Bloody Mary Cocktail (And Bloody Maria)

Bloody Mary Cocktail Recipe And History

The Bloody Mary cocktail was invented in the 1920′s by an American bartender. At Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, a man named Fernand Petiot apparently came up with the concoction. This tomato based drink was originally only a cocktail of vodka and tomato juice in equal parts. Back in the 1930′s. Petiot wanted to remove some of that blandness and added black and cayenne pepper. Pepper just wasn’t enough though, so he also incorporated some Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco sauce. A squirt of lemon juice also rounded out the cocktail.

The beverage gained popularity, mainly because of the added complexity over only tomato juice and vodka. It was at the King Coole Bar in St. Regis that Fernand was quoted as saying “One of the boys from the establishment said that they should call it a Bloody Mary because it reminded him of a bucket of blood he saw at a club in Chicago.” It wasn’t just that nasty bucket, but also a woman there he remembered with the name Mary.

Bloody Mary Cocktail (And Bloody Maria) Ingredients

2 oz Vodka
3 oz Tomato Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
Salt, or sea salt
Black Pepper
3 Dashes Of Worcestershire sauce
2 drops of Tabasco sauce
Lemon Wedge
Celery Stick
Highball Glass (Tall Glass)

How to Make and Serve as a Cocktail

Take a tall glass and rim it with your lemon wedge
Rim the glass with salt
Fill highball glass with ice about two-thirds of the way.
Add your Worcestershire, tabasco to the glass
Add your vodka
Top with tomato
Strain into highball glass with ice
Garnish And Enjoy.

For Tequila Lovers… The Bloody Maria

The Bloody Maria the southern-style hermana of the Bloody Mary, the only difference being that in Maria you use tequila instead of vodka. I really like this recipe from The Bartender’s Black Book as the optional ingredients add a little kick, especially the clam juice and dijon mustard.

What Goes in your Bloody Maria

2 oz tequila
1 tsp horseradish
3 dashes of Tabasco sauce
3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
dash of lime juice
3 dashes celery salt, maybe with a little cayenne
3 dashes pepper
tomato juice
celery stalk for garnish
lemon and/or lime wedge for garnish
cucumber and/or cocktail shrimp for garnish (optional)

Preparation:

Dampen the rim of your glass with the lemon wedge
Rim the glass with celery salt, with a dash of something spicy like cayenne
Add ice to your tall glass
Add your tabasco, Worcestershire, lime and horseradish to the glass
Pour in your tequila
Top with tomato juice
Give 2 or 3 stirs
Garnish with your citrus wedge, some freshly cracked black pepper, then serve

Garnishes for both of these drinks can get a little crazy. In Canada, our super-popular version of the above two cocktails is what we call The Canadian Caesar, or just the Caesar, for short. We rim our glasses with celery salt, garnish with a lime and instead of tomato juice we use Clamato.