Best bloody mary recipe?

Invictus

I'd like to give my partner a (refillable) bottle of bloody mary mix for Christmas, but while I'm pretty good on bourbon and the UK liquors, I know virtually nothing about this drink. I've looked around the internet a little bit and have some ideas, but there're a lot of recipes and I'm not sure how to pick between them.

In particular, she really likes the bloody mary at a local place that describes it as being made of: vodka, spicy bloody mary mix, hot sauce, Old Bay seasoning, garnished with Vienna Sport Peppers, olive, and lime. They also a use a sport pepper vodka, and she really likes that.

So I'm looking for bloody mary recipes, and advice between them. Preferably, I'd get one that is evocative of the one above, but really I'm looking for the best one possible. She is a vegetarian, so I'd sub in veggie/vegan worcestershire if the recipe calls for, which it seems most do.

Terrendos

Obligatory Good Eats link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/bloody-mary/50097.html

Sounds as though she likes it spicy, so I'd add a bit more hot sauce. The secret ingredient there is tomato vodka, which you get by cutting up some tomatoes and leaving them in a jar of vodka for ~1 week so that the water and alcohol-soluble compounds from the tomatoes leach out into the booze. It's sort of like a really weak tomato extract.

Esh

This is my friend Jeffrey's recipe. He's one of the world's best bartenders and it is delicious.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2007/a-pitcher-of-bloody-mary-mix/

Zoku Gojira

Not my go-to drink, but the best I've had so far was quite heavy on the vodka, with some sriracha added along with the V8. Unless somebody tells me in advance, I never expect a burn like that from a mixed drink, so it played out as quite a nice surprise.

zerzhul

Esh wrote: »

This is my friend Jeffrey's recipe. He's one of the world's best bartenders and it is delicious.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2007/a-pitcher-of-bloody-mary-mix/

Jeffrey also links out to Robert Hess' video for a "step by step" version as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0HshHYJmxM

mrt144

Esh wrote: »

This is my friend Jeffrey's recipe. He's one of the world's best bartenders and it is delicious.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2007/a-pitcher-of-bloody-mary-mix/

looks fucking awesome

Ataxrxes

Bloody Marys are great because you can make them so many different ways and they still taste good. I experimented for years trying to find the perfect recipe and what I basically refined it to was Vodka/Clamato and a little black pepper. HOWEVER, that is just a quick base. I understand that the Clamato might not be working in this situation but I'm not sure if there is a good vegetarian substitute for that. I find most mixes that are commercially available too thick/have too much going on. I think just a little horseradish and lemon and black pepper can go a long way. That being said, I highly recommend trying out infusing your own pepper vodka. I've done it a few times and it's super easy and tastes great, even just to sip on. There are plenty of recipes out there and everybody likes different stuff so I don't want to get too specific. Basically take a couple peppers that you like the flavor of, cut in half and seed and let sit in a fifth of vodka for a week or so. Not too much longer because I guess after two weeks it can start to turn bitter. I've made some delicious pepper vodkas out of stuff I grew in the back yard. Have fun with it!