K Bloody Mary Mix 2024: Made by Hand in Small Batches
DeliveryRank chats with Khia Nelson, the Founder of K Bloody Mary Mix, a multifaceted individual with a diverse background. Hailing from Philly and currently residing in Brooklyn, Khia wears many hats, including creator, female BIPOC business owner, bartender, restaurant manager, former model, vegan home chef, and animal rescue advocate. The inception of K Bloody Mary Mix took root after Khia crafted a custom blend for a social gathering, receiving rave reviews from friends and guests. The Savory, Stimulating, Spicy, organic vegan, and gluten-free blend garnered such acclaim that, with overwhelming support, Khia decided to bottle and sell it. Almost a decade later, K Bloody Mary Mix has become the trusted choice for many establishments and stores, reflecting Khia's dedication to quality and taste.
Your journey as a multifaceted individual, from bartender to animal rescue advocate to former model, is fascinating. How did these diverse experiences influence the creation and development of K Bloody Mary Mix?
Let me start from the beginning! As a model I got to travel around the country a bit and go out to different restaurants/bars after shows and shoots and try different cocktails, including Bloody Marys. The incarnation of my mix is actually heavily influenced by a Bloody Mary I used to get at a restaurant in Philly that unfortunately, no longer exists. (I actually include one of the secret ingredients from their mix in mine.) Of course having worked in hospitality for over 20 years as a bartender, bar manager, floor manager, and GM I have not only tasted a lot of mixes but have made different variations of Bloody Marys based on the ingredients in-house.
When developing my recipe I took what I considered to be the best version of the mixes I had made in the past and added a little of this and a little of that and then sourced the best ingredients I could find. I have a love for animals that is indescribable. If I could I would be like Noah and the ark and have two of everything! I’ve had dogs, mice, a bird, fish, a ferret, a tarantula, and lots of cats in my lifetime so it was important to me to have organic, vegan, and gluten free ingredients. The number one question people ask me is “aren’t all Bloody Marys vegan?” This isn’t the case. Most Bloody Marys have worcestershire sauce made with anchovies and/or beef broth – a fact that many vegetarians/vegans who have been buying other bottled mixes or going to bars and ordering bloody mary don’t realize. Of course you don’t have to be a vegetarian/vegan to enjoy the mix. I know most of my customers are meat and fish eaters but I wanted to provide a delicious offering for people like me. I also care very much about the environment so it was also important to me that the packaging be as environmentally friendly as possible which is one of the reasons I choose to put quality ingredients in glass and not plastic.
K Bloody Mary Mix has been recognized with prestigious awards like the Good Food Award and the Fifty Best Gold Medal. How do these accolades reflect the values and uniqueness of your product in the market?
The Good Food Awards celebrate American food and drink crafters who demonstrate a commitment to creating tasty, authentic and responsible products and in doing so, bettering our nation’s food system. So when I won a 2020 Good Food Award – which was my first – I was truly honored to be among so many other wonderfully talented food and beverage makers from across the country.
The Fifty Best was exciting because they judge specifically by category so my mix was only up against other Bloody Marys, not other types of beverages and/or mixers. Companies submitted from all over the country and the judges did blind taste tests and picked which ones they felt should be awarded medals.
To have a panel of experts decide K Bloody Mary Mix was worthy of not just a medal, but a Gold Medal was exciting! I know when people see that I’ve won the awards, they are more likely to try and buy the mix.
The versatility of K Bloody Mary Mix to pair with various liquors beyond vodka is intriguing. Could you share some insights into how you’ve crafted the mix to complement different spirits and cocktails?
Having versatility was a big factor for me because I like to drink the mix with other spirits, as do a lot of my friends. One of the challenges I saw in the Bloody Mary mix market was that with a lot of the bottled mixes, you needed to adjust and add ingredients to the mix in order for it to blend well with darker spirits - Mezcal, bourbon, whiskey etc. in particular. I found that I would typically have to add more spice or salt or worcestershire or sometimes even more citrus to help bring out and compliment the spirit. I wanted K Bloody Mary Mix to be perfect straight out of the bottle and ready to mix with a wide variety of spirits so I made sure that it was full-bodied and seasoned with enough savory ingredients to ensure it held up when mixed. K Bloody Mary Mix’s slogan is Spicy, Savory & Stimulating and that is the perfect description of the mix!
On another note, K Bloody Mary Mix is great to cook with! It has enough citrus that it can work as a marinade and it’s flavorful enough to use it as a sauce or ingredients in any of your favorite tomato based dishes.It actually thickens as it's heated. I also know people who just like to dip fries, sandwiches, and shrimp in it.
Being an advocate for vegan and organic ingredients is a core aspect of your mix. How do you source and select these locally-sourced, all-natural ingredients to maintain the mix’s quality and taste?
It actually took me a while to source some of the ingredients. I’ve been a member of the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn, NY for 12 years now and I was able to talk with the buyers there to help me with sourcing the best ingredients. Luckily there are many good organic tomato, lemon, and lime juice companies on the market. There is also a company, Frontier Co-op, that has a great range of organic spices in bulk, but some of the ingredients I use in my mix aren’t available anywhere as organic ingredients - only natural. This means the soil they are grown in is either minimally treated or the growers/producers can’t afford to get their Organic certification. That said, going back to the criteria necessary to be a member of the Good Food Foundation there is nothing in my mix other than natural, clean ingredients.
Collaboration with Spread-mmms for holiday gift bags seems like a great idea. How do these partnerships align with your brand’s ethos, and what can customers expect from these specially curated gift bags that include K Bloody Mary Mix?
The founder of Spread-mmms is Rebecca Montero and she has become a really good friend. Her products are amazing, are also small batch and she only uses the best ingredients. I really love working with other women-owned BIPOC small makers. We understand each other's struggles like being self funded and having to do everything on our own for the most part. The wonderful thing about her products, her olive tapenade in particular and my mix is that they complement each other. A lot of people put olives in their Bloody Marys and so having the tapenade included as part of the curated gift bags just makes sense. Other items included in our gift bag include a spreader spoon for the tapenade and two rimmers – celery salt and togarashi (which is a japanese spice blend) – to use to rim your glass. Using these is a great way to give your drink even more of a savory or spicy kick. Our all occasion curated gift bag is THE perfect all-in-one gift for the foodies in your life!
To order K Bloody Mary Mix visit https://www.kbloodymarymix.com/product/k-bloody-mary-mix/ or to order the all occasion, curated gift bag, visit https://www.kbloodymarymix.com/product/k-bloody-mary-mix-holiday-gift-bag/
