Bloody Mary with Olives
Tomato juice, spices and vodka, garnished with olives, celery and lemon.
- Time
- 10 minutes
- Serves
- 1 glass
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Cocktail
⚠ Not to be sold or served to anyone under 18. This page is a recipe record; it does not encourage the consumption of alcohol. Do not drink if you will be driving, if you are pregnant, or if you take medication that interacts with alcohol.
The Bloody Mary is generally credited to Harry's New York Bar in Paris in the 1920s and 30s, and to the bartender Fernand Petiot. At the outset the drink was tomato juice and vodka alone; the layers of spice, lemon and salt were added over the following decades.
Olive brine is among the newest of those layers, and its logic is clear: the cocktail already has a salty, spiced base, and the brine adds fermented depth to it. Together with the celery salt, it feeds the drink's saline side from two different directions.
Directions
- Fill a tall glass with ice.
- Combine the tomato juice, vodka, lemon juice, olive brine, hot sauce and seasonings in a jug.
- Mix by pouring back and forth between two glasses. ⚠ Do not shake in a shaker — tomato juice froths and loses its body.
- Pour into the iced glass.
- Add olives on a pick, a celery stick and a slice of lemon.
- Adjust the salt against the brine, which already carries salt.
Tips & storage
Don't shake it — roll it. Tomato juice shaken in a shaker froths and loses its body, leaving a thin, watery drink. Pouring back and forth between two glasses — rolling, in bar terms — is the correct method.
Season last. Brine, celery salt and the olive garnish all carry salt. Always taste before adding any more.
The quality of the tomato juice decides everything. The main ingredient of this cocktail is tomato juice, not vodka. Cheap, watery juice cannot be rescued with spice.
Why the horseradish? Its sharpness is perceived through the nose and adds a layer distinct from the burn hot sauce leaves on the tongue. If you cannot find it, a pinch of mustard powder does something similar.
Use plenty of ice. Too little melts quickly and dilutes the drink. Filling the glass completely paradoxically means less dilution.
The garnish is part of the drink. The celery stick works as a stirrer, and the olives release their brine as you drink.
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