Caesar (cocktail)
Encyclopedia
A Caesar or Bloody Caesar is a cocktail
created and primarily consumed in Canada
. It typically contains vodka
, Clamato
(a proprietary blend of tomato juice and clam broth), hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce
, and is served with ice in a large, celery salt
-rimmed
glass, typically garnished with a stalk of celery and wedge of lime
.
It was invented in Calgary
, Alberta
in 1969 by restaurateur Walter Chell to celebrate the opening of a new Italian restaurant in the city. It quickly became a popular mixed drink, but remains virtually unknown outside Canada. It is claimed that over 350 million Caesars are consumed in Canada annually, and it has inspired numerous variants.
) in Calgary
, Alberta
, Canada
. He devised the cocktail after being tasked to create a signature drink for the Calgary Inn's new Italian restaurant. He mixed vodka
with clam and tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce
and other spices, creating a drink similar to a Bloody Mary
but with a uniquely spicy flavour.
Chell said his inspiration came from Italy. He recalled that in Venice
, they served Spaghetti alle vongole
, spaghetti with tomato sauce and clams. He reasoned that the mixture of clams and tomato sauce would make a good drink, and mashed clams to form a "nectar" that he mixed with other ingredients.
According to Chell's granddaughter, his Italian ancestry led him to call the drink a "Caesar". The longer name of "Bloody Caesar" is said to differentiate the drink from the Bloody Mary, but Chell said it was a regular patron at the bar who served as the inspiration. During the three months he spent working to perfect the drink, he had customers sample it and offer feedback. One regular customer, an Englishman, who often ordered the drink said one day "Walter, that's a damn good bloody Caesar".
celebrated the drink's anniversary by declaring May 13, 2009 as Caesar Day in the city.
The Mott's
company was independently developing Clamato
, a mixture of clam and tomato juices, at the same time the Caesar was invented. Sales of Clamato were initially slow: Mott's sold only 500 cases of Clamato in 1970, but sales consistently increased after the company's distributors discovered Chell's drink. By 1994, 70% of Mott's Clamato sales in Canada were made to mix Caesars, while half of all Clamato sales were made in Western Canada. Motts claims that the Caesar is the most popular mixed drink in Canada, estimating that over 350 million Caesars are consumed every year.
Outside of Canada, the Caesar is virtually unknown. In the United States, it is typically only available at bars along the Canadian border. Elsewhere, bartenders will frequently offer a Bloody Mary in its place. The drink can be found in parts of Europe, but it is mostly found where there are higher populations of Canadians. The drink's anonymity outside of Canada has come in spite of concerted marketing efforts. Producers of clam-tomato juices have speculated that their beverages been hampered by what they describe as the "clam barrier". They have found that consumers in the United States fear that there is too much clam in the beverages. However, a beer cocktail
consisting of Clamato
, lager beer, and various (usually "secret") herbs and spices, often called the Michelada
, has been growing in popularity in the United States, having been brought there from Latin-American immigrants.
The Caesar is popular as a hangover
"cure", though its effectiveness has been questioned. A study by the University of Toronto
released in 1985 showed that drinking a Caesar when taking asprin could help protect a person's stomach from the damage asprin causes.
Though it was not one of Chell's original ingredients, Tabasco sauce
is a frequent addition, as is horseradish
. Vodka is occasionally replaced with gin
, tequila
or rum
, though the Clamato may not be substituted. A variant that replaces vodka with beer
is commonly called a "Red Eye", and one without alcohol is a "Virgin Caesar". The Toronto Institute of Bartending operates a "Caesar School" in various locations across Canada that teaches bartenders how to mix several variants of the drink.
Mott's holds an annual "Best Caesar in Town" competition as part of the Prince Edward Island International Shellfish Festival. Contests held across Canada to celebrate the cocktail's 40th anniversary in 2009 encouraged variants that featured the glass rimmed with Tim Hortons
coffee grinds, Caesars with maple syrup
and Caesars with bacon-infused vodka.
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
created and primarily consumed in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It typically contains vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
, Clamato
Clamato
Clamato is a drink made of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate flavored with spices and clam broth. Made by Mott's, the name is a portmanteau of "clam" and "tomato"...
(a proprietary blend of tomato juice and clam broth), hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...
, and is served with ice in a large, celery salt
Celery salt
Celery salt is a flavored salt used as a food seasoning, made from ground seeds, which may come from celery or its relative lovage. These ground seeds are mixed with salt, either table salt or sea salt....
-rimmed
Glass rimmer
A glass rimmer is a bar accessory used to apply salt or sugar to the rim of a glass. It usually consists of one or more shallow plastic or metal discs that the glass is turned upside down into. The discs can be filled with either the rimming salt or sugar, or sometimes something to moisten the...
glass, typically garnished with a stalk of celery and wedge of lime
Lime (fruit)
Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...
.
It was invented in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
in 1969 by restaurateur Walter Chell to celebrate the opening of a new Italian restaurant in the city. It quickly became a popular mixed drink, but remains virtually unknown outside Canada. It is claimed that over 350 million Caesars are consumed in Canada annually, and it has inspired numerous variants.
Origin
The Caesar was invented in 1969 by restaurant manager Walter Chell of the Calgary Inn (today the Westin HotelWestin Hotels
Westin Hotels & Resorts are an upscale hotel chain owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. As of 2011, Westin operated over 160 hotels in 37 countries.-History:...
) in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He devised the cocktail after being tasked to create a signature drink for the Calgary Inn's new Italian restaurant. He mixed vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
with clam and tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...
and other spices, creating a drink similar to a Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary (cocktail)
A Bloody Mary is a popular cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and usually other spices or flavorings such as Worcestershire sauce, Peri-Peri Sauce, Tabasco sauce, beef consomme or bouillon, horseradish, celery, olive, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and celery salt...
but with a uniquely spicy flavour.
Chell said his inspiration came from Italy. He recalled that in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, they served Spaghetti alle vongole
Spaghetti alle vongole
Spaghetti alle vongole is a dish that's part of traditional Neapolitan cuisine. It is very popular throughout the surrounding Campania region and is also popular in Rome....
, spaghetti with tomato sauce and clams. He reasoned that the mixture of clams and tomato sauce would make a good drink, and mashed clams to form a "nectar" that he mixed with other ingredients.
According to Chell's granddaughter, his Italian ancestry led him to call the drink a "Caesar". The longer name of "Bloody Caesar" is said to differentiate the drink from the Bloody Mary, but Chell said it was a regular patron at the bar who served as the inspiration. During the three months he spent working to perfect the drink, he had customers sample it and offer feedback. One regular customer, an Englishman, who often ordered the drink said one day "Walter, that's a damn good bloody Caesar".
Popularity
Chell said the drink was an immediate hit with the restaurant's patrons, claiming it "took off like a rocket". Within five years of its introduction, the Caesar had become Calgary's most popular mixed drink. It spread throughout Western Canada, then to the east. Coinciding with its 40th anniversary, a petition was launched in 2009 in the hopes of having the Caesar named the nation's official mixed drink. In Calgary, Mayor Dave BronconnierDave Bronconnier
David 'Dave' Thomas Bronconnier is a Canadian politician, who served as the 35th Mayor of Calgary, Alberta.- Biography :...
celebrated the drink's anniversary by declaring May 13, 2009 as Caesar Day in the city.
The Mott's
Mott's
Mott's is a company involved in producing apple-based products, particularly juices and sauces. The company was founded in 1842 by Samuel R. Mott in Bouckville, New York, who made apple cider and vinegar. Mott products were exhibited at Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition in 1876 and Chicago's...
company was independently developing Clamato
Clamato
Clamato is a drink made of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate flavored with spices and clam broth. Made by Mott's, the name is a portmanteau of "clam" and "tomato"...
, a mixture of clam and tomato juices, at the same time the Caesar was invented. Sales of Clamato were initially slow: Mott's sold only 500 cases of Clamato in 1970, but sales consistently increased after the company's distributors discovered Chell's drink. By 1994, 70% of Mott's Clamato sales in Canada were made to mix Caesars, while half of all Clamato sales were made in Western Canada. Motts claims that the Caesar is the most popular mixed drink in Canada, estimating that over 350 million Caesars are consumed every year.
Outside of Canada, the Caesar is virtually unknown. In the United States, it is typically only available at bars along the Canadian border. Elsewhere, bartenders will frequently offer a Bloody Mary in its place. The drink can be found in parts of Europe, but it is mostly found where there are higher populations of Canadians. The drink's anonymity outside of Canada has come in spite of concerted marketing efforts. Producers of clam-tomato juices have speculated that their beverages been hampered by what they describe as the "clam barrier". They have found that consumers in the United States fear that there is too much clam in the beverages. However, a beer cocktail
Beer cocktail
A beer cocktail is a cocktail that is made by mixing beer with a distilled beverage.In this type of cocktail, the primary ingredient is beer...
consisting of Clamato
Clamato
Clamato is a drink made of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate flavored with spices and clam broth. Made by Mott's, the name is a portmanteau of "clam" and "tomato"...
, lager beer, and various (usually "secret") herbs and spices, often called the Michelada
Michelada
Michelada is a Mexican cerveza preparada made with beer, lime juice, tomato juice , and assorted sauces, spices, and peppers can be added for a Chelada . It is served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass. There are numerous variations of this beverage throughout Mexico and Latin America.In Mexico,...
, has been growing in popularity in the United States, having been brought there from Latin-American immigrants.
The Caesar is popular as a hangover
Hangover
A hangover describes the sum of unpleasant physiological effects following heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, dysphoria, diarrhea and thirst, typically after the...
"cure", though its effectiveness has been questioned. A study by the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
released in 1985 showed that drinking a Caesar when taking asprin could help protect a person's stomach from the damage asprin causes.
Preparation and variants
Basic preparation of a Caesar follows the "one, two, three, four" rule. The recipe calls for 1–1½ oz of vodka, two dashes of hot sauce, three dashes of salt and pepper, four dashes of Worcestershire sauce and topped with 4–6 oz of Clamato and served with ice. The ingredients are poured into a glass rimmed with celery salt or a mixture of salt and pepper and garnished with a celery stalk and lime. The Caesar is an unusual drink in that it can be mixed in bulk and stored for a period of time before drinking.Though it was not one of Chell's original ingredients, Tabasco sauce
Tabasco sauce
Tabasco sauce is the brand name for a hot sauce produced by US-based McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana. Tabasco sauce is made from tabasco peppers , vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years. It has a hot, spicy flavor...
is a frequent addition, as is horseradish
Horseradish
Horseradish is a perennial plant of the Brassicaceae family, which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, and cabbages. The plant is probably native to south eastern Europe and the Arab World , but is popular around the world today...
. Vodka is occasionally replaced with gin
Gin
Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
, tequila
Tequila
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
or rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
, though the Clamato may not be substituted. A variant that replaces vodka with beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
is commonly called a "Red Eye", and one without alcohol is a "Virgin Caesar". The Toronto Institute of Bartending operates a "Caesar School" in various locations across Canada that teaches bartenders how to mix several variants of the drink.
Mott's holds an annual "Best Caesar in Town" competition as part of the Prince Edward Island International Shellfish Festival. Contests held across Canada to celebrate the cocktail's 40th anniversary in 2009 encouraged variants that featured the glass rimmed with Tim Hortons
Tim Hortons
Tim Hortons Inc. is a Canadian fast casual restaurant known for its coffee and doughnuts. It is also Canada's largest fast food service with over 3000 stores nationwide. It was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton and Jim Charade, after an initial venture in...
coffee grinds, Caesars with maple syrup
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then...
and Caesars with bacon-infused vodka.