Clamato
 341 mL can of Mott's Clamato. The Canadian package artwork includes English and French languages. | |
| Type | Tomato juice/clam broth hybrid |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Mott's |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Introduced | 1969 |
| Variants | Beefamato, Nutramato, X-tra Spicy, The Works |
| Related products | Kraut juice, Caesar |
| Website | www |
Clamato (a portmanteau of "clam" and "tomato") is a trademark of the Mott's company which denotes a drink made primarily of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate and reconstituted dried clam broth, with a dash of high fructose corn syrup, and USDA Red 40 to maintain a 'natural' tomato colour. It is also referred to (inaccurately) as clamato juice. Clamato was produced in its current form beginning in 1969. The same year, a refined version was created by the Duffy-Mott company as part of a new category of sea-food based blends.[1] The brand is now owned by Cadbury-Schweppes when Mott's was bought out in 1982.
Cocktail base
Clamato is a popular mixer for mass-market American and Canadian beer. It is also used as a base for the alcoholic Bloody Caesar, a vodka cocktail invented in 1969 when bartender Walter Chell was challenged to create a new cocktail to celebrate the opening of Marco's, the new restaurant at the Westin Hotel in Calgary, Alberta. The Bloody Caesar is commonly regarded as the national cocktail of Canada. While the original Caesar, invented the year Duffy-Mott introduced Clamato, was made with tomato juice and mashed clams, Clamato is now the common base for the drink. The Caesar has become so popular that Mott's now markets multiple varieties of pre-mixed Caesars in 341 ml (12-ounce) bottles, in addition to non-alcoholic Caesar blends such as "extra spicy" and "all-dressed" (including Worcestershire, tabasco and horseradish) as a more convenient mixer. The Bloody Caesar is Canada's most popular cocktail, with over 250 million selling every year[2]. 82% of the Caesar-drinking households in Canada use Mott's Clamato as the base.[citation needed]
Generic tomato-clam beverages
The success of Clamato has led to the introduction of several imitation beverages, usually marketed as tomato-clam cocktail. The generic beverages are often considerably cheaper than Clamato and have cut into Mott's market share. Many people do not distinguish between Mott's product and those of its competitors and will refer to any tomato-clam beverage as clamato, thus threatening Mott's trademark with genericide. The subject is further confused by the fact that in the United States and Latin America the product is labelled simply "Clamato" but in Canada the product is always labelled "Mott's Clamato".
Mott's has taken steps to protect its trademark, running print, radio and television advertisements which attempt to distinguish Mott's Clamato from generic tomato-clam beverages.
Cultural significance
Many Anglo-Americans consider Clamato to be an acquired taste. Those who enjoy Clamato appreciate its complex, savoury and unexpectedly sweet flavour, especially as a cocktail mixer. Those who dislike it may have a fear of clams and other shellfish, a memory of the Bass-o-Matic mock-infomercial on Saturday Night Live, or may find in it a locus of cognitive dissonance: it is labeled as a beverage, in its virtually uncontested category of 'Seafood Blends', but it falls more easily into the category of 'soup.' Chicken or beef broth cocktails, no matter how much tomato juice were involved, would no doubt meet with similar suspicion.
Widely known in the United States as a drink that "nobody likes", Clamato in fact commands an underground following akin to pork rinds. According to the Mott's company, its greatest popularity is among Hispanics, toward whom, after a disastrous misstep in the 1990s, most of the product's American advertising is now devoted. For example, Clamato is one of the standard in-flight beverages on Mexicana airlines and a staple item in Mexican cantinas. Mott's discovered that Dominicans and Mexicans enjoy it as a mixer with beer, eg: the Chavela cocktail. Clamato inherits from its clam broth component a folk reputation as an aphrodisiac. Mott's also has extended the line recently, developing Clamato Campestre, with roasted garlic, cilantro and Worcestershire sauce; and, more recently, Clamato Energia, which competes in the popular energy drink category led by Red Bull.
Clamato's American reputation has not carried over into Latin America or Canada, where the beverage is extremely popular both as a mixer and as a stand-alone drink. In Canada, Mott's Clamato is sold in tetra-paks of three suitable for lunch boxes. Its primary market in Canada, however, is in the preparation of a cocktail known as a Bloody Caesar or simply a "Caesar", which resembles a Bloody Mary but includes Clamato or clam cocktail, and is garnished with a stalk of celery and a hotly-spiced rim.