Nancy “Nan” Hansen enjoyed gardening; she tended a crop of tomatoes in her yard. In 1970, her tomatoes yielded a bumper crop and she decided to create her own bloody Mary. It only took three days before she had the recipe you can find today on shelves in grocery and liquor stores across Minnesota and Wisconsin: Nan’s Naughty and Nice Bloody Mary Mix ($8.69–$13), now available in both original and spicy. It’s Nan’s daughter, Peggy, who 30 years later carried the recipe to market.
Out of her Hudson kitchen in September 2012, Peggy experimented to find that flavor Nan had created. Her season’s tomato crop had come and gone. That winter, she used reconstituted tomato paste, as many bloody Mary mixes do, but it didn’t taste the same. Not until summer 2013, with a fresh tomato, did the recipe taste ready for its Hudson Farmers Market debut.
The fresh tomato meant no high-fructose corn syrup and no gluten. She calls it “upscale—to go with that $35 bottle of vodka.” By September 2014, they had the product packaged and ready for shipment. Nan, who passed away last October, grew most of that bumper crop.
Find a list of all 30 distributors of Nan’s Bloody Mary Mix at the website here.
