National Bloody Mary Day

2022 is the 101st anniversary of the origin of the Bloody Mary cocktail. There are several people who have claimed its invention, but the most reputed is Fernand Petiot, from The New York Bar in Paris, 1921 according to wikipedia.

National Bloody Mary Day

Here is a classic Bloody Mary Recipe

1-2 oz Vodka
5-6 oz of tomato juice or V8
2-3 healthy dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon of Prepared Horseradish
A squirt of Lime juice from a syringe (vaccine effect) or 1/4 of a lime squeezed
1-2 teaspoons of a pickling juice (like Dill or Pepperoncini or pickled vegetable)
2-3 dashes of celery salt
2-4 turns of pepper from a grinder
Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce to taste
Lots of ice and stirred well
Garnish with whatever you like.

Add a shot of lime to your Bloody Mary with a syringe
Add a shot of lime or pickled juice

If you are looking for the bloody Queen Mary Tudor, go here.

Bloody Mary

Mary Tudor, was the Queen of England from 1553 until her death in 1558. By linage, Mary was the rightful heir to the throne after the death of her half brother, King Edward and her father, King Henry VIII. She was called Bloody Mary because she tried to restore England to Catholicism and had over 300 Protestants executed for heresy.

Bloody Mary I Queen of England

Mary had many enemies, especially those who had acquired wealth and land from the confiscated Catholic monasteries seized by her father, King Henry VIII. Parliament also opposed her marriage to a foreigner, King Phillip II of Spain. In 1557 Phillip persuaded Mary to commit England to helping him fight against France, which cost England Calais, England’s last possession in France. And the people of England resented paying higher taxes to pay for a war that only helped Spain.

When Mary died in 1558, she was succeeded by her half-sister, Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. So the Counter-Reformation in England came to an end. The Pope excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570 and Catholics rebelled against her. Elizabeth executed as many Catholics as Mary burned Protestants. So why was only Mary cursed with the label “Bloody Mary” when both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I had been just as “bloody”?

In 1563, an English Protestant historian John Foxe published “Foxes Book of Martyrs”. It was widely published, with the invention of the printing press. It was available in every cathedral throughout England. Catholics consider Foxe a significant source of English anti-Catholicism and Protestant propaganda. It was Foxe who dubbed her the “bloody queen”.

For those looking for the Bloody Mary cocktail, go here.