBloody Good Mary Mixes Are Much Better Than Mixing Your Own
CAPSULE REPORT: It’s not easy to find great cocktail mixes. Most are pretty pallid or icky-sweet and filled with artificial ingredients. These Bloody Mary mixes—from Freshies, Mad Pepper Farms and Mixerz—make more exciting Marys than we could hope to make ourselves. Kudos—and mix us another, please! The Bloody Mary was invented by Fernand Petiot, an American bartender working at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris during the Roaring 20s. (You can read the history of the Bloody Mary in our article on Bloody Mary Recipes.) Fast-forward 40 years, when people have more money than patience to mix their own cocktails. Bottled mixes enter the market in force. While the Bloody Mary isn’t the most difficult cocktail to make, and tomato juice is a normal ingredient to have in one’s kitchen, why measure Worcestershire, Tabasco and lemon juice into your tomato juice when all you have to do is open a mix bottle, add vodka and stir? A big reason to skirt mixes is the flavor: Many don’t taste as good as what one could create at home from readily-available ingredients. Why is there such a big market for mixes?* Add enough vodka, and most people don’t fuss over the nuances of taste. But readers of THE NIBBLE do, so every time we come across a mix, we taste it to see if it can do better than what we can mix up ourselves. *Bloody Mary mix stands as the most popular cocktail mix for decades until it is replaced by Margarita mix. $750 million worth of cocktail mixes are sold each year, with more than 50% of the total consumed in the U.S. Margarita mix is the number one seller, with Bloody Mary mix a distant second. Sweet-n-Sour mix is a close third. Here are two Bloody Mary mixes that shine. In addition to great flavor, they have wonderful body and “mouthfeel”—from minced onion and garlic, celery salt, horseradish and other ingredients. The mixes are so enjoyable that people drinking Virgin Marys will never miss the vodka...and vodka-drinkers who taste the mixes may even ask to hold the vodka. Freshies Bloody MaryWhile the name “Freshies” today represents the all-fresh, all-natural ingredients in the bottle, it originally referred to skiing fresh powder turns. Freshies Cocktail Mixes began in Telluride, Colorado: a chef and a bartender teamed up to create a Bloody Mary mix that became famous throughout Colorado ski towns. Freshies makes a very exciting Bloody Mary mix—the best one we tasted in our evaluation of dozens, until we tasted Mixerz, which is a different recipe and equally delicious. Starting with a base of fresh tomatoes (which is very unusual and a sign of top quality), the recipe includes Worcestershire sauce, fresh onion, fresh horseradish, fresh garlic, fresh dill, fresh lemon juice, celery salt, hot sauce, Dijon mustard and black pepper. The ingredients blend into a substantive body and an exciting texture with a medium level of heat—enough to please those who like it hot without overwhelming those who don’t. People who want to ratchet up the heat can chose the Habañero Hot flavor, and those who want none can select Smooth-N-Mild, which eliminates the horseradish so, as the name implies, has a smooth texture as well. We enjoyed drinking a second bottle as Virgin Marys. A six-ounce glass has 45 calories. If you want to do more than drink it, there are recipes on the website.
The Mad Pepper’s Top Shelf Premium Bloody Mary BlendIf you don’t want the “texture” of the Freshies mix, a smooth-textured mix is available from The Mad Pepper. Overlaid on a base of tomato paste are fresh jalapeños and other chiles, Worcestershire Sauce and steak sauce, vinegar, crushed orange purée, dried and minced garlic, dried onion, herbs and spices, horseradish and a pinch of olive oil. The Mad Pepper is both hotter and sweeter than Freshies Original Recipe. Due to the orange purée and some added corn syrup, it tastes as if a dab of brown sugar has been added to the mix. The tomato paste gives it a thicker consistency and mouthfeel. Unlike anything you would make yourself with tomato juice (or purchase in most other mixes), this mix has body. A 4.4-ounce serving has 40 calories. Both Mad Pepper and Freshies can be used as marinades for chicken and fish. Mad Pepper Farms makes a lighter combination Bloody Mary mix and marinade called Mary-Nade. It’s very good, but we recommend the Top Shelf Premium Bloody Mary Mix for Bloody Marys, reserving Mary Nade for the chicken.
Mixerz All-Natural Bloody Mary Cocktail MixerMixerz is another “textured” recipe—the taste and texture of the horseradish are just perfect. Rather than go for jalapeño-style heat, this exceptional Bloody Mary mixer is very peppery (from cayenne and black pepper). But in an exceptional Charlie Trotter-like tour de force, the recipe layers on ingredients that never get lost: Each flavor is clearly articulated. The base of tomato paste provides rich tomato flavor. You can taste the tangy Worcestershire sauce and the zesty celery seed. Soy sauce is used instead of table salt, and balsamic vinegar provides complexity and a touch of sweetness. Onion, garlic and lemon juice round out the seasonings. A 5-ounce glass has 30 calories.
We’re happy to supply Bloody Mary recipes from scratch if you need to whip something up this instant.
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