The not-so-bloody history of Bloody Mary!

Bloody Mary is one of the most intriguing drinks that one can come across. Often people think that this cocktail has something to do with the age-old myth used to scare children to sleep. However, sipping on a glass of Bloody Mary won’t conjure any spirit, instead it would definitely make you feel ecstatic. The Bloody Mary is a concoction that contains vodka, tomato juice and different spices and flavorings such as Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, piri piri sauce, beef consomm or bouillon, horseradish, celery, olives, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and/or celery salt. An amalgamation of so many different things is what makes it quite an interesting drink.

If you wish to make your own bloody mary instead of going to the bar, there are a lot of DIY bloody mary recipes and the best part is you can mix and match different ingredients and try your hand at making your own bloody mary recipe! You can definitely research on the different types of blood mary and how to make them, but your research would be more interesting if you take a glimpse at its history.

According to the story, the origins of the bloody mary can be traced back to an American bar, The New York Barin Paris. It was a bar opened by an American expatriate, Ted Sloan and it soon became the favorite hangout spots for famous Americans like Ernest Hemingway, Rita Hayworth, Humphrey Bogart and some Russians who escaped the Russian Revolution. A Russian bartender of this bar is credited with coming up with the first recipe of the bloody mary. He tried his hand at making different drinks and figured out that the Russian vodka was favored by many customers. Thus, Fernand Petiot, the bartender began experimenting with drinks and finally found his perfect drink when he matched the vodka to canned tomato juice. This cocktail became an instant hit among his customers!

After his stint in Paris where his drink was admired a lot, he moved to New York. In New York, he was offered a job at the plush King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. The New Yorkers weren’t impressed with this drink and demanded that he add some more flavor to it. That’s when he started making the drink with the different combination of tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, etc. And as for the name, the story has it that a customer had suggested the name to Petiot as it was the name of a waitress at the Bucket of Blood Bar, which the customer visited.

Your Bloody Mary has undergone quite a few changes and the new Bloody Mary recipes are very popular among DIY enthusiasts.