With over 350 million consumed each year, is it that “special ingredient” that keeps the quintessential Canadian Caesar cocktail within the confines of Canada? This unique ingredient would be “Clamato juice” and, as the name suggests, it’s a mixture of tomato juice and clam broth – this is your Bloody Mary with a fishy twist.
“When I first heard about Clamato juice in Caesars I thought – that’s a bit gross. However, I tried one and they grew on me – now I love a good Caesar with lunch. I persuade people to give them a go and they either take to them, or totally shun them. It’s not fishy at all, in fact it’s hard to describe – you simply have to try one.” – Marty Stuckey, Barman at The Longhorn and Aussie native.
It does seem to be similar to the love/hate relationship people have with a certain yeast extract spread – Vegemite if you’re from Australia or Marmite in the UK. But Stuckey reports that with him mixing up about 100 on a busy day, there are definitely a lot of lovers in Whistler.
What’s Spaghetti Got to Do With It?
Inspired by a clam and tomato sauce based pasta he’d tried in Italy (Spaghetti Alle Vongole), Walter Chell of the Calgary Inn, put clam juice in a Bloody Mary for the launch of the Inn’s new Italian Restaurant back in 1969. The Italian theme continued when he dubbed it a “Caesar”. By 2009 the Caesar became so popular in Calgary they made May 13 “Caesar Day”.
How Is a Canadian Caesar Cocktail Made?
The glass is typically rimmed with celery salt, and filled with ice. Then dashes of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce are added to give it a spicy kick. A 1-2oz pour of Deep Cove vodka is added, and then it’s finished off with salt and pepper seasoning, and the garnish consists of a celery stick, olives and a wedge of lemon and lime.
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- Celery salt the rim of the glass using the juice from a lime wedge.
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- Add a dash of Tabasco – as spicy as you like it.
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- Don’t forget the Worcestershire sauce.
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- Add in the infamous Clamato juice.
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- 1-2oz of Deep Cove vodka goes into the Longhorn’s Caesar.
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- Garnish with celery, olives, lemon and lime.
Crazy Caesars
Just for the fun of it we scoured the internet for some of the oddest Caesars we could find…
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- What’s not on this Caesar?
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- Is that an egg?
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- We’re not too sure what’s floating in this one…
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- Is a Caesar the right place for a meatball? We think not.
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- This actually looks pretty appetizing – in a heart attack kind of way.
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- It’s getting a bit too fishy!
While we’re not too sure about the heart-attacks in a glass featured above, we definitely recommend you head on in to one of our bars and give a Canadian Caesar cocktail a go, clam juice and all. As Marty Stuckey says “you simply have to try one”.
