Cocktail Chemistry: Parsing The Bloody Mary

A visualization of the flavors in a typical bloody mary

Chemist NeilDa Costa has analyzed each ingredient of the Bloody Mary, and the cocktail as whole and presented his findings at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. 

With gas and liquid chromatography, Da Costa isolated the wide variety of compounds that give the bloody mary its unique flavor. The drink covers much of the taste spectrum: sweet, salty, sour and umami — the savory taste of glutamic acid.

What's worth taking away from this? Good tomato juice is a must but cheap vodka is okay and a Bloody Mary must always be served very cold.


Bloody Mary aficionado, Ernest Hemingway, agreed, "He jotted down at the bottom of his recipe, "Whole trick is to keep it very cold."


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