Caesar Cocktail
By Robert Hess
The Caesar Cocktail was apparently invented in 1969 by Walter Chell, the restaurant manager of the Calgary Inn in Alberta, Canada and is essentially a Bloody Mary using Clamato juice instead of tomato juice. Chell supposedly spent three months perfecting the drink, ending up with the simple 1-2-3-4 recipe. This drink is very popular in Canada; at one point there was a movement to make it the national drink there!
Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 oz vodka
2 dashes Tabasco sauce
3 dashes salt
3 dashes black pepper
4 dashes worcestershire sauce
4 ounces tomato-clam juice (Clamato)
Instructions
shake with ice
strain over ice in a Collins glass
garnish with celery stalk and a lime wedge
Comments
I’ve always liked Bloody Mary’s, but this drink is fantastic!
This is a staple of Western Canadian drinking for sure. However, most folks I meet outside of B.C. don’t drink these. When my brother comes up from San Francisco he’s always reminded how weird it is that every restaurant offers them and that there are both Clamato and vodka ads on TV all the time for Caesars :)
Personally I think it’s gross, but I kind of hate tomato juice to begin with so I’m the wrong person to ask!
I do enjoy tasting drinks that have a savory/umami element to them, as there are so few and it’s a very different experience.
Thanks for featuring a Canadian drink, Robert!
For anyone looking for a more sophisticated drink from us above you,
“The Vancouver” http://www.shakestir.com/features/id/366/the-vancouver-cocktail
and “The Hotel Georgia” http://www.shakestir.com/features/id/340/the-hotel-georgia
are Vancouver’s only historical drinks that we know of…
Cheers!
~Rhett
http://www.and1morefortheroad.blogspot.com
Rhett, thanks for the links to the two Vancouver cocktails! They look great! I had dinner at the Hotel Georgia on my last trip to Vancouver, wish I’d known about the cocktail then, and I would have had one.
-Robert
It is quite a delicious dessert cocktail!
(Most actual booze drinkers will find it very sweet, hence the “dessert,” but it’s also a good one for weening any nay-sayers onto gin)
The presentation at Tales on Canadian cocktails (by an all B.C. crew!) will include these two drinks, plus The Caesar, and one of my favourites - The Toronto. Victoria’s Shawn Soole uncovered some great information in print to help us actually pinpoint this one to Toronto: http://and1morefortheroad.blogspot.ca/2012/02/toronto-cocktail.html
Canadian cocktail history is limited or at the least very muddled, but I’m proud we can claim a couple good ones!
Come back soon, Robert!
Also - great to see all these new videos!
Cheers,
~Rhett
This is a very popular drink right across Canada. I’ve also noticed some states like Florida where this is available.
As for the previous poster saying not popular outside of BC… ...try to find a bar in Ontario where this drink isn’t popular! Everyone enjoys a Caesar in Ontario.
Glad you included on the site!
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