Bloody Mary garnish ideas, from the classics to over the top
A Bloody Mary is the one cocktail where the garnish is allowed to be half the drink. Celery and a lime wedge are the floor, not the ceiling. Whether you're making two for a lazy Sunday or setting up a Bloody Mary bar for twenty, here's how to garnish one properly, from the classics to the ones that need their own plate.
Start with the classics
Every good Bloody Mary has three things going on: something crunchy, something briny, and something citrus. A celery stalk is the crunch, and it doubles as a stirrer. A lime or lemon wedge on the rim is the citrus. For the brine, thread a couple of green olives and a cocktail onion onto a pick and lay it across the glass. That alone looks like a bar made it. If you want the pick to match the drink, our olive cocktail picks have a little olive topper that tells guests exactly what's in the glass, and the lemon picks do the same for the citrus.
The pickle situation
A pickle spear is a garnish and a snack. Stand it in the glass like celery, or cut cornichons and pickled okra into short lengths and stack them on a pick with a pepperoncini on the end. Pickled green beans and asparagus work the same way and look great standing tall. A pickle cocktail pick holding a cornichon is the small detail people photograph, and it's the one we get the most compliments on at brunch.
Tomato on tomato
Cherry tomatoes are the easiest upgrade there is. Three on a pick, or alternate them with mozzarella balls and a basil leaf and you've made a caprese skewer that happens to be sitting in a cocktail. Our tomato cocktail picks were basically made for this, and one reviewer bought them specifically for a Bloody Mary raffle basket, which is a very good idea.
The over-the-top garnishes
This is where Bloody Marys get fun. The rule is that anything you'd eat at brunch can go on the drink as long as it fits on a skewer or balances on the rim. A few that always land:
Bacon, cooked crisp and stood upright in the glass, or wrapped around a skewer. A cocktail shrimp hooked over the rim, or two on a pick. A mini slider or a cube of grilled cheese on a long pick laid across the top. A hard-boiled egg half with a dusting of Old Bay. Cubes of cheddar and a slice of salami folded into a fan. Pickled jalapeños for heat. A mini hot dog if you're going for a diner brunch feel, which is exactly what our hot dog cocktail picks are for. And for a seafood brunch, shrimp on a lobster pick tells the whole table what kind of morning it is.
For the heavy garnishes, use a longer pick and lay it across the rim rather than standing it in the drink. The bamboo picks in our shop run around 4.7 to 6 inches, which is enough to bridge a pint glass with room to hold on to.
Rim it
Wet the rim with a lime wedge and press it into a plate of celery salt, or a mix of celery salt, smoked paprika and black pepper. Old Bay is the move for a seafood-heavy drink. Tajín is great with a spicier mix. Do the rim first, then build the garnish, so you're not fighting a wet glass with a skewer in it.
Setting up a Bloody Mary bar
If you're hosting, a Bloody Mary bar does the work for you. Pour the base into a pitcher, set out the vodka, and put the garnishes in small bowls with a jar of picks standing up in the middle so people can build their own. Group them: brine (olives, pickles, onions, peppers), fresh (celery, cherry tomatoes, lime and lemon wedges), and the fun stuff (bacon, shrimp, cheese cubes, salami). Hot sauce and horseradish go at the end. A small bowl of our mini appetizer forks next to the cheese and shrimp makes it easy for guests to skewer a bite without using their fingers.
Plan on two to three picks per guest for a brunch that runs a couple of hours. A set of 50 covers a dozen people comfortably; a set of 100 handles a real party with spares. Bamboo picks are single-use and compostable, so the cleanup is just clearing glasses.
Three garnish combos to copy
The Sunday classic: celery, a lime wedge, two olives and a cocktail onion on an olive pick. The brunch board: cherry tomato, mozzarella and a basil leaf on a tomato pick, with a bacon strip standing in the glass. The seafood one: an Old Bay rim, a cocktail shrimp and a lemon wedge on a lobster pick, and a pickled green bean for crunch. Pick one, make a pitcher, and let the garnish do the talking.
Keep reading: antipasto skewers, 12 appetizer skewer ideas, and how many appetizers to make per person. Or browse every design in the cocktail picks collection.
