Bloody Mary Bar

Setting up a Bloody Mary Bar at home is a great way to let guests feel at home by serving themselves while having a lot of fun creating their own cocktails. 

To create the ultimate Blood Mary Bar you’ll want to start with a great homemade Bloody Mary Mix. Then lay out lots of fun choices for your guests to create their ultimate cocktail. Some suggestions for serving ideas include: 

• Different size drinking glasses
• One or two brands of vodka and club soda for making virgin versions 
• Different flavors of salts for rimming glasses 
• Garnishes

Bloody Mary Mix 

Bloody Mary Mix

This is the most important element of a Bloody Mary, whether you are making one for yourself or a setting up a bar for guests to make their own cocktails. 

• Tomato Juice 
• Garlic
• Worcestershire Sauce 
• Lemon juice
• Hot Sauce 
• Prepared Horseradish 
• Cracked Pepper 

Glassware

Typical glassware for a Bloody Mary is a highball glass. Putting out glasses of different sizes will add to the whimsical feeling of the bar and will give your guests who only want a small amount the proper size glass. Choose from highball glasses, rocks glasses, poco grande, wine glasses or even varying sizes of mason jars. 

Liquor

Vodka is the spirit of choice for this cocktail. I recommend buying a nice vodka like Tito’s or Boyd and Blair. Other good choices would be a flavored vodka. Some suggested flavors are: smoked vodka, black pepper vodka, basil vodka, or dill pickle vodka. 

Salts

Rimming the glass with a flavored salt is the perfect extra layer of flavor. My favorite is this Paprika Salt Mix. I adds a little heat, a little acidity and a lot of flavor. To make this salt mixture in a shallow dish and combine.

1/4 cup kosher salt

1 tablespoon Paprika or Smoke Paprika 

1 tablespoon celery salt

1 tablespoon garlic powder 

1 teaspoon cumin 

1 teaspoon black pepper 

To rim the glass with the salt rub a lemon or lime wedge around the edge of the glass to moisten it. Then dip the rim of the glass in the mixture. 

Garnishes 

Garnishing Bloody Mary’s is so much fun because honestly the possibilities are limitless. Of course the most traditional garnish is a celery stalk with a couple of green olives. 

• Celery Sticks
• Green Olives
• Pickles
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Cherry Peppers
• Lemon Wedges 
• Lime Wedges 
• Cucumber Slices
• Baby Corn
• Pickled Jalapeños
• Pickled Okra 
• Pickled Green Beans
• Pepperoncinies
• Cocktail Onions
• Cooked Shrimp
• Bacon Slices
• Cheese Squares
• Beef Jerky Sticks
• Pepperoni Stick

The most important part of setting up a Bloody Mary Bar is to have fun. Get creative and give your guests lots of choices for creating cocktails they will not only enjoy but want to snap a picture of to show their friends. 

Cheers Y’all! 

Susanne 

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