Clamato Preparado

History & Origin

Clamato preparado is one of the most curious examples of reverse culinary globalisation in Mexico: a Canadian-American product that Mexicans adopted, radically transformed with their own condiments and turned into one of the country's coastal gastronomic icons. Clamato - a contraction of clam and tomato - was invented in 1966 by the American company Duffy-Mott, and in its early years was marketed mainly as a cocktail ingredient for Bloody Mary and Caesar-style drinks. It arrived in Mexico in the 1970s and it was on the Pacific coasts - Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo - where Mexicans began preparing it their own way: with the condiments they used for any fruit or seafood drink. The Mexicanisation of clamato was complete and brilliant: to the original juice was added the ritual of the frosted glass (salt and chilli or tajín rim), generous lime juice, valentina or chamoy sauce for heat, maggi sauce for umami depth, and eventually chamoy - the quintessential Mexican condiment - for the sweet-sour note. The result is a drink that has very little to do with the original Canadian product and a great deal to do with the Mexican tradition of flavoured waters and seafood cocktails. The non-alcoholic prepared clamato (or prepared with lager or vodka in its alcoholic version, known as michelada con clamato or vampiro) became the universal companion of seafood on the Mexican coasts and at seafood stalls inland. Today it is impossible to imagine a Mexican cevichería, marisquería or coastal ice-cream shop without prepared clamato on the menu.