11 Must-Try Garnishes For The Best Bloody Mary Cocktail

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One expects to strategize what sort of accompaniments to pair with a main dish, but figuring out what tiny bites might dress up a cocktail is a little less common. Sure, there are olives or lemon twists for martinis, but no drink is quite as vast a canvas for garnishes as the classic bloody mary. Some garnishes can seem like full on snacks.

A celery stick is the bloody mary's compulsory adornment. See someone holding a Collins glass of viscous red liquid with a celery stick antenna — ideally one with a lovely plume of fluttering leaves — and you know exactly what they're imbibing without having to ask. I'm not even sure a bloody mary absent the vegetable should be considered a bloody mary at all.

So, in most cases, consider the following 11 garnishes as additions to whatever you already know and love, rather than all-out replacements. However, you can further edit from here, mixing and matching to create a signature drink that should dazzle at your next brunch fête — or just serve as an extra-special sip.

Bacon is hardly unheard of as a bloody mary garnish (it's a pretty typical breakfast and brunch food to begin with), so it's just a little zag to ease into the less expected. Just don't use a strip as a swizzle stick; cocktail skewers, such as those in the A Bar Above Cocktail Picks Set, help hold the bacon in place and help it keep its shape.

This also takes an item you've likely already enjoyed with bloody marys and makes it just a little bit more exciting. The blue cheese-stuffed olives you might also see with a martini are a winning choice; goat cheese can bring a little bit of sweetness; a firmer feta leans into the brininess; and you can mix all manner of additional flavors into cream cheese before stuffing.

If you already like stuffed and bacon-wrapped dates, also known as devils on horseback, you should love them in your next bloody mary. Their marvelous mix of sweet and savory plays right into the drink's strengths. Should you fill them with cheese, they can be pretty substantial before you even get to your main course.

You know those ho-hum cheese cubes they pile into plastic trays at all of life's half-mandatory social functions? They're actually wonderful in bloody marys. A trio of dice-sized cheddar, Swiss, and Parm all skewered on a toothpick is terrific, but you can get as fancy or flavorful as you wish. A spicy pepper Jack is also nice, for example.

There used to be a wonderful little bar in New York City that had happy hour bloody marys garnished with lobster claws large enough to be considered an appetizer — for, like, $5. It was bananas. It costs me more than that to make these at home now, but lobster claws have an iron grip on the fancy bloody mary category. Any amount of lobster presented to guests, even in morsel form, is guaranteed to make them feel special.

These curved crustaceans are cheaper than lobster, still plenty festive, and particularly flavorful — especially if you can skewer and grill them before arranging in (or on) your glass. You can even loop one or two over the rim à la shrimp cocktail, but some kind of kebab treatment makes them more secure.

Tomato soup's BFF comes with extra benefits as a bloody mary enhancement. Make a grilled cheese or two more or less how you normally would (a particularly hearty bread is important here for structural integrity), slice it into cubes with a sharp knife to prevent smooshing, and pierce a square or three on a toothpick for what's bound to be everyone's new favorite garnish.

These are the sweet answer to your savory grilled cheese croutons. Begin with a substantial bread and barely dip it in your egg mix, avoiding a soak that would make it too soft and custardy to hold up on a stick. Cool, sprinkle with whatever powdered sugar, cinnamon, or finishing flavor you desire, cut, and arrange.

Some of my favorite brunch spots serve their bloody marys with botanical bouquets so substantial they make me reconsider the rest of my order. You can pierce a garden's worth of green beans, cherry tomatoes, radishes, and pepper varieties with some fancy toothpick handiwork, but bloody mary branches, such as the Raw Rutes Epic Cactus Cocktail Picks, make it easier.

You have probably picked up on a pattern by now: If you can hoist it on a stick, skewer, or toothpick, you can use it as a bloody mary garnish. The ideal mushrooms for stuffing also happen to be nice and petite, so they aren't too heavy when filled with, say, crab, garlic, and breadcrumbs.

This is one of the easiest bloody mary garnishes one can assemble and still have it look elegantly polished. Alternate mini mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil on a skewer, and stick it right in the bloody mary for a restaurant-quality drink without the bartending course.