The Worst Store-Bought Tomato Juice Is Sugary And Insulting

Many people love clamato, tomato juice's briny cousin. Or, as the most popular brand Mott's labels it, a "tomato cocktail". The clam broth and tomato concoction is a crucial ingredient in clamata micheladas, the Mexican beer cocktail that's been adopted across the U.S. The Canadians have found a use for clamato, too. It's the base of a bloody Caesar cocktail. The only issue? Clamato is one of the worst tomato juice options available in grocery stores. 

While it works in cocktails where umami and tartness can be added in the form of liquid smoke, worcester sauce, lime, booze, hot sauce, and anything else that deepens or heightens flavor, when consumed on its own, Mott's store-bought clamato just doesn't hold up. As we discovered in our tomato juice taste test, as a standalone juice it's sweet and cloying. Despite its catchy name, clamato lacks the complex flavors we love tomatoes for, and our reviewer found the hint of clam offputting. 

It's not that tomato juice with added clam doesn't have any good notes. Even mass-produced clamato is peppery, celery-forward, and a little acidic. But it's not made to sup straight-up. The drinks that clamato works in have an alcoholic kick designed to distract from how sugary it is. Mott's clamato is like the store-brand lemonade of tomato juices. It ticks the boxes, technically. But it isn't good unless you work to hide its imperfections.

There are various myths around the creation of clamato, but the most popular credits the Hotel Lucerna in Mexicali, Baja California. According to legend, clamato juice was dreamed up way back in the 1960s by a creative bartender mixing a custom drink for a customer who was slightly worse for wear after a long night.

Today's clamato is a mixture of clam broth and tomato juice. But the Frankensteinian cousin of V8 could have ended up with the far less catchy portmanteau of abalato as its name, as its salty tang is said to have come from abalone originally. Quickly, though, abalone became expensive and hard to source. Clams were much easier to find, apparently, even in Mexicali.

The fact that a clam and tomato juice was patented in New York way back in the 1930s somewhat complicates the Hotel Lucerna story, although perhaps tomato juice and seafood combines to create a natural hangover cure that's obvious to mixologists across North America. The most popular modern clamato juice, and the one we voted the worst in our taste test, is the one made by Mott's which is a subsidiary of Schweppes. It was first developed in the 1960s, and was reportedly inspired by tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder.  

Mott's clamata is sold across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the U.K., among other places, and lists MSG and corn syrup in its first few ingredients. While neither of these is necessarily a bad thing, they do make more sense for a spiced and boozy pick-me-up than a healthy standalone vegetable juice.