Fancy a refreshing tomato-based cocktail? Here are 8 to try

Back in the day, tomatoes were listed on a bar menu for only one drink: Bloody Mary. The vodka-based tipple called for a hefty, boxed or canned tomato juice and was almost always laced with an overzealous dash of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce, and a tall sprig of celery jutting out of the highball glass. 

Recently, the rotund fruit (yes, it’s not a vegetable) is cropping up on menus across town and not all tomato cocktails are Bloody Mary. Nor are they all flaming red. “It’s such a fun and versatile ingredient that can be used in a savoury, sweet, or bright and refreshing way with myriad complimentary spirits and ingredients. It is no longer just for a Bloody Mary in drinks,” said Cat Bite Club’s Jesse Vida.

Celia Schoonraad of Barbary Coast agreed: “Tomato has a lot of different elements at play  ̶  there is sweetness, acidity, a strong nose and an easily identifiable flavour profile.”

Mixologists from Singapore have unleashed several flavour pairings worthy of a tomato pub crawl. At the upmarket Burnt Ends, Louis Tan deep-dived into scientific papers to find that strawberries and lychees share common flavonoids with tomatoes. Vida used the culinary science technique of ‘flavour bouncing’ (you start with your star ingredient in the centre, in this case, tomato, and then pick ingredients that pair well with the central ingredient and also any other ingredient on the list) to develop his refreshing tomato and grapefruit tipple, which has since become one of Cat Bite Club’s top sellers. Elsewhere, you will find miso, mushrooms, and even kimchi jiving with the tomato.

Besides, the quintessential Bloody Mary has undergone a renaissance as well. It’s lighter and infinitely more refined with diverse spirit bases ranging from the classic vodka to juniper-rich gin, tequila, soju, and everyone’s current favourite: Smoky mezcal.

Look out for Last Word’s visibly pale red tipple – a benchmark remake of the classic. This elegant version calls for a la minute juiced cherry tomatoes blended with wasabi and togarashi spice-infused vodka and balanced with a squeeze of citrus. Or at Jigger and Pony (No.2 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023 list and No.14 of World’s 50 Best Bar 2023 List), where a modern Bloody Mary riff is masquerading as a lighter and brighter drink called Ugly Tomatoes, spiced with caraway, fennel, and cumin.

Turns out, fresh tomato juice is the key to any great tomato cocktail, and if you can find flavour-packed Japanese or French tomatoes to squeeze, all the better. Add to that the rich umami edge the fruit brings to the glass, opening the door to many creative, sweet and savoury turns. So why restrict it to one colour or style of cocktail?

Here, we’ve picked eight tomato-driven cocktails for you.

“Tomato and mezcal are very good friends,” said Vida as I sipped the tomato and grapefruit melange together with artisanal Koch Elemental mezcal. He juices cherry tomatoes, infuses them in mezcal, and adds chartreuse, sherry, grapefruit, and lime juice. A dash of Campari binds the drink, and a slice of grapefruit bitters completes it. This tangy delight is zesty, earthy, and, true to its name, plays up the fruity creds of the star ingredient.

The Green Tomato Bloody Mary at Gibsons

Gibson’s creation is a labour of love with distillates of vodka, wasabi and horseradish and a coterie of other ingredients like Worcestershire sauce, peas, sake lees, caper salt and miso. Red tomatoes are all about sweetness, said Aki Eguchi of Jigger and Pony. He switched the recipe to green tomatoes that offer more acidity along with fruity and green notes and a beautiful green colour. The pickled micro-carrot on top offers a complete contrast to the luscious and herbaceous drink.

Tommy Tomate by Barbary Coast

“When Bloody Mary had a child with Margarita” is how head bartender Loges Haran introduces his tomato drink: Tommy Tomate. The textured tipple veers in the savoury direction and calls for a secret blend of organic tomatoes, slow juiced before being infused in mezcal. Separately, kaffir lime and agave are homogenised with an ultrasonic machine and blended with the mezcal distillate. The drink served with shaking ice to give it an extra dilution, smells like a tomato garden with just enough sugar to balance the savoury.

Expect all things gourmet at Burnt Ends, where head bartender Louis Tan flies in organic Piccolo cherry tomatoes from Avione, France, for his tomato-lychee concoction. Provenance is everything here, as is preserving the natural essence of these prized berries gently muddled before gin, lychee liqueur and basil syrup are added. Tan shared his tasting notes: “The lighter fruity aromas of the lychee hit your palette first, supported with the herbs and botanicals of the gin to give it body, slowly evolving into the deeper savoury notes of the tomatoes.” We concur and recommend chasing it with yet another tomato-based tipple featured on the menu, the Screaming Tomatoes.

Tomato Nose at Employees Only

The sweet and tart tomato aromas hit your nose before you taste them in this diaphanous drink. Senior bartender Darren Yeo created a tomato shrub – a blend of Roma tomato, vinegar, and spices- as a sour and savoury base for his rendition of Bloody Mary. He switched the spirit base to Codigo Tequila. A smidgen of peach liqueur balances the blend and brings out the sweetness. The finished product, said Liz Teo, general manager at the No.30 bar on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023 list, is permanently listed on menu as Singapore’s Employees Only signature cocktail.

Make Local Tomatoes Great Again at Fura

We know local tomatoes aren’t very flavourful, but the creative duo at Fura  ̶  Sasha Wijidessa and Christina  ̶  have found an alternate. They lacto-ferment local produce with salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG) to brighten the juice and coax out the umami undertones. Wijidessa pre-batches the juice with smoky mezcal, Empirical Ayuuk, coriander seed infused dry vermouth, green apples, basil, and parsley and carbonates it just before serving this tall and vegetal sunset-orange quencher.

Greenhouse Brew at Night Hawk

“There’s a new style of Bloody Mary where they like it thin and light, but I love the viscosity,” said Peter Chua of Night Hawk, winner of 2023's Bareksten Best Bar Design Award and Campari One to Watch as part of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023 list. His earthy-red rendition nods to a boozy gazpacho, with layers of complexity derived from the smoky Montelobos Mezcal and the house blend spice mix of wasabi, horse radish, miso dashi added to the classic Bloody Mary spices. The drink softens as it dilutes and is served with an anchovy cracket to play on the umami-rich notes.

Bloody Mary at Analogue Initiative

In true Vijay Mudaliar style, there’s a sustainable twist in this full-bodied, classically inspired riff at Analogue Initiative, ranked No 15 on Asia’s 50 Best Bar 2023 list. He plays around with the age-old recipe and introduces burnt red capsicum Cholula Mexican sauce to flavour this full-bodied vodka-based tipple. To introduce a shot of umami-oomph, Mudaliar adds a mushroom-soy marinade reduction used for another mushroom jerky for another drink (Smoky Jerky if you must know). The salty mushroom-jerky is served as a garnish or perhaps a teaser for your next drink order.