Bartender's Bible, The
1001 Mixed Drinks and Everything You Need to Know to Set Up Your Bar
BLOODY MARY
I have heard only two explanations for the name of this drink. One is that it was named after Mary 1 of England, a sixteenthcentury queen who was nicknamed Bloody Mary because of the number of people that she had put to death. It is quite certain that nobody drank vodka and tomato juice before Mary got her epithet, so 1 prefer this explanation to the one that gives credit to the character in the 1949 musical South Pacific who was designated bloody because her teeth were stained red from chewing betel nuts.
Of course, given the way English royalty used to have people killed, it is somewhat surprising that we don't have a whole lineage of drinks named Bloody Ethelred, Bloody Henry, Bloody Richard, and Bloody Harold. I imagine that the Brits only gave the title to Mary because such behavior was unbecoming to a female.
As to who first concocted the Bloody Mary, well, many different people have taken credit, but it is usually credited to a bartender at Harry's New York Bar in Paris duri ... read full excerpt from Bartender's Bible, The ebook
