Why Your Bloody Mary Is Tastier On A Plane, According To Science

Unlike many cocktails, which appear lackluster when "flying the friendly skies," a tried-and-true Bloody Mary can actually taste better in a pressurized airplane cabin. It's not just your imagination, and it's more than myth; There's some actual science at play, and it's exclusive to tomato-based cocktails. Whether you're partial to the classic Bloody Mary or variations such as the Red Snapper and Bloody Caesar, the same principle applies when riding sky-high (literally).  

The first thing to understand is that a Bloody Mary itself doesn't magically improve at cruising altitude. The thing that changes is the person drinking it, whose sense of taste tends to dull in dry, pressurized, noisy airplane environments. Flavor is about more than just taste on the tongue; it also depends on aroma, both of which are compromised under typical cabin conditions. Reduced pressurization in particular can affect taste perception in a way similar to when a person has a cold. 

In controlled cabin-simulation tests, odor and taste thresholds generally rose under low pressure, meaning that people people needed stronger signals to experience certain flavors as they would on the ground, including salt, sugar, herbs, and more. That's bad news for many cocktails, such as gin-and-tonic that depends on botanical aromas, or a daiquiri or margarita where the requisite sweetness can feel muted. But the Bloody Mary is built from intense ingredients and flavors that survive and even thrive under such conditions.

The core component of a Bloody Mary is tomato juice, which brings a savory umami taste to the equation. Tomatoes are famously high in umami flavors, which scatter across the entire tongue and even heighten under noise and other airplane conditions, as explained in our Tasting Table article on why tomato juice tastes better on an airplane. The added celery salt, pepper sauce, Worcestershire, and other seasonings in a typical Bloody Mary also supply salt and spice for the bold flavors needed to keep your cocktails shining throughout the journey. 

Bloody Mary's are standard drinks offerings on airplanes, as is tomato juice on its own, making it easy to take advantage of the taste-heightening qualities of tomatoes. But some flyers choose to create their own cocktails, bringing ingredients from home or picking up them up as needed from airport shops beyond TSA checkpoints. If that sounds like your way to fly high in the sky, check out our list of the 10 absolute best cocktails to make while flying. 

The list includes Bloody Mary's, of course, but also others you can customize to enrich and pull out flavors typically mute during flight. It's also helpful to dig deeper into why your favorite liquor hits differently on a plane, which covers even more ways that in-flight alcohol affects your body.