For Your Next Mixer:
Big
Daddy’s
Cocktail
Mixers
Written & Photographed By Craig Lore
O
n the morning after a big
night out, Pam Barstad
needed help with her hang-
over. She didn’t turn to Melissa, her
host and best friend of twenty-seven
years, but to Melissa’s husband, James, a
professional bartender. He made her his
signature Bloody Mary hair-of-the-dog
hangover cure.
“When all this settles, we’re going
to bottle this,” a grateful Pam said. Big
Daddy’s Cocktail Mixers and a partner-
ship were formed that day. But this is
the short story.
The sports bar James and Melissa
opened in Galt, California, was called
Big Daddy’s because when their boys
were aged two and four, they shouted,
“That’s my Big Daddy” whenever out
walking with James. The bar closed in
the downturn of 2008, but they carried
the name forward with the cocktail
mixers.
James formulated his original Bloody
Mary Mix in 1986 while tending bar
at the Malibu’s Baja Cantina, the high-
volume bar that inspired the movie
Cocktail, starring Tom Cruise.
“I made it in five-gallon buckets
because it’s all about speed, turning out
48
the drinks,” he said. “And I didn’t share
the recipe with anyone—job security.”
To take the recipe from five-gallon
buckets to volume production, they
hired a food chemist, “but she only
got us so far,” Pam said. “Eventually,
we developed the recipe in our
own kitchen.”
“We had scales, and measuring
cups, and burners, like the set of
Breaking Bad,” James laughed. “It’s
made with tomato puree, horse
radish, Worcestershire . . .”
“Wait, Wait!” Pam interrupted.
“Don’t give away the whole recipe,
James. Zip it! Zip it!”
At this, they both laughed. “There’s
a whole array of seasonings,” James
continued with less animation.
“There’s nothing on the market that’s
even close.”
“We use Blossom Valley Foods in
Gilroy as our co-packer and Young’s
market is our distributor. “The minute
we gave Blossom Valley the recipe they
knocked it right out of the park,” James
said. “It was closer to anything we had
ever tasted,” Pam added.
The Bloody Mary mix came out
in 2007, the Margarita Mix in 2016,
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
FALL/HOLIDAY 2019
and in May this year, a sugar-free
Margarita Mix, sweetened with Stevia,
that’s diabetic and keto friendly. The
mixers are available at Rocca’s Market
in San Martin, Nob Hill, BevMo, and
Total Wine and More in San Jose.
Restaurants that use their products
include Josephine’s Bakery Café and
Westside Grill in Gilroy; Willard Hicks
in Morgan Hill; The Grove and other
Léal properties, The Running Rooster
in Hollister, and Original Joe’s in
San Jose.
As a sweet and sour formula, the
Margarita Mix also makes a Lemon
Drop, Vodka Collins, and Scorpion;
and the Bloody Mary Mix, a Bloody
Maria with tequila or a Bloody Molly
with Irish Whiskey. Recipes for other
libations and tasty treats are on the
company’s website.
“The whole idea behind these
mixers is that you buy one product
and one bottle of alcohol and put them
together for a premium cocktail like
a professional bartender made it for
you,” Pam said.
Then James added, “I never
expected that something I created
would get shared with the world.”
gmhtoday.com