Tomato juice is as healthy as it is versatile, offering many different uses. A bloody mary is perhaps the most famous use of tomato juice as a beverage. While this kind of brunch cocktail features spicy seasonings and a buffet of garnishes, tomato juice is the foundational ingredient. We tasted and ranked store-bought tomato juice brands to see which one was the best for a perfect at-home bloody mary. According to our ranking, Jaffa is the tomato juice brand that beats all other competitors.
We based our ranking on the taste, salt content, and consistency of each tomato juice. Since we were judging juices and not purees or sauces, we were looking for a thinner, juicier consistency that we could sip smoothly. And Jaffa tomato juice tasted like biting into a juicy, fresh-off-the-vine tomato in the middle of summer. It was flavorful and refreshing with a balanced consistency that wasn’t too watery or pulpy.
The juice, consisting of only tomatoes and salt, comes in a cardboard carton that doesn’t obscure its taste like plastic containers tend to do. The salt content was perfectly measured. It may have been the only other ingredient, but the juice wasn’t in the least bit salty. Like adding salt to dessert recipes, it acted as an enhancement agent to bring out the sweet, tangy, umami essence of the tomato juice. Jaffa demonstrates how a simple yet perfect formula can reap a tomato’s full flavor potential.
More reviews for Jaffa tomato juice
Jaffa tomato juice is a Ukrainian brand, so it might not be as widely available as competitors like V8 or Clamato. But you can find bottles at specialty stores and European website retailers. We found a loyal following from Ukrainian customers who left rave reviews for Jaffa juice, describing it as having “moderate thickness and good acidity.” One customer said that “the taste is like two types of tomatoes, sweet and sour,” while another said that the balanced flavor and rich consistency make it easy to drink.
We preferred it not just for its perfectly executed balance of flavors, but for its purity. Where competitors often added other seasonings or even extra veggies, Jaffa was all tomato. For a tried and true bloody mary recipe, a pure tomato juice is ideal. It is the flavorful blank canvas that a dash of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce will complement and not clash with. It’ll also provide an unfettered umami richness to pair with this briny, oceanic seafood bloody mary. Swap vodka for tequila for a bloody maria, or change the spirit-based cocktail to a beer-based Michelada. Even if you’re not a cocktail drinker, you can use a tomato juice-based bloody mary mix as the blueprint to your next pasta sauce, like we do in this bloody mary pasta salad.
