The 10 Best Bloody Mary Mixes in 2023

Things to Consider Before Buying a Bloody Mary Mix

Often a popular ‘tonic’ for the excesses of the night before, the Bloody Mary cocktail is popular because of the high salt content to replace electrolytes, its vegetable base to settle the stomach and the alcohol content, well, enough said!

Using a Bloody Mary mix is ideal as few of us have all the fresh ingredients to hand when the craving arises, or even the energy to actually make the drink. If a mix is not spicy enough, it is easy to add extra spice, but if you are not as keen on the spiciness, you can thin out the mix with either extra tomato juice or some water.

If you are new to Bloody Mary mixes, or are wanting to try some different flavors it is worth looking at the ingredients before buying. Not all will have the flavors that you particularly like, for example, a number do not contain horseradish or Worcestershire or Tabasco sauce, whereas others will have more of a dill or briny tang.

Although some Bloody Mary mixes will not need refrigerating, a Bloody Mary is always best served cold and over plenty of ice.

Nutritional and Sodium Considerations of a Bloody Mary Mix

An average serving of a Bloody Mary mix can provide between 40 and 70 calories, 9 to 13 grams of carbs, 4 to 7 grams of sugar, 2 grams of fiber and 1 to 2 grams of protein. It may also contain as much as 1489 mg of sodium.

The sodium levels in a mix, or even a homemade Bloody Mary are quite high due to the added salt, as well as the salt already contained in other ingredients such as Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces. A healthy individual should not have more than 2,300 mg of sodium every day.

If you use Bloody Mary seasonings or enhancers which do not contain tomato, these do offer you the option to add low sodium tomato juice to your drink to reduce some of the sodium content.

When calculating the nutrition of your Bloody Mary, you also need to add in the nutrition of your alcohol and garnish. For example, although a pickle spear only contains around 4 calories it can have around 300 mg of sodium.

Because a Bloody Mary contains tomatoes and other fresh ingredients, it is a source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. How much will depend on the mix and what else you choose to add to it when serving.

Origins of the Bloody Mary

During the 1920s, vodka was becoming popular in Europe as immigrants came into Europe to escape the Russian Revolution and so bars were beginning to experiment with vodka in cocktails.

The Bloody Mary is said by many to have been created by Fernand Petiot at the New York Bar in Paris in 1921, later known as Harry’s New York Bar – a place where American migrants such as Ernest Hemingway could regularly be found.

When Petiot moved back the US, he tried the recipe out in the King Cole Bar in New York, but the clientele were not impressed, saying the drink was too bland. Petiot then added black pepper, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lemon and Tabasco sauce and so the Bloody Mary was born. The 21 Club in New York also lays claim to it being invented there in the 1930s. There is also a chance that the Hollywood star of the 19202 to 1950s, George Jessel, was the creator of the blend of tomato juice and vodka.

Although the name is linked with Queen Mary 1 of England who tried to re-establish the Catholic Church in England, it could be that the drink was named after a waitress called Mary who worked in the Bucket of Blood bar in Chicago. When Petiot mixed a drink for one of his patrons at the New York Bar in Paris, the patron commented that it reminded him of his girlfriend (Mary) who he had met in a cabaret and so the drink was named Bloody Mary.

A 1942 edition of Life magazine claimed the cocktail mix of tomato juice, vodka and lemon juice as a ‘Red Hammer’ and a later advertisement in the magazine for a Worcestershire sauce suggested it be added to a ‘Tomato Juice Cocktail’ along with salt and pepper.

The Key Ingredients for a Bloody Mary

Although many people have their own twist on this popular drink, the most important ingredients are tomato juice and vodka. Peppers, celery seed, horseradish, olive brine, molasses are often added, and salt or celery salt can be added to the rim or mixed in the drink. Other twists include pickle juice or clam juice.

The lemon or lime is also important in a Bloody Mary. Although you may think that the drink is acidic enough because of the tomato juice, the citrus actually helps cut through rich tomato juice and will also balance the drink if the tomato is a little too sweet.

Worcestershire sauce is often considered by many to be a key ingredient, as well as Tabasco or other hot sauce.

Worcestershire sauce is a fermented sauce created by two chemists in Worcester, UK. Called John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, they devised the sauce recipe in the 1830s when Lord Sandys asked them to recreate a taste he had acquired from his travels in Bengal. Ingredients in the original sauce include vinegar, molasses, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onion, garlic, spices and flavorings, although varieties of Worcestershire sauces today are often anchovy-free.

The first batch of the sauce was not great and was left in the barrel and forgotten about. A while later the barrel was re-discovered, and the sauce had mellowed into today’s Worcestershire Sauce. In 1876, a legal ruling said that other manufacturers could call their product Worcestershire sauce after the English High Court ruled that Lea & Perrins could not own a trademark to the county of Worcestershire.

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, now owned by Heinz, is still the leading global brand and is matured for 18 months before bottling. Only a few people know the exact recipe.

A Bloody Mary is usually served on the rocks in a highball with a celery, cucumber, pickle spear or olive garnish or even the addition of bacon, chicken, smoked salmon, or shrimp to the glass. Garnish on a Bloody Mary is often just limited by imagination – or the contents of your kitchen!

Variants on a vodka Bloody Mary include gin, tequila, rye or bourbon. Other more unusual combinations can include Mezcal or Aquavit. A Virgin Mary is the same ingredients as the Bloody Mary except for the alcohol.

Conclusion

Since its first appearance as a cocktail, the Bloody Mary has become a drink which can have almost anything added to it, although many of its original and core ingredients remain. Bloody Mary mixes are ideal as they need little effort to make up and you can still add what you fancy to it. Aside from the alcohol content, one concern for a number of drinkers is the high sodium content of Bloody Mary mixes and in this article, we have looked at how you can reduce some of the salt content in the drink.