Clamato , , is a commercial drink made of reconstituted
tomato juice
Tomato juice is a juice made from tomatoes, usually used as a beverage, either plain or in cocktails such as a Bloody Mary (cocktail), Bloody Mary, a Caesar (cocktail), Caesar, or Michelada.
Production
Many commercial manufacturers of tomato ju ...
concentrate
A concentrate is a form of Chemical substance, substance that has had the majority of its diluting agent or diluent (in the case of a liquid: the solvent) removed, such that the substance becomes the majority of the composition. Typically, this w ...
and sugar, which is flavored with spices, dried
clam broth and
MSG. It is made by
Mott's
Mott's ( ) is an American company involved primarily in producing apple-based products, particularly juices and apple sauce, sauces.
The company was founded in 1842 by Samuel R. Mott of Madison, New York, Bouckville, New York (state), New Yo ...
. The name is a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. of ''clam'' and ''tomato''. It is consumed in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, to a lesser extent. It is very often
mixed with
alcohol
Alcohol may refer to:
Common uses
* Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds
* Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life
** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages
** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...
to make a
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...
, a drink similar to a
Bloody Mary.
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
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. ( ), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1979–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and ...
.
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
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. ( ), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1979–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and ...
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.
Lawsuits
In 1998, Cadbury-Schweppes sued FBI Foods, a former contract manufacturer of Clamato, claiming that their brand "Caesar Cocktail" was proof of
breach of confidence
The tort of breach of confidence is, in United Kingdom law and the United States law, a common-law tort that protects private information conveyed in confidence. A claim for breach of confidence typically requires the information to be of a co ...
, claiming that the product used their recipe as a base. They brought the case to the
Supreme Court of British Columbia
The Supreme Court of British Columbia is the superior trial court for the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Court hears civil and criminal law cases as well as appeals from the Provincial Court of British Columbia. There are 90 judici ...
. The initial ruling was appealed. The case reached the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...
and it was
ruled that FBI Foods would pay Cadbury-Schweppes $300,000 for revenue they lost in the first year of competition. It was reasoned that any juice maker would have been able to reverse-engineer the recipe within a year.
Since 2018, Keurig Dr Pepper has sued several companies who have been infringing on the Clamato trademark using the "mato" suffix to describe their version of the product. This is done in order to prevent the
genericization
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or ...
of the trademark by making sure Clamato stays a
distinctive brand name, as well as to preserve the brand image and identity.
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
Canadian Americans () are Citizenship of the United States, American citizens or in some uses residents whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadians, Canadian, or citizens of either country who hold dual citizenship. Today, many Canadian American ...
and
Mexican-American
Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...
communities).
With vodka
In Canada, Clamato is primarily used to make a cocktail called a
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...
. 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
Canada Dry Mott's, Inc., operating as Keurig Dr Pepper Canada, is a beverage company based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the Canadian division of Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP).
It was a subsidiary of Cadbury-Schweppes and was previously cal ...
) 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
Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...
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
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...
, which adds Clamato to
pale lager
Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...
s. In 2001,
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC ( ) is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
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
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...
) results in what is called ''sangre de cristo'' (blood of
Christ
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...
) in Mexico.
Beefamato
Mott's once produced a similar beverage named Beefamato, made from
beef broth and
tomato juice
Tomato juice is a juice made from tomatoes, usually used as a beverage, either plain or in cocktails such as a Bloody Mary (cocktail), Bloody Mary, a Caesar (cocktail), Caesar, or Michelada.
Production
Many commercial manufacturers of tomato ju ...
.
References
External links
*
{{Dr Pepper Snapple brands
Drink brands
Keurig Dr Pepper brands
Juice brands
Mixed drinks
Products introduced in 1966
Canadian cuisine
Mexican cuisine
Clam dishes
Canadian seafood dishes