What comes next: the Bloody Mary

No - this post is not the another "the perfect XYZ". Lets say, it is a preamble post about it.
I have to say, that tomato juice [the canned one] is kinda guilty pleasure of mine. However I somewhat dislike Bloody Mary's.

It is strange - but there is so much wrong with it:

1. The texture - yeah - I am a declared hater of purees and thick cocktails. And a Bloody Mary with canned juice is exactly that.
2. The texture - no - this is not a typo. It is not only the thick texture - it is also the watery [and grainy] texture, when the drink dilutes.
3. The drink culture. The Bloody Mary is a hangover remedy. It. Is. Consumed. Over. The. Day. Not in the evening [when it is usually ordered].
4. The spirit. Funny is, when you start to experiment, it is surprising, how well the mixture goes with any spirit - but vodka! Even rum has an almost addictive character to it. Gin is awesome [call it Red Snapper], Tequila is also great [Bloody Maria].
   Vodka just taste... almost bitter. I think only spirits, which emphasize on oak aging would taste worse [but then I haven't tried that]!
5. to 10. There are definitely a lot of other points, which just happened to fail to appear in my mind...

Please take this point with a grain of salt.

If you happen to work in the bar as long as me, you definitely had some thought about every single popular drink. And the BM is one of them.
These points I came up with - or which I will come up with:

• Using fresh tomato juice: It is risky - as most people are so accustomed with the "spiked tomato soup" called a Bloody Mary. But fresh tomato juice, makes a BM indefinitely better. If you like to go traditional, try to use a directly squeezed tomato juice - or a can of San Marzano tomatoes - and try to sieve as much as possible the pulp!
• Don't get allured by the original recipe which called for cayenne pepper!
  Original means always better? Right? No - wrong. If you use cayenne pepper instead of hot sauce [usually Tabasco], you end up with an almost powdery spiciness; it is cough-inducing.
• Loads of [good] Worcestershire sauce. Self explanatory! Lea & Perrin's is the original and I quite dig it. No plans to make it myself...
  Anyway - the BM is one drink, which works, as it has a lot of umami and WS sauce, just delivers a lot of natural MSG. It just works! 
• Sweetness is king. Yes, you heard right. Tomatoes are fruits- sweet fruits are better fruits.
  Some people are adding sherry or port into their BM and it works. I just think, that it is a waste of money, because all what you use is the sugar in these wines. Add a pinch of fine bar sugar. Or add some orange juice [yes, you heard right]. This will make your Bloody right.
• Make it interesting with spices: horseradish is a common addition - and it is nice - however use no cream of horseradish but just the puree. Fresh horseradish just doesn't work very well - but you can stew your fresh one - to have a purer product.
• The rim: yeah the rim is important. It is one of the hallmarks of a good BM. Salt alone doesn't cut it - at least add some [freshly ground] black pepper. Here you can also use cayenne. And/or celery salt. And/or smoked salt. And/or lemon zest.
• Black pepper: I assume, that you won't use readily ground black pepper. If you do, please directly leave my blog, and start to learn the 1-0-1 for Ladies & Gentlemen: Chapter one: never use powdered pepper. You know, that there are several percentages of foreign objects [not pepper] allowed in the processing of ground pepper!? Guess what this could be!
• Salt: for the sake of the cost of your establishment: if you use salt in a liquid, don't bother to use stupid expensive salt. Normal table salt is doing a fine job [in a liquid or within the preparation of a food dish every salt taste pretty much the same - only in the finishing steps, it makes a difference - Indian black salt is the exception].
• Garnish: a nice, crisp celery stalk is basic. Don't serve a BM without [if you don't have celery - just 86 it]. However this is just the beginning. I don't want to make a BM myself a vegetable salad! But you can use sparely some pickled veggies or other stuff. One idea, which I had recently - instead of adding a salad nicoise on your BM - why not just pickling celery stalks and use it instead of fresh ones?
• The preparation: a lot of places are now rolling the BM [pouring the bloody mary from one tin to the other]. And I agree.
• The tomato - again: talking of pickling - when I was working in Yekaterinburg as pre-opening task force for a hotel, I was pretty frustrated with the overall cuisine in Russia. But there was one thing, which stood out: pickles. East-Europeans really know, how to pickle - it is delicious. While you have also a pickling culture in Germany, there was one thing, which I never encountered before: pickled tomatoes. Delicious!
  This information just kept dormant in my unconsciousness until recently, when I the idea sparked, that pickled tomatoes would be just the way to go, to make the Killer Bloody Mary.
  I haven't tried it yet [still thinking, if a traditional fermented pickling would be better, or a modern vinegar pickle] - but definitely stay tuned to find out more...