How Did The Classic Cocktail Bloody Mary Get It's Name?

100 Years of Bloody Mary: The thick red cocktail with a soupy texture and a tangy flavour is not the most flattering in its league to look at. But one sip of it and you know it was concocted to hit your brain and taste buds at the right places. This spicy cocktail is celebrating its 100 years. The bar where this drink was first served is now gearing up for its centenary events. But how and why was this cocktail christened Bloody Mary?

The iconic cocktail's origin can be traced back to Harry's Bar in Paris. According to the bar, which serves at least 12,000 Bloody Marys a day, the classic drink was invented by bartender Fernand Petiot and the recipe was published in a book called Harry's ABC of cocktails in 1921.

Made with salt and pepper, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, tomato juice and vodka, the drink has become popular over years and is mostly included along with mojitos and cosmopolitan in the classic cocktail section of any bar menu.

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Although it has gotten many twists and additions by different bartenders across the globe as per the country it is served in and the quality of ingredients used to create it, the base remains the same- tomato juice.

The fancy bartending videos of mixilogy and stunts that we see on social media feed does not seem to apply for the drink. It is made directly in the glass and served with a celery stick as garnish and cubes of ice. So here's how this drink got its name:

How Bloody Mary Got Its Name?

There are two tales of how the classic cocktail got its name as bloody mary. According to a website called Best Bloody Mary, when Petiot mixed equal amount of tomato juice and vodka and served it at the Harry's New York Bar in Paris, he had no idea what he was creating and it was only with a customer's suggestion that he named it Bloody Mary.

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The patron said that it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago and a girl there whose name was Mary. In the year 1934, Petiot moved to the King Cole Bar in New York City, where people found the drink bland and he was asked to spice it up. Thus the addition to the reciepe.

The other plausible story for the name is that it was named after Mary Tudor or Mary I of England. She was the dauther of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. She was born in February, 1516 and was going to inherit the throne, when she was declared illegitimate. Mary is remembered by Protestants for the murders under her reign in the name of catholicisim and that is how she got the nickname 'Bloody Mary'.