Ever since my friends Rob and Helen took me out to my birthday brunch, I have been obsessed with Bloody Marys I hadn’t had one since I was 25 years old and didn’t realize how much I had missed them. Since then I’ve gone to a few different places for brunch and have wanted to try making my own.
I went to Tower Beer, Wine and Spirits to look for some bloody mary mixes. I bought Stirrings, Tabasco, Zing Zang and of course a bottle of Absolut Peppar. Sunday morning I decided to do a little taste test of my own. Keep in mind, just because I didn’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s bad and I am certainly not bashing any of them. It’s my mouth and my blog so it’s my opinion.
I started out with the Tabasco brand. It was good, and spicy but was missing something, I think perhaps it was missing the celery or maybe not enough horseradish not sure but it didn’t really do it for me. If I was served this in a restaurant I’d drink it, and it would be fine, but I wasn’t in love love love with it.
I then drank some water to “cleanse my palate” (ha).
Next up was the mix from Stirrings, and it pretty much tasted like cocktail sauce which I am NOT a fan of. What the other lacked in celery this one made up for by the ton and I didn’t really taste any horseradish. To me it was really on the sweet side and I tend to like it on the spicy more tangy side.
I drank MORE water… palate cleansing again.
Finally I tried the Zing Zang, and it was love at first sip. This was what I had been waiting for, all my life. My friend Helen told me about it and said it was good, and she was 100% correct. It is spicy, you can taste the celery and the horseradish but it isn’t crazy overpowering. It’s just a great mix of spicy tangy flavors.
After I found the mix that I love, I decided to play with it to make it even spicier, this is where good ole Texas Pete comes into play. I added some Zing Zang.
Next comes the Absolut Peppar.
Next Mr. Texas Pete (it’s all I had in the fridge).
Then I added more of the Zing Zang and mixed it up. I actually got the idea for the Wing Sauce from my favorite brunch place who serves the best bloody marys in town. I won’t reveal the name here, because they may want to keep it a secret and I don’t want to be “that person”.
If anyone out there has any Bloody Mary recipes or mixes that they swear by, I’d love to hear about them. I love trying new things and then there will be a part two!!!