The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess

For those of you who feel that you do need to take a shortcut with the Bloody Mary, and use some sort of pre-mix, the only one I can really recommend is Demitris Bloody Mary mix, mostly because it isn’t a fully bottled pre-mix, but is a concentrated spice mixture that you add to tomatoe juice. This allows you not only select the brand of tomato juice you want to use, but also adjust the seasoning to your liking.

I’m floored there have not been a flurry of posts here. There are those who loathe the bloody mary (my wife included) and those who relish it as I do. I will try the ancho chili powder. Seems a natural.  I’m always looking for some variation on this cocktail. I make it two ways—from scratch and using a pre=made mix that I doctor. Without going into to much detail, one ingredient worth exploring is celery seed. The tomato juice and the pre-mix have plenty of salt for me, so a few dashes of celerry seed (crushed a bit with a muddler) adds wonderful flavor without more salt.  I shake and strain mine into a frozen cosmo glass or double old-fashioned with a little crushed ice. Lemon and pickled asparagus garnish.
Cheers.

I find that all mixes are better when doctored up a little bit, if for no other reason then you then feel like you participated a little be more… or perhaps that’s just the chef in me coming out.

Good point on adding celery seed if you’re using an already salted mix, or a tomato juice which might be salty enough already.

Some folks reject the Bloody Mary because they hate tomato juice, my good friend Gary Regan is one of those. But he does like what is known as “Tomato water”, which is the mostly clear juice that you can strain from a tomato. It still has that great tomato flavor you are looking for, but without the texture of tomato juice which some people object to. From there you can add similar style ingredients to it to make a clear bloody mary.

I prefer to use a combination of tomato juice and Clamato juice usualy half and half then add the usuals: lemon juice, worchestershire sauce, celery seed, Tobasco, garlic salt, horseradish and my favorite secret ingredient: Pick-a-Peppa sauce (kind of like A-1, but better). Then I salt the rim with a combination of Lawry’s Season Salt and Cajun Spice, garnish with olives and cocktail onions, and you’ve got in my opinion the best Bloody Mary ever!

Tomato juice has a slight bite that hits the palette after all the other flavors have passed.  A 1/4 tsp of powdered sugar knocks it right out.

Charles,

Thanks for that. Good point, I’ll have to try it out and see how this changes the drink overall.

Myself, I avoid using powdered sugar as an ingredient in a cocktail since powdered sugar includes cornstarch which can add a bit of a slimey texture to the drink, if not putting little lumps in it as well. Simple syrup works far better, or you can get what is called “bar sugar” which is finely ground sugar which will dissolve quicker than normal granulated sugar.

-Robert

I use V-8 Juice (or any good vegetable juice) and substitute lime juice for lemon juice.  Because the V-8 has celery juice, I don’t add any celery seed/salt. 

I’ve also substituted Ever-clear (grain alcohol) when I awoke to my wife being “out of sorts” and found I had no vodka for my Sunday Morning “Bloody”.  I found that, using an appropriately diminished measure of grain alcohol actually made for a very smooth “bloody”, and I named this drink after my wife - the “Bloody Mary Jo”

Robert

I love your sight. I just came across it! I have recently launched my very own bottled Bloody Mary Mix. I’d love to get this product into your hands! I also think I may change your opinion about pre-mix Bloody Marys once you have tried mine. I mean no disrespect by that comment. I have a similar passion as you and I get nothing but the highest possible compliements by everyone who tries my mix. I hope to hear back from you.  -"The Murph”

Fun, fun, fun!  My friend and I have become tomato-growing maniacs and juice it all (we made aout 65 quarts last year and will certainly surpass that this year), then put seasonings right into the quart canning jars, and call it “Precious.” And it is. Quite sublime with the *real* juice (it’s not a pulp!) and a rather more delicate recipe than some.

I’ve enjoyed a powerful version called Reata’s Famous Bloody Mary but with less horseradish and adding some celery salt--not for the timid!  Scroll down at http://www.texascooking.com/features/sept97spirits.htm

Roberta Straub’s is awesome, though quite a process (starts with the rimming mix, then 3 more episodes) and expensive because I doubt many have all those exotic ingredients on-hand: http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/cocktails-on-the-fly?page=1 You really do need those garnishes, especially the shrimp!

And now to try Robert’s--the Ancho chile is an intriguing addition....

BTW, does anyone else make things in quanitity and then freeze--like: Bloody Mary mix, fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, homemade grenadine, etc. etc.--I never see it mentioned.

And Robert, thanks for all your shows and info--I appreciate and enjoy them all.

Diann

It strikes me as somewhat odd that you would use horseradish sauce in this recipe, rather than prepared horseradish. It’s generally just as easy to find in most markets, and the difference in pungency would really be quite extraordinary (or you could simply use less, I suppose. I, personally, like my Bloody Marys to be a bit on the spicy side.)

Perhaps my favorite spicy element for a Bloody Mary, however, is a pureed can of chipotles in adobo sauce. It definitely provides an interesting change of pace from the biting heat of horseradish or the flaccid flavor profile of most common hot sauces.

I like using Absolute Citron and Absolute Peppar as the vodka to add flavor.  Angostra (spelling?… the bitters people) make a pretty good bloody mary spice sauce you can add to tomato juice and make as mild or spicy as desired.  Love the site!