Bloody Mary: 5 Things That Actually Change the Drink

Five things that actually change a Bloody Mary, from someone who made a great many of them on a deadline.

I had a standing date for a few years behind the bar of a Sunday brunch service at a restaurant in North Texas. Bloody Marys, over and over, in under a minute each. That volume teaches you which variables matter and which ones bartenders talk about because they sound good. These are the five that matter.

One thing to get out of the way first: a Bloody Mary is not a hangover treatment. Drinking more alcohol to feel better postpones a hangover rather than fixing it, and the evidence on that is not close. We went through it properly in what actually helps a hangover. Make this drink because you want the drink.

1. The mix does most of the work

Purists will tell you to build your own mix from scratch. That is a reasonable project if you have a full bar and an afternoon, and it is not what most people are doing on a Sunday.

What you are actually judging in a pre-made mix is texture. You want something viscous enough to coat the glass but not so thick it needs to be chewed. No chunks. This build uses Zing Zang, which is seasoned rather than spiced, so the heat is a decision you make later instead of one made for you.

2. Season the rim and the mix, not just the rim

Every Bloody should have a salted rim. The upgrade is mixing a creole seasoning like Tony Chachere’s in with the kosher salt, and then putting a few dashes into the drink itself. Seasoning in one place tastes like a garnish. Seasoning in both places tastes like it was built that way.

3. Lemon and lime, not one or the other

Both, as garnish and in the glass. They do different jobs: lime brings sharpness, lemon brings a rounder acidity, and the two colors on the rim make the drink look like someone built it on purpose. Acid is also what keeps a tomato-based drink from reading as heavy.

4. Sriracha instead of Tabasco

Tabasco is the default and there is nothing wrong with it. Chili paste heat behaves differently: it is rounder, it disperses through a thick mix instead of sitting on top of it, and it brings garlic with it. Plenty of bartenders add garlic powder separately to get there. Sriracha does both jobs in one squeeze.

5. Float a Mexican lager on top

Beer in a Bloody is not new, and Guinness is the usual suggestion. A nitro stout does bring more savory weight. A Mexican lager does something more useful for a thick drink: the carbonation lifts the texture and the light salinity works with the tomato.

Worth knowing what it does to the drink’s strength, though. See the count below before you assume topping up is free.

The build

2½ oz vodka
4 oz Zing Zang
1 oz olive juice
Squeeze of lemon
Squeeze of lime
Sriracha to taste
1 can Mexican lager

Combine everything except the beer in a shaker and shake generously. Rim a pint glass with kosher salt and creole seasoning. Pour the contents of the shaker, ice and all, into the glass and top with the lager. Garnish with lemon and lime.

What is actually in the glass

This is one drink by count and closer to two and a half by volume of alcohol. At 80 proof, 2½ oz of vodka is about 1.7 US standard drinks. A 12 oz Mexican lager at 4.4% adds roughly another 0.9. The finished pint glass lands around 2.5 standard drinks.

A US standard drink is 0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol, the same as a 12 oz beer at 5% or a 5 oz glass of wine at 12%. Brunch drinks are the ones people most reliably undercount, largely because they arrive in a pint glass and taste like food.

If you want it lighter, drop the beer float and you are back to a single drink and change.