Clamato

Clamato is a trademark of the Mott's company which denotes a beverage 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 color. It is also referred to (inaccurately) as clamato juice. Clamato was invented in 1969 in California.

Clamato is a popular mixer for mass-market American and Canadian beer. It is also the base for the alcoholic Caesar, a vodka cocktail invented in Alberta and commonly regarded as the national cocktail of Canada. While the orginal 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 pre-mixed Caesars in 12-ounce bottles.

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 "genuine" 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.

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

Clamato may be among the most controversial of American beverages. Only kraut juice is more polarizing. Those who support Clamato appreciate its complex, savory and unexpectedly sweet flavor, especially as a cocktail mixer. Those who revile it may have a horror of clams and other shellfish (a common condition in mid-America), 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 undisputed category of 'Seafood Blends', but 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 as a drink that "nobody likes", Clamato in fact commands an underground following akin to White Castle's, or that which accrues 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 advertising is now devoted. Mott's discovered that Dominicans enjoy it as a mixer with beer. Clamato inherits from its clam broth component a folk reputation as an aphrodisiac.

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Categories: Beverages | Juice