Sting Ray Spicy Bloody Mary Mixer with Ocean Clam Juice

Bonnie: Tales of the Cocktail brought aficionados from around the world to New Orleans just last month to celebrate the mixed drink with seminars, tastings and more. Those festivities made me think about the Bloody Mary, a classic cocktail made with a twist using Sting Ray. This mildly spicy mix has been around for a bit, making today’s FeaturedBite an oldie but goodie.

Sting Ray Spicy Bloody Mary Mixer with Ocean Clam Juice is redolent of grated fresh horseradish. I like that. It’s made with both tomato and clam juices, giving it just a hint of the ocean.

If you’re buying it as a hostess gift, consider spending the extra buck and buying it “dressed,” as the company calls it, in a nautical fishnet cap (see image).

This classic Bloody Mary mixer has won gold and silver sofi awards at the Fancy Food shows (National Association for the Specialty Food Trade) for outstanding beverage in 1995, 1996 and 1998.

By the way — according to the folks at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan — the Bloody Mary began as the “Red Snapper” cocktail in the early 20th century when their bartender Fernand Petiot concocted it for one of his vodka-loving clients who asked him to recreate a tomato juice cocktail he’d had in Paris. At that time, the name “Bloody Mary” was deemed too vulgar for the hotel’s elegant King Cole Bar, hence it originally was named the “Red Snapper.”

Bryan: Dressed or undressed… how do you take your Bloody Mary in the morning? If you have a private patio or sunroom for an intimate morning brunch, this question might mean something entirely different to you, but to the folks at the Blue Crab Bay Company, it’s all about fishing nets. Fishing nets, you’re asking? What could fishing nets possibly have to do with Bloody Marys?

Well, not much, even in this case, but there are certainly some clams involved. Have I lost you? I was confused at first too, but after learning a bit more about the Blue Crab Bay Company (a boutique food company based on Virginia’s coastal peninsula, bounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean), things started to make more sense. Blue Crab is all about incorporating the local flavors of the bay into wonderful products. With offerings from seasonings, to seafood dip kits, imported crabmeat and even handmade soaps with seaweed harvested from the bay’s marshes, Blue Crab is a Chesapeake expert. These are gift-giving goods, and as such, Blue Crab offers many products “dressed” (_dressed_ actually just means that the bottle is adorned with a weathered-looking fishnet and a nautical tie, making it a great gift idea. You can get your bottle “undressed” for a dollar less if you’d like, but where’s the fun in that? That’s only fun in the sunroom).

Sting Ray Spicy Bloody Mary Mixer is the brainchild of the Blue Crab Bay Company. The unique combination of flavors they’ve created blends clam and tomato juices, spiced with Chesapeake Bay seasoning and freshly grated horseradish, to create a thick, rich, morning jolt of a Bloody Mary.

Though I’m not usually a drinker of tomato juices on their own, the Sting Ray mixer is good enough to stand alone, poured over ice to thin it out a bit, though. As a mixer, it clearly finds its mate with vodka (though white rum or tequila make for interesting drinks, as well). Blue Crab Bay also recommends it as a cooking sauce, with recipes for interesting dishes like Bloody Mary Chili with ground turkey, roasted peppers and cilantro piquing my interest.

Like the sound of everything but the clam juice? I hear ya. If you’re kosher, or if crustaceans just aren’t your thing, Blue Crab Bay also offers the Snug Harbor Spicy Bloody Mary Mixer, exactly the same as the Sting Ray, sans clam juice.

Eric: Bloody Mary drinkers are a rare breed — but they are still incredibly particular when it comes to their beverages. A Bloody Mary is not just tomato juice and vodka; it’s a combination of heat, spices and zest. The St. Regis in NYC might have created the cocktail, but there have been plenty of others to perfect its measurements. So what makes one better, or different, from the other? “It’s all about the flavor combinations you can’t identify, the mystery,” was one way the beverage manager at a hotel property I worked for would explain the Bloody Mary.

Little can be said for the mystery surrounding Sting Ray Bloody Mary Mixer: the clam juice. Although it might be sound strange at first, clam juice adds a natural earthiness to the usually spice-forward cocktail, and Sting Ray does an incredible job of blending these flavors together. If you’re a Bloody Mary fan and are up for a variation, look no further than our variation of the “Bloody Caesar.” The cocktail contains vodka, Sting Ray Spicy Bloody Mary Mixer With Ocean Clam Juice, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce.