The Caesar was created in 1969 by Walter Chell, a bartender at the Calgary Inn, who was asked to invent a drink for the hotel's new Italian restaurant. Inspired by spaghetti alle vongole, he combined clam broth with tomato juice, vodka and spices, and served it in a glass rimmed with celery salt. The story goes that an English regular declared it a damn good bloody Caesar, and the name stuck in both forms. Canadians now drink hundreds of millions of them a year, and it is widely regarded as the national cocktail.

Outside Canada it is often mistaken for a Bloody Mary, which is like mistaking Montreal for Paris: related, but with a character entirely its own. The clam gives a briny, savory depth that makes it as much a brunch as a cocktail. We make our own clam and tomato base, since the bottled Canadian blend can be hard to find elsewhere, and the zero proof version is so good that it is a drink in its own right, not a consolation.

The rim

Ingredients

• 1 lime wedge
• 1 tablespoon celery salt

Method

1. Spread the celery salt on the small plate. Run the lime wedge around the outside of the glass rim, then roll the rim in the celery salt.

The Caesar

Ingredients

• 1 cup ice cubes
• 1 oz (30 ml) vodka
• 3 oz (90 ml) cold tomato juice
• 1 oz (30 ml) cold clam juice
• 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 2 dashes hot sauce
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 1 squeeze lime juice
• 1 celery stalk

Method

1. Fill the rimmed glass with ice, taking care not to knock off the salt.
2. Pour in the vodka, then the tomato juice and clam juice. Add the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and pepper, and squeeze in the lime.
3. Stir gently with the long spoon for 10 seconds, lifting from the bottom.
4. Stand the celery stalk in the glass.

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