The BEST bloody mary!

As any good bartender knows, making a quality bloody mary is serious business.  A bloody mary is no rum and coke; it’s a complex blend of potent spices, textures, and flavors that mingle together to yield the perfect kickstart to a Sunday afternoon.  After you have a good bloody mary, you should feel really and truly satiated - like you just had lunch, but the sort of lunch with a splash of booze :)

I’ve sampled many a bloody mary here in my hometown of Washington, D.C. and most of them have fallen far short of expectations.  They’re usually light on the Worcester, light on the citrus, heavy on the Tabasco, and boring on the veggies.  Sometimes – gasp – brunch places don’t even bother and just use bloody mary mix with vodka!  Sadly, I’ve come to expect it, but it’s really disappointing given that we’re usually talking $7 a glass!

I know more is possible because, despite never having lived there, I have a genuine love affair with the City of New Orleans (one that, in fact, might even rival my love affair with the country of India!).  In New Orleans, delicious, creative, affordable, spicy bloody marys abound!   I first began to appreciate the bloody mary’s potential after ordering one at a neighborhood bar in New Orleans called Pal’s.   The Pal’s bloody mary has a thick texture from the horseradish and a substantial meaty taste from the Worcester.  It is spicy in that it actually tastes of chili paste and garlic, rather in the Tabasco-y sort of way.  A hint of lemon juice cuts through it all, adding an extra twist.  Perhaps the best part of the Pal’s bloody mary is the selection of veggies on top. 

Ever since tasting the Pal’s bloody mary, I have attempted to emulate it.  Here’s a description of what I stir into my pint glass of tomato juice and why:

The Worcester: So this is where the flavor lover in me comes out, but I do not hold back on the Worcester with my bloody marys.  Most recipes I’ve seen recommend only a few drops or dashes but I usually put in a full teaspoon!  This gives the drink a real meal-like quality and ups the flavor immensely! 

The Horseradish:  In doing my research for this post, I was shocked to learn that many bloody mary receipes do not even include horseradish.  Blasphemy!  Balance out the Worcester with 1 teaspoon of horseradish sauce.  This not only adds to the flavor but it creates a thicker texture when it works its way through the V8.

The Hot Sauce: Most bloody mary recipes call for Tabasco.  I say this as a devoted spice lover, but the problem with Tabasco is that it’s all spice and no flavor!  It tastes thin and runny – there’s just nothing going on with it until it burns your tongue off.   Instead of using Tabasco, I like to sub in hot sauces like Cholula and Sriracha, where the spice to flavor ratio is a bit more in balance.  I recommend ¼ teaspoon of either of these and you can’t go wrong.

The Garlic: You don’t want the garlic to overwhelm the bloody mary, so rather than dicing up garlic and putting it in, I usually just crush a clove and stir it in so that it settles in the bottom of the glass. 

The Veggies: Here’s where you can have a lot of fun with bloody marys and where I get a bit unconventional in my preferences –  I really like to add veggies that really absorb the liquid and soak up the flavor.  My favorites are okra, olives, and fresh green beans.  The more of these you can pack into the top of the glass the better!  Fresh green beans are especially pretty because they are long and stick up out of the glass.  I understand that celery is a traditional bloody mary garnish, but my feeling is that celery might be a little boring.  Celery has negative calories – seriously!  It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has to begin with: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/celery.asp!  Well, there’s a reason for this.  Celery just doesn’t add anything to and, in my opinion, dilutes the flavor of a great bloody mary.  Add celery if you must, but certainly don’t add it as a replacement for any of the other wonderful vegetables that should be included (see below).

The Lemon: No frills with the lemon.  I just slice one-eighth of a fresh lemon into a wedge and squeeze it right in.

The (Lack of) Ice: If you can at all get away with it, I really recommend leaving out the ice.  If you need it to keep the drink cold, that’s fine, but a better approach is to chill the pitcher in the refrigerator before you serve.  I say this because, in my opinion, the ice is kind of like the celery in that it dilutes from the flavor and when the ice melts it might actually water it down.  That and I feel like it’s kind of weird to have ice right next to veggies so that your crunching an ice cube at the same time you’re taking down a green bean.

The Vodka: Add vodka if you want to make it alcoholic

In conclusion, here's the recipe in a more conventional form:

Pour one shot of vodka in a pint glass.  Fill the glass with V8 or another thick tomato juice until it is ¾ full.  Add one teaspoon of Worcester sauce, one teaspoon of horseradish, and ¼ teaspoon of Cholula brand hot sauce.  Crush a clove of garlic and mix it into the glass.  Top with long fresh green beans, fresh okra, and olives.  Add one wedge of lemon.  Chill and serve.