December 3, 2005

Dave's Gourmet Bloody Mary Mix Review

We've always prided ourselves on enjoying hot foods...in fact, we've been known put hot sauce on everything, from french fries to sandwiches to breakfast cereal. We have a high tolerance to spiciness, but there was one hot sauce we've tried that completely stopped us in our tracks. That sauce was Dave's Insanity Sauce, made with the essence of habanero peppers, and to put things in perspective for you, according to Dave's site it was the only hot sauce ever banned from the National Fiery Food Show.

After having nearly blown a gasket on the merest drop of his hot sauce, we were a little nervous when we came across Dave's bloody mary mixes. Available in two varieties, Dave's Original Bloody Mary and Insane Mary Mix, just looking at the bottles made us sweat like a virgin at a satanist convention. But we overcame our fear and dug in, mixing drinks with various types of vodka we had around the office.

The verdict? Dave's Gourmet makes some damned good Bloody Mary mix. Both varieties have an extremely fresh taste, like you just whipped up the tomato puree and horseradish yourself. The Original variety has just the slightest kick, while the Insane Mary has a much more significant spice to it, but at no point was there smoke blowing out of our ears. In fact, we have to say this is the best pre-prepared bloody Mary Mix we've ever had.

We recommend you get your hands on some for the next time you're mixing up a batch of Marys - bottles typically run for $7-$8. Plus, if you're not a huge vodka fan, we whipped up some stellar batches of Elusive Redheads with our bottles of Appleton V/X and Rumrunner's rum. Or, if you're the tequila type, combine tequila and Insane Mary Mix to make yourself a nice, spicy Bloody Maria.

Dave's Gourmet also offers a margarita mix which we weren't able to get our hands on in time for this review; learn more about all three of Dave's drink mixers, and buy some if you can't find them locally, at the Dave's Gourmet store.