A frosted stemmed glass of tomato-red cocktail stands on pale marble beside an unlabeled dark sauce bottle and one lime half on a wooden board against a cream wall. — The Mary Rose in a small stemmed cocktail glass, with a halved lime and a bottle of Worcestershire sauce.

Mary Rose, the 1939 Havana Vodka and Tomato Cocktail

Name: Mary Rose
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Caribbean
Ingredients: 1 1/2 fl oz vodka; 1 1/2 fl oz chilled tomato juice; 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce; 1/2 lime, juiced; ice cubes

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Vodka and tomato juice in equal parts with Worcestershire sauce and lime, shaken: the Mary Rose of Havana’s Bar La Florida, printed in 1939 under another name than Bloody Mary.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 25, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 drink
Prep: 5 min
Total: 5 min

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The Mary Rose in a small stemmed cocktail glass, with a halved lime and a bottle of Worcestershire sauce.

The story behind the recipe

In 1939, the year New York’s columnists named the Bloody Mary, a Havana bar printed vodka and tomato juice under a different name. Floridita Cock-tails, the booklet of Bar La Florida, lists a Mary Rose: equal measures of tomato juice and vodka with a teaspoon of Lea & Perrins and the juice of half a lime, shaken. It is a seasoned drink, two years older than the earliest seasoned vodka and tomato recipe we found in a New York book, Crosby Gaige’s Red Snapper of 1941.

A bartender’s name on the page

The booklet sets each recipe in two columns, Spanish and English, and the Mary Rose sits on page 44 between a Mary Pickford and a McAvoy of ice cream and brandy. Under its name is a bartender’s, Domingo Bures. The two columns disagree on the fruit. The Spanish asks for the juice of half a limón verde, a lime; the English says lemon. We follow the Spanish, the bar’s own language.

How often anyone ordered it, the booklet doesn’t say. The fuller story of the drink’s other names is in The Bloody Mary’s Other Names.

Making it today

The booklet says only to shake it well in a hand shaker and serve it in a suitable glass; it gives no ice and no straining. We shake it with ice and strain it into a small chilled glass. It is sharper and leaner than a modern Bloody Mary, with no celery, pepper or horseradish. For the plain half-and-half drink of the New York columns, make The Bloody Mary as First Described (1939) beside it. Without the vodka, Aunt Sammy’s Tomato Cocktail, the USDA’s 1931 first course, gives a sharp, seasoned tomato glass with catsup and horseradish.

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Ingredients

For 1 drink. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 drink.

Vodka1 1/2 fl oz
Chilled tomato juice1 1/2 fl oz
Worcestershire sauce1 tsp
Lime, juiced1/2
Ice cubes

Ingredients as written here

1 1/2 fl oz vodka
1 1/2 fl oz chilled tomato juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 lime, juiced
ice cubes

Equipment

Cocktail shaker
Strainer
Small cocktail glass

Instructions

Chill a small cocktail glass in the freezer or with ice water.
Half fill the cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
Add the vodka, the chilled tomato juice, the Worcestershire sauce and the juice of the lime.
Shake hard for about 10 seconds, until the shaker is cold.
Strain into the chilled glass and serve at once, without garnish.

Nutrition

110calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 drink

Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof vodka, canned tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce and lime juice.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Scale by whole drinks; shake no more than two at a time.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

Changes from the source: the booklet gives 1 1/2 ounces each of tomato juice and vodka, a teaspoon of “Lea’s Perrins” and the juice of half a lime (half a lemon in the English column). The ice, the straining and the chilled small glass are ours. Any Worcestershire sauce will do.

Strength: 1 1/2 fl oz of 40% vodka is 0.6 fl oz of alcohol in about 4 1/2 fl oz of drink once shaken, so about 14%, or one US standard drink.

In Washington the USDA made tomato into a cocktail without any vodka: Aunt Sammy’s Tomato Cocktail of 1931 sharpens it with onion and horseradish.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.