The Fizzy Mary with Carbonated Garnish

The Fizzy Mary combines the enriching vegetables and hair-of-the-dog booziness of the typical Bloody Mary with stomach-soothing fizz created by Nitrous Oxide. The drink has a wonderful tingle on the lips and better yet, the nitrous bubbles will go right to your head.

After a few experiments I found I liked the Fizzy Mary best charged with whipped cream canisters (nitrous charges), while the garnish I preferred carbonated (soda chargers).

I ended up using the Perlini cocktail carbonating system for the liquid and the iSi whipped cream canister for the garnishes, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use one tool for both.


Fizzy Mary

You will need:
Perlini cocktail carbonating system or iSi whipped cream canister
Cream (nitrous) chargers

Ingredients:
2 parts Your Favorite or Homemade Bloody Mary Mix (I use Low-Sodium V8 juice)
1 part Vodka
5 dashes Tabasco Pepper Sauce

To the Perlini shaker add ingredients and ice. Charge with a whipped cream canister (NO2), then shake drink. Allow to settle for at least 30 seconds before opening cap. Strain into a wine or Collins glass. Note that the nitrous increases the perception of sweetness, so extra Tabasco or lemon juice will help tame it. Add carbonated garnish.

Note: If making a Fizzy Mary in an iSi whipped cream dispenser, mix ingredients well before adding to siphon, then do shake only lightly, avoiding splashing the top part of the siphon to prevent gunking it up. Release pressure slowly, then open the canister and pour and strain the contents into your glass.

 

Carbonated Bloody Mary Garnish

You will need:
iSi whipped cream canister or Perlini carbonating cocktail system
Soda (carbon dioxide) chargers

Ingredients:
Various garnishes
Vodka
Tabasco pepper sauce

Note, you’ll leave these garnishes to carbonate overnight, so remember to begin a day before you need them.

Possible garnishes include cherry tomatoes, lemon wedges, olives, cocktail onions, cucumbers, pickles, tofu cubes, pickled vegetables etc. The more porous the better. Non-porous vegetables like pepperonchini, celery, carrots, green peppers, etc., will not carbonate well.

I added vodka and Tabasco sauce to my charger to infuse the veggies while carbonating. When you eat the carbonated garnish, it tingles in the mouth and the Tabasco enhances the sensation.

Add garnishes to an iSi whipped cream dispenser. Fill with vodka and many dashes of Tabasco up to the level of the fruit. Charge the canister with a Carbon Dioxide charger. Gently shake the canister and place in refrigerator.

Leave to carbonate in the refrigerator overnight. Open canister directly before serving. Carbonation doesn’t last more than a half hour or so, longest in the tomatoes and only 15 minutes or so in less porous veggies.

On the Modernist Cuisine website, they do a shorter-time version (two hours) by using extra CO2 canisters, but I didn't find this so useful for tofu or tomatoes. 

Note: another way to carbonate garnishes (and probably the Bloody Mary as well) is to use dry ice and a Nalgene bottle. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks fun.

Here are some other pictures. I didn't mean for them to be artsy; I'm just terrible with white balance. 

 

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This recipe was developed with support from Tabasco.