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Featuring Lynn Miller

Big thanks to the La Crosse Distillery whose corn-based vodka is just that, 100% Midwestern organic yellow dent corn. Besides the yeast and enzymes they use to break down the sugars in the corn, there’s nothing else used to make this spirit. It is double-distilled and filtered for an easy finish.

Last Episode/ Review: Eastern Shore with Mike Scott– Lovely Lax

This week Lynn Miller returns, full of p*ss and vinegar! We review a unique and delicious product: Stu’s Bloody Mary Concentrate. A liquid concentrate, Stu’s stands apart from most mixes. The original and the smoked jalapeño both offer the convenience of compact storage and the flexibility to mix to your own taste and heat tolerance.

The Company Story:

In culinary school, while other students were setting bananas foster a flambé, Stu (yup he’s a real dude) was in the basement with a magnifying glass and a flashlight, transforming fresh food into fermented oddities. He had developed a passion for preserving foods, and he played with wine, beer, and cheese, and anything else he could get his hands on.

But it was pickles that took his heart.

After graduating culinary school, Stu started working at Alinea, rated the 7th best restaurant in the World. It was there that he fully developed his pickling obsession, and his talent proved superior. It seemed he had a gift for transforming fresh, crunchy cucumbers into slightly sweet, fiery sour pickles. But one of his challenges with making pickles was what to do with all that extra brine.

Over one day, one of his friends was complaining about the blandness of his Bloody Mary, when inspiration hit. What if you take that amazing pickle brine and add it to a Bloody Mary?

Stu immediately got to work hand-crafting the perfect Bloody Mary. Using his homemade pickle brine as the foundation, Stu perfected his recipe and built the most complex and consistently satisfying Bloody Mary he had ever tasted.

What’s on the Outside?

The liquid concentrate comes in a 16oz brown plastic bottle that will make 16 drinks. Old time typerwriter fonts adorn a medicine bottle shaped container.

Onto the ingredients:

As you can see, this mix is pickle forward!

The Taste

We first tried the original. Mixed with tomato juice without vodka, The taste is briney with a light back spice. A good balance of flavors. Worcestershire also stands out. Adding vodka somehow brings about a sweetness without upsetting the balance of flavors.

The Smoked Jalapeño starts with that same pickle brine flavor, but also brings a smokey heat. Adding vodka really brings the mix to life, animating a spicy but balanced medley of flavors. I decided to kick it up and added more concentrate. Lynn, who is more spice averse, reached for the tomato juice. I love the smoked jalapeño and prefer it to the original. Lynn was the opposite.

Take a listen to the show. Lynn sets the barn on fire with today’s song. Holy Cow!

Visit Stu’s Bloody Mary Concentrate’s site to learn more or purchase!