Best Hot Sauce For Bloody Mary

Creating A Diy Bloody Mary Bar

Some like em mild, some want them over the top spiced, and everyone has their druthers. Therein lies the reason to create a Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar for a mix and match cocktail soirée that will leave them sipping for more.

Show off your garnishing ingenuity by putting your pickled veggies and extra bites center stage for your guests to pick and choose and create a loaded drink. Or a simple one if thats the way they roll.

And now for the good stuff: the garnishes. Go crazy or classic, its up to you to pick and choose the accoutrements to create your ultimate Bloody Mary.

see more: How to Set Up a DIY Mimosa Bar

Add Some Spice To Your Cooking

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• Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Like many condiments, hot sauce brands have attracted cult followings, with die-hard fans prepared to fight for what they believe to be the best recipe. Popular in Mexican, Central and South American, and Caribbean cuisine, there are many different types of hot sauce, also called chili sauce or pepper sauce, but they all contain chili peppers. The variety of pepper used influences the spice level of the sauce, with ghost pepper and habanero on the hotter side.

The list of ways to use hot sauce is seemingly endless: Put it on everything from eggs to tacos, or add it to soups, marinades, stir-fry dishes, and sauces .

Whether you want to buy bottles in bulk or try your hand at making your own with the help of a handy kit, here are the best hot sauces on the market.

Taste Test: The Best Hot Sauce For Bloody Marys

A properly made Bloody Mary can fix a lot of things — a bad night before, a very good night before, brunch hanger and a hankering for hot sauce. We all have a favorite hot sauce for our Bloody Mary, but we needed to test our loyalty. We set out on a blind taste test expedition, to determine once and for all the best Bloody Mary hot sauce of all.

We started with a standard homemade Bloody Mary mix: tomato juice, horseradish, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice and vodka. We used Smirnoff, not because it’s our favorite vodka , but because it miraculously won our vodka taste test many moons ago.

With a big pitcher of Bloody Marys mixed up, we poured them into individual cups laced with 10 different hot sauces. We wanted to use the hot sauces you are most likely to find in your local grocery store, as you set out to make your very own Bloody Mary bar. No, there is no ghost pepper sauce. There is no Ass-Incinerating-Hellfire-Mash or whatever your cousin Dave makes in his garage. These are the hot sauces you’re most likely to encounter in the wilds of the American convenience store.

We absolutely cannot express how surprised we were by our winner. To be 100 percent honest with you, we only included the winning hot sauce in the taste test because we knew people would complain if it wasn’t there. That it emerged victorious has absolutely blown our minds.

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Best Value: Finest Call Bloody Mary Mix

courtesy of Walmart

Finest Call is a good value option that still has good flavor, in part due to the fact that it is made using real California Roma tomatoes. This budget Bloody Mary mix can be found behind many bars, and the brand claims its based around what is essentially the original list of ingredientstomato juice, black pepper, lemon juice, and a blend of savory spices. Its relatively mild, so you can amp up the spice factor with Tabasco or horseradish if you desire.

Tips For Making The Best Bloody Mary

Have skewers on hand that are long enough to fit the size of your trimmings for maximum loadability. You dont want your guests to feel shortchanged on the garnishes.

Have plenty of ice on hand. Bloody Marys are best when refreshingly cold. Top the glasses to the rim with ice, and refrigerate the Mary mix before serving.

Create different flavored salts to rim your glass by combining kosher salt with different chile powders or herbs. Pour salts on small plates that just fit the rim of your glass. To coat, pour a small amount of water on a small plate. Roll the rim of the glass in the water and then in the salt.

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Other Delicious Cocktail Recipes

• The Best Margaritas This is the best margarita recipe EVER! My husband spent years perfecting this delicious tequila cocktail. You will never need another margarita recipe again!
• 4 Can Margaritas Pour only FOUR ingredients into a pitcher and a batch of refreshing margaritas is ready for guests! Making drinks could not be easier! All youll need is Squirt, tequila, a can of beer and limeade. Easy and delicious!
• Grapefruit Lime Margaritas Switch up the standard margarita by replacing sweet and sour mix with fresh citrus juice! These Grapefruit Lime Margaritas are refreshing and delicious and perfect for summer!
• Easy Lemon Drop This Lemon Drop Cocktail is EASY to make and is sure to impress guests. Use honey simple syrup for a less sweet version of the popular adult drink.
• Blueberry Mojitos A fun little twist on a delicious summery drink! These Blueberry Mojitos are super fresh and yummy.
• Mint Juleps Mint Juleps are the official drink of the Kentucky Derby! Minty, satisfying and refreshing!
• Pink Lily The Pink Lily Cocktail is a Kentucky Derby favorite drink! Enjoy any time of the year!
• The Best Mai Tai This is the closest youll get to replicating the Vegas Mirage hotels famous Mai Tai. One of my favorite alcoholic beverages ever!
• Salty Dogs Vodka and grapefruit juice make a great team! This alcoholic drink is irresistible and a great sipper for sitting on the deck.

Mayanik Mexican Hot Sauce

Mayanik was produced in the 1990s and the manufacturing plant can be found in Merida, Yucatan.

This plants location leads towards the name as it was the place that the ancient Mayans once lived. Habañero peppers are used all through their three hot sauces:

• OrangeHabañero
• RedHabañero

The level of heat depends on when the pepper was picked and used for the sauce.

So, when you taste a hot habañero sauce, the pepper may have been picked later than the green habañero sauce.

Because of the amount of vinegar in this hot sauce, its consistency is watery, and it has a strong acidity.

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For A Bloody Maria: Cholula

Tapatío and Cholula dominate the Mexican hot sauce game, but were squarely on team Cholula for its unique, smoky, nutty taste of pequin and arbol peppers. The flavor would meld seamlessly with a vodka-based Bloody, but if you want to do the Jalisco-based company proud, youll swap in a measure of tequila for a Bloody Maria.

Hot Sauces You Have To Try In Your Bloody Mary

We love spicy food and especially like spicy bloody marys. Spicy is a journey through sensations of heat, an experiment, and sometimes if hot enough, a high. If you have a selection of hot sauces and youve seen Hot Ones on Youtube then you know what were talking about. Hot sauce is not optional, its mandatory. We have a display of 18 different hot sauces and are always getting new ones either from local farmers’ markets or from our travels. A spicy bloody mary is easily made with a flick of the wrist wielding Tabasco, but were headed in a different, a more exotic hot sauce bloody mary direction. Keep reading to find out how to make the best spicy bloody marys.

Here are the top 3 hot sauces you have to try when creating your next spicy bloody mary or spicy bloody maria.

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Tips For Making Your Own Hot Sauce

If youre ready to take your devotion for the hot stuff to the next level and experiment with creating your own, there are plenty of options and resources for novices, from cookbooks to DIY kits. When I first started making hot sauce at home, I used peppers that I could get easily and were budget-friendly, explains Seabury. Every grocery store has jalapeños and habaneros. These peppers taste great and will complement a number of ingredients that you want to incorporate into a sauce. He recommends starting with your favorite flavors and then trying to find the perfect heat level for your preference.

September is the month to make hot sauce, adds Walsh, since all kinds of chile are ripe. The secret of all great chile sauces is fermentation. Start with bright red cayennes for Louisiana-style sauces or red jalapeños to make homemade sriracha.

The Hot Sauce Cookbook: Turn Up the Heat With 60+ Pepper Sauce Recipes by Robb Walsh

Walshs book provides recipes for tons of pepper sauces and salsas including riffs on classics like Franks RedHot and sriracha plus recipes for spicy dishes. Peppered with historical facts, this book is both instructional and interesting.

Fiery Ferments: 70 Stimulating Recipes for Hot Sauces, Spicy Chutneys, Kimchis With Kick, and Other Blazing Fermented Condiments by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey

Make Your Own Hot Sauce Kit

Hot Sauce Kit

Note: The prices above reflect the retailers’ listed price at the time of publication.

Soups Are Wonderful To Spice Up

Add hot sauce to not only to your favorite Mexican soup.

Soups come from every part of this world and adding hot sauce to a soup dish will only enhance the flavors. You can add hot sauce to the following soups:

• Pho
• Gumbo
• Beef Soup

The list goes on and on. With soup, there is no limit to when you can add hot sauce.

Even a creamy soup-like clam chowder will take to the hot sauce better than you think.

Vegetable-based soups deserve to be on this list as the vegetables come alive with a touch of chile peppers.

Even though you can place Mexican hot sauce on most of your foods, you should know what hot sauce does to your body.

What Does Spice Do to Your Body

Most people love to spice up their foods even if the increased spice level thats eaten affects the body. Here are several responses to your body due to hot spices:

• Blood Flow Increase: Even though you may not be able to feel it, your bodys blood is pumping. Your metabolism is rising, and your heart rate will rise.

• Become Happy: For several individuals, hot spices will release endorphins that cause happiness. We may begin to eat more of the hot food that is causing us pain.

• Brings Blood To Your Stomach: As you eat these hot spices your body is registering everything. More fluid will build up and be ready to leave your body. The capsaicin in the hot sauce alerts your pain receptors and your body now wants to remove the problem.

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Humble House Ancho & Morita

Whereas most hot sauces these days are in a competition to see who can singe your tonsils the most, I like that there’s an actual balance to Humble House Ancho & Morita. It’s a surprisingly versatile team player, with a nice blend of smoky-sweetness, richness, and acidity, thanks to the tamarind. Andrew Bui, food writer and photographer

Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce

This ones my go-to: It has more of a kick than Cholula, but not so much that it hurts. It’s made from fruity habaneros, but they also use carrots, roasted tomatoes, and mustard to round out the sauce, so it’s got a nice vegetal sweetness and tang. The thick texture makes it perfect for topping huevos rancheros or whisking into a spicy salad dressing or marinade. Kelsey Youngman, Associate Food Editor, Food & Wine

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How To Make A Spicy Bloody Mary:

Mix all the ingredients together in a large pitcher and chill overnight, or at least 4-5 hours.

This allows all the flavors to meld together and develop for a delicious cocktail.

Once chilled, add the vodka to the pitcher, stir to mix.

When ready to serve, salt the rim of a highball glass. You can use your favorite rim salt, Tajin or try this recipe:

My favorite Bloody Mary Rim Salt: 1 Tbsp. old bay seasoning, 1 Tbsp. kosher salt, 1 tsp. celery salt and a pinch of cayenne and paprika. Mix together. Run the cut edge of a fresh lemon wedge around the rim. Then turn the glass over and dip the rim into a small plate that contains a good layer of rim salt.

Fill a highball glass with ice.

Pour the Bloody Mary mix into the glass and serve with your favorite Bloody Mary garnishes and toppings.

Cholula Original Hot Sauce 150ml

Best: Overall

With its recognisable wooden top, this little bottle is loved worldwide. Its warm and spicy without blowing your head off and follows a generations-old secret recipe. We love adding a generous glug to our weekend eggs, but its also essential for burritos and tacos. This hot sauce is already huge in the United States and were thrilled you can now buy it here in the UK.

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For The Spirited Southern Mary: Crystal

Other than giving you street cred in New Orleans where this distinctive blue-striped bottle is king, Crystal will give your cocktail some of that coveted Southern tang. While you could use Louisiana Hot Sauce for a similar effect, Crystal is as steeped in Southern tradition as it gets. Its got an endearing backstory, not to mention more flavor per dash than its watered down competitors. Go full Gulf by garnishing with a skewered shrimp.

Best Overall: Mcclures Bloody Mary Mixer

courtesy of Drizly

McClures is known for making some tasty pickles, so this Bloody Mary mix incorporates some of those briny, salty flavors. McClures uses the pickle brine from its other products in the mix, along with dill, garlic, and black pepper for seasoning. There are two versions available, mild and spicy, and each delivers exactly what you are looking for in this classic drink at different levels on the spice spectrum.

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What Is In A Bloody Mary

Tomato juice: This is the main ingredient of Bloody Mary cocktails and gives it that classic taste. I use 100% tomato juice, found in most juice isles at the grocery store.

You can also clamato juice if you prefer another layer of flavor.

Dill pickle juice: Dill pickle juice adds great tangy flavor with a touch of sweetness. I just snag from the jar we usually have in the fridge!

Fresh lemon juice: This will help give that slightly tart taste to the Bloody Mary.

Horseradish: Horseradish has a distinctive pungent taste that combines well with Sriracha for a nice hint of heat.

Worcestershire: Worcestershire is a fermented condiment made from vinegar, onions, garlic, molasses, and plenty of other seasonings that gives great flavor to this Spicy Bloody Mary cocktail.

Sriracha: Sriracha helps to add a little bit of spice to your cocktail. You can use any hot sauce you prefer.

Kosher salt: This will help to balance out the different flavor combinations.

Celery salt: Celery salt is stronger than fresh celery and adds a slightly sweet yet bitter flavor.

Black pepper: Black pepper helps to add a little bit of heat to the drink and adds great seasoning.

Vodka: This is essential for rounding out this Spicy Bloody Mary! You will add the vodka in right before serving.

El Yucateco Hot Sauce

The next best Mexican hot sauce on the market is El Yucateco Hot Sauce. It receives its green color from the green habañero peppers.

Mr. Priamo Gamboa created this sauce in 1968 and now includes 7 hot sauces in their lineup.

The 7 hot sauces in their lineup are:

• Jalapeño Hot Sauce: A green hot sauce that delivers 1,270 SHUs as the gentlest of the 7 EL Yucateco sauces.

• Chipotle Hot Sauce: Chipotle peppers gather smoky flavors for a more intense taste. Recommended for grilled meats and fuller dishes. This hot sauce sits at 3,400 SHUs.

• Caribbean Habañero Hot Sauce: Has a more orange color to it as it is made with yellow habañero peppers and carrots. It is considered to have a sweeter taste than the others with a 5,400 SHU level.

• Red Habañero Hot Sauce: This sauce sports a bright red color as it is made with habañero peppers and red tomatoes. The Red Habañero Hot Sauce is slightly hotter than the Caribbean Habañero Hot Sauce at 5,790 SHUs.

• Green Habañero Hot Sauce: The second green hot sauce is made from habañero peppers and garlic. This is made for more savory dishes and takes a significant leap to 9,000 SHUs.

• Black Label Reserve Habañero Hot Sauce: Like Chipotle Hot Sauce, the Black Lebel Hot Sauce delivers a smoky taste. The only difference is that the smoky flavor comes from actual fire-roasted habaneros, where it sits at 9,285 SHUs.

If you happen to love this Mexican hot sauce so much, you can purchase a 2-pack case of 68 oz. bottles of the following:

• Red

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