bloody mary bar - Jelly Toast (2024)

When I think of brunch co*cktails, I often think of sweet drinkslike Mimosas or Bellinis, but I’ve had nothing but Bloody Mary’s no the brain for over a month. After tinkering and tweaking this recipe again and again, I’ve found theultimate Bloody Mary mix recipe. Pair this mix with some out-of-this-world garnishes and an unexpected liquor and you will have yourself an amazingBloody Mary Bar.

Brunch will never be the same.

This post has been a long time in the making. My husband and I havebeen talking Bloody Mary’s –withall of the possible garnishes – for months. It’s taken quite awhileto find aBloody Mary base recipe that has lived up to our expectations, butwe’ve finally landed on this amazingly savory, spicy and smokey mix. If I’m going to go back to the beginning stages of this drink, I would need to go all the way back to last summer when we traveled toArizona. While there, we ordered a drinkthatwas made with Mezcal (sometimes seen as Mescal) which is actually a Mexican liquor in the tequila family.

While I’m not typically a tequila fan, this Mezcal blew my mind. It is an incredibly smokey flavored alcohol that is reminiscent of bacon. Well, maybe not bacon bacon, but it brings to mind some seriously savory smokiness. Ss soon as we sipped it, we both thought it would be killer in a Bloody Mary.

Zoom forward to this summer. After an entire year went by without having a chance to try out our Mezcal Bloody Mary, we wentout to brunch one Sunday only to be confronted with a Bloody Maryon the menu. We ordered one and it was less than impressive. It lacked originality, flavor and most importantly: garnishes. An anemic piece of celery and one lone olive were all that graced this lack-luster drink.

After this experience we got back to planning out our ultimate Bloody Mary and all of the amazing garnishes we could include. We wanted to build a Bloody Mary bar worthy of a party.

So then we were back to the problem of developing the perfectbase recipe that could holda candle to all of these awesome little bites. After much research, wecame across this Elixir Bloody Mary recipefrom Liquor.com. The Old Bay rim sealed the deal for me. We changed it upa bit with the addition of smoked salt and celery seed, but the biggest change we made was swapping the vodka for Mezcal. The amount of smokey, chili flavor that the Mezcal brings to the party is incredible. I will never make a Bloody Mary with vodka again. And that’s saying something because I’m a vodka kind of girl.

Lets not forget the amazing list of garnishes: pepperoni, thick cut bacon, smoked gouda, sweet cherry peppers, baby dill pickles, blue cheese stuffed olives, garlic stuffed olives and marinated mozzarella. Oh, and you can’t forget the lemon wedges and celery. You need some big, beautiful celery stalks for these drinks. Nothing wimpy and leafless is allowed.

I love how this drink turned into a snack and a co*cktail all in one. I loaded up my drink with all sorts of goodies and had a blast drinking and nibbling my way to the bottom of the glass. It was a complete sensory experience. So, next time you’re looking to put out a great co*cktail spread you’ve got to try this Bloody Mary Bar.

Your friends will love you for it!

Happy Friday!