With its tomato juice, spicy kick and shot of vitamin C, the bloody mary is perennially popular for brunch. Here are three seasonings you might want to try in making the classic cocktail.
Bloody mary mix
Our test for a good bloody mary mix is, would we enjoy it on its own? The answer is yes for this mix from Natural Blonde in Charleston, South Carolina. From the first sip, you can tell the mix is made using fresh tomatoes. In fact, the recipe is based on yellow tomato gazpacho. Since yellow tomatoes are lower in acid than red tomatoes, the mix doesn’t need as much sweetener as others. And, because the mix doesn’t have dozens of ingredients, the tomato flavor really shines through, along with the acidity provided by sweet-hot pickle juice and a bit of heat from house-made green hot sauce. Somehow, adding vodka just heightens the fresh flavor of the mix, but alcohol is not required. Our guests enjoyed it as a nonalcoholic cocktail straight out of the jar.
$10 per 16-ounce jar, $14 per 32-ounce jar. Available at Lucy’s Market in Buckhead, Top Shelf Liquors in Mableton, A Peach of a Party in Roswell, Vom Fass in Duluth and naturalblondemix.com.
Credit: Teresa Kenton
Credit: Teresa Kenton
Cocktail dust
Teresa Kenton of Snellville-based Seeds and Seasonings has been experimenting with seasoning blends for more than 17 years. In 2021, she was in a new home, growing and drying herbs and vegetables to use in her blends, and sharing them with friends and neighbors. It wasn’t long before their encouragement persuaded her to turn her kitchen experiments into a business, offering flavored sugar blends, seasoning blends, infused salts and more. We tried two of her cocktail dusts: bloody rim and chili lime sugar. Both are made with ancho chili powder, which means they’re smoky, but not hot. There are other uses for these seasonings, too. When we were through rimming the bloody mary glasses, we used the bloody rim blend to season a pot of chili, dress up a bowl of guacamole and dust a slice of avocado toast. The chili lime sugar blend was perfect for dressing up the edges of shortbread cookies.
$9 per 3.25-ounce container. Available at seedsandseasonings.com.
Credit: hANDOUT
Credit: hANDOUT
Key lime sauce and marinade
We love a sauce that can multi-task in the kitchen. When his wife planted a key lime tree in their St. Petersburg, Florida, backyard, Dennis Reid began developing ways to use up the fruit. His first creation was a key lime barbecue sauce that morphed into Zesty Key Lime Gourmet Sauce & Marinade, launching a line of hot sauces, salsas, relishes, rubs and seasonings. The key lime sauce started out as a way to dress up meats on the grill, but Reid soon learned that people were using it as a sauce for shrimp cocktail, a marinade for chicken or beef and to spice up their bloody marys, as we did. This thick sauce is sweet with tomatoes and honey, flavored with onion and garlic, and tangy, thanks to the key lime juice. Stir it into plain tomato juice, and all you need is something to rim your glass in order to enjoy a great bloody mary.
$8 per 12-ounce jar. Available at Amazon and revafoods.com.
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
About the Author
