Clamato facts for kids
341 mL can of Mott's Clamato. The Canadian package artwork includes English and French languages.
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| Type | Tomato juice/clam broth hybrid |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Mott's (Keurig Dr Pepper) |
| Distributor | Grupo Peñafiel(Mexico)
Canada Dry Motts(Canada) Empire Bespoke Foods Ltd(UK) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Introduced | 1966 |
| Variants |
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| Related products | Kraut juice, Caesar |
Clamato /kləˈmɑːtəʊ/, /kləˈmeɪtəʊ/, /kləˈmætoʊ/ is a commercial drink made of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate and sugar, which is flavored with spices, dried clam broth and MSG. It is made by Mott's. The name is a portmanteau of clam and tomato. It is also referred to colloquially as "clamato juice". It is consumed in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, to a lesser extent. It is very often mixed with alcohol to make a Caesar, a drink similar to a Bloody Mary.
Contents
History
In 1935, The Clamato Corporation of New York produced "clam and tomato juice in combination".
In 1938, House & Garden magazine printed a recipe for "Tomato-Clam Juice Cocktail", consisting of tomato juice, clam broth, and salt.
In 1940, "Lobster King" Harry Hackney was granted the Clamato trademark. His Atlantic City restaurant, Hackney's, sold Clamato juice in cans.
In 1957, McCormick & Company, Inc. applied for, and later acquired, the Clamato brand name for the seasoned blend of tomato juice and clam juice. This trademark is still valid and now owned by Keurig Dr Pepper.
Clamato was produced in its current form beginning in 1966 by the Duffy-Mott company in Hamlin, New York, created by Francis Luskey, a chemist, and another employee working out of California who wanted to create a Manhattan clam chowder style cocktail by combining tomato juice and clam broth with spices. The employees named the new cocktail "Mott's Clamato" and secured the trademark for the new brand. The brand was owned by Cadbury-Schweppes after the company bought Mott's in 1982. As of 2008, it is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper after the business was spun off of Cadbury-Schweppes.
In recent years, the Clamato label was updated and no longer shows the image of a clam, an attempt by the manufacturer to downplay the seafood aspect of the beverage.
Consumption
Clamato is used primarily as a drink mix for alcoholic beverages (an estimated 60% of sales in the US in 2008), and it is popular for this in both Canada and Mexico, but less so in the United States (outside of Canadian-American and Mexican-American communities).
With vodka
In Canada, Clamato is primarily used to make a cocktail called a Caesar. It was reported by The New York Times in 2018, that one third of North America's supply of Clamato is consumed by Canadians, the majority of which is used to make Caesars. Since 2001, Cadbury Schweppes (now Canada Dry Motts) has been selling an alcoholic version of the beverage called the Clamato Caesar in the Canadian market.
With beer
Clamato is also added to beer in various beer cocktails, such as the michelada; the most basic is known as a "beer 'n clam", "Clam Eye", or "Red Eye" in Western Canada, which adds Clamato to pale lagers. In 2001, Anheuser-Busch and Cadbury-Schweppes introduced a premixed version called the "Budweiser and Clamato Chelada" in the United States.
Adding more spices (similar to those in a Caesar) results in what is called sangre de cristo (blood of Christ) in Mexico.
Beefamato
Mott's once produced a similar beverage named Beefamato, made from beef broth and tomato juice.
See also
In Spanish: Clamato para niños
