Clamato is a commercial drink made of reconstituted tomato juice
concentrate
A concentrate is a form of substance that has had the majority of its base component (in the case of a liquid: the solvent) removed. Typically, this will be the removal of water from a solution or suspension, such as the removal of water from fru ...
and sugar, which is flavored with spices, dried clam broth and MSG. Made by Mott's, the name is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsmixed with
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
In 1935 The Clamato Corporation of New York produced "clam and tomato juice in combination".
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. Its history extends further back, however, as a nearly identical drink was already present in a cookbook published a decade earlier. 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.
Lawsuits
In 1998, Cadbury-Schweppes sued former contract manufacturer of Clamato FBI Foods claiming that their brand “Caesar Cocktail” was proof of breach of confidence, claiming that the product used their recipe as a base. They brought the case to the
Supreme Court of British Columbia
Supreme may refer to:
Entertainment
* Supreme (character), a comic book superhero
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* Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer
* "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams
* The Supremes, Motown- ...
. The initial ruling was appealed. The case reached the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) 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 ...
and it was
ruled
''Ruled'' is the fifth full-length LP by The Giraffes. Drums, bass and principal guitar tracks recorded at The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY. Vocals and additional guitars recorded at Strangeweather in Brooklyn, NY. Mixed at Studio G in Brooklyn, NY ...
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 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 is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship.
The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadian ...
In Canada, Clamato is primarily used to make a cocktail called a
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 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, an ...
. 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 Motts 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 called Cadbury Beverages Canada Inc. Cadbury pl ...
) 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 one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cer ...
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 the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada ...
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 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, an ...
) results in what is called ''sangre de cristo'' (blood of
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...