Grillo’s x V8 Bloody Mary Mix, Our Honest Review

There’s a lot of Bloody Mary mix on the market. We’ve taste tested dozens of brands. All the same, a collab between the most iconic vegetable juice and one of the better purveyors of dill pickles is cause for excitement, especially when we’re in the throes of pickle product mania.

I love pickles (I’m not a monster), but I have to admit I was a little skeptical that a dill pickle Bloody Mary mix would taste good without being too damn salty. I mean, salty tomato juice plus pickle-y brine? I need a Liquid I.V. just thinking about it. So, is it balanced or bad? We tasted it to find out.

New Product!

V8 Grillo’s Pickles Dill Pickle Bloody Mary Mix

Amazon

This dill pickle Bloody Mary mix comes in 8oz cans that are proportioned for cocktail mixing purposes. Mix one can with one shot of vodka and, voila, Bloody Mary. Or you can simply pour a can into a tall glass of ice and, voila, Virgin Bloody Mary. No matter how you drink it, this stuff is good.

Pros: As soon as you crack open the can, you get a big ol’ whiff of pickles. It smells super dilly and super briny. Naturally, we thought this would be pretty salty because of that briny aroma, but nay! It’s so balanced. It’s sweet like V8, but it has a briny backbone that’s totally irresistible. The wildest part is that this mix doesn’t just taste like pickles, it tastes like Grillo’s pickles. It has that fresh dill flavor that makes them so unique. This Bloody Mary mix is so perfectly representative of both products. What a feat!

Cons: To me, this mix seemed a touch thicker than regular V8 juice, but I could see it being a little thin for some people once vodka is added. If you like a very thick, very mix-in-heavy Bloody mix like Zing-Zang, which is thick and loaded with coarsely ground pepper, horseradish, etc., this might not be for you, but we absolutely loved it.

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.