The Caesar – Canada’s Official Cocktail

January 1st is National Bloody Mary Day the perfect libation to fight off the New Year’s Day hangover.

The Bloody Mary is a nutritious way imbibe some hair of the dog. The thick tomato juice helps to settle his stomach,
the salt is there to replenish lost electrolytes and the alcohol… well, it takes care of everything else.

Take one or two Bloody Marys first thing in the morning with or without food and repeat every three hours. But eventually you’ll have to sleep it off.

The blood he Mary is simply vodka and tomato juice. We could sit here all day and list additional ingredients that can go into or be used to garnish the drink, All this should be left up to whoever is making the drink. Here’s the bait and switch: It’s no longer January 1 so I’m going to make a Caesar, Canada’s official cocktail.

In early December I was in Edmonton Alberta, that’s in Canada. Friends asked me, why would you want to go to Canada in December?
I was going to the CAPS CONVENTION. That’s the Canadian Association of professional speakers. I mean, How cold could it be?

Don’t ask a question if you’re not ready know the answer. It was 5° below zero! But luckily you don’t have to be outside to drink.
My good friend Krista Walsh and I took a shuttle ride to the beach, the beach that is at the West Edmonton Mall where they have North America’s largest indoor water park.

After walking around the Mall for an hour it was definitely the time to sit and have a libation. Krista introduced me to Canada’s national drink the Caesar. Virtually unknown outside of Canada over 350 millions Caesars are consumed each year by Canadians. A Caesar is a Bloody Mary made with Clamato Juice instead of tomato juice. Clamato juice is just what it sounds like, clam broth and tomato juice. That might sound like a deal breaker for some but trust me, it doesn’t taste anything like drinking dead fish.

The biggest variations I noticed for the Caesar was in the garnish, and the spice used for rimming of the glass. When you order a Bloody Mary it most often comes without a salted rim. The Caesar on the other hand always comes with a spiced salted rim. I found whenever I had a Caesar I would turn the glass as I was drinking it to make sure I got all of the salts off of it.

Therefore when developing my recipe I’ve spent a lot of time coming up with a rimming salt I liked. The most basic recipe just suggests rimming the glass with celery salt. And that will certainly do. Some people use a mix coarse sea salt and cracked pepper. Also nice. The point here is to create something that YOU like.

I used celery salt as the main ingredient, 2 Tablespoons.
Add to that 1 tsp Garlic Granules (or powder if you got it)
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
some fresh group black pepper – about 1/2 tsp or to taste
And about 1 tsp of coarse kosher salt. Sprinkle your mix onto a plate or use the tin provided by the premix salt.

In your local liquor store you’ll see a variety of different rimming salts. I recently found this bacon flavored salt and had been using it as it’s easier than mixing your own. Krista sent me this rimming salt that was especially designed for the Caesar.

MAKING THE DRINK:
I like to use the same size glass to mixing and drinking. You’ll see why in just a minute. I use a 16 ounce beer glass for this drink as it’s the perfect size and fits into a Boston shaker. And why make a 12 ounce drink when a 16 ounce drink is better.

Take a lime wedge and run it along the rim of the glass applying a little pressure to moisten the rim of the glass. Press the glass down into the mix to coat.

As I mentioned earlier I really like the salted rim so I make a thick band around the glass. To accomplish this I make sure the lime juice goes further down the glass and then I tilt and roll the glass to cover more of the side for that perfect rim job. Okay, I just now heard that in my head and I don’t know how to get around it.

Set the rimmed glass aside. If you’re going to make a lot of these for a group of people you can do all this in advance.
Take your mixing glass which is the same size as your drinking glass

I like to pour all the ingredients into the mixing glass before adding the ice. So in a mixing glass, another 16 ounce beer glass, you’ll add:

2 ounces of your favorite vodka.
I’m going to make the Caesar with a Canadian vodka. Iceberg Vodka is made from their Canadian glacier water.

add 6 ounces of Clamato juice
two dashes of your favorite hot sauce – I used the Chula brand that was garlic flavored.
4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
A couple of turns of fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon of horseradish (optional but I LOVE it)
half teaspoon of pickle juice (optional)
squeeze the rest of the juice from the lime wedge you used to rim the glass

Once all your ingredients are in this class you can add ice to the top of the glass.

Now pour everything into the metal part of your Boston shaker pop the glass on top and give it a shake to chill the drink.
When you pour the mixed drink into the rimmed drinking glass it will be the perfect size as it was mixed in a glass of equal size. It’s physics.

So what do you garnish your drink with? Just like a Bloody Mary a celery stalk and olives and are pretty standard, but I’ve seen Caesars with a pepperoni stick, bacon, a chunk of smoked salmon, shrimp and even a small lobster tail or a combination of items atop the drink. My wife says with the right garnish it could be a meal unto itself and at home that is often the case.
Today I’m going to put a lime wedge on the rim and add a couple of pickled beans,

There you have it, A Caesar, Canada’s official cocktail.

SIDE BAR:
About shaking, and watering down your drink. Some people will say that shaking the drink will water it down. Look you’re serving a drink on the rocks, it will get watered down. What’s the difference if I shake a drink pour it in a glass and Bada Boom, drink it. Or you stir a drink with ice and it sits on the bar as you nurse it for 1/2 hour. Which drink will get water down the most?

I also prefer shaking the drink because I use horseradish and the only way to really disperse the horseradish throughout the drink is to shake it. I’m not making a martini up that I’m going to sip I’m making a delicious libation that will be gone in under four minutes.

Ciao For Now
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