A caesar cocktail made with vodka, savory calmato juice, a few dashes of worcestershire, a few more dashes of tabasco sauce, a good squeeze of lime, and our secret pickled ingredient.
Among our family, friends and most Canadians, the Caesar cocktail is a staple! They are a common occurrence on any camping trip, weekend lunch, or brunch on the patio. They are especially good the morning after getting a little too carried away, if you know what I mean… Plus, we make the best caesar cocktail around. In my opinion, of course… lol.
So with Ceaser cocktails being so big in our family, my younger sister Sam and my daughter Jessica both wanted to learn how to make the famous concoction. So we taught them, Debbie and I both thinking, “Great! Now we dont have to make them!” However, as the years have passed, I have heard the two of them say, “I make the best Caesar” many times which is funny to the rest of us because one, ummm…, who taught you how to make those Caesar’s? And two, you don’t even drink them so how do you know?! But hey, if that’s what it takes to get a drink made for me then yup, you definitely make the best Caesar. Ill take two! And to be truthful, both of them make the best Caesars ever!
The secret ingredient in our caesar cocktail is… Pickle juice! Yup, that’s it. I know for some people it sounds very weird and I get a funny look when I order a side of pickle juice with my caesar at a restaurant. But those of you who have tried it, you know what I’m talking about. And hey, don’t knock it till you try it. And actually, if you have spicy bean juice handy, that works just as well or better yet, throw in a little of both!
If that wasn’t enough of a twist for you, we recently made our own Savory Infused Vodkas that made our caesar cocktail pretty incredible, if I do say so myself. You must check them out!
History lesson for the day: Apparently the Caesar cocktail was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1969. It quickly became a popular cocktail within Canada and now over 350 million Caesars are consumed annually and every restaurant and pub has their own special version. However, outside of Canada, ordering a caesar will often get you a very confused look.
Its crazy to us Canadidan’s that even in the US, its hard to order a Caesar. Except for Vegas! Instead you get a Bloody Mary which doesn’t hold a candle to the Caesar (imo!). We Canadians can get a little obsessive about our Caesar cocktails! I met a group of Canadian girls while traveling in Thailand who had brought a few small bottles of clamato juice with them on their backpacking trek and they generously shared one with me. How very Canadian of them, eh?!
Where to get Clamato Juice for this Caesar Cocktail:
In Canada, we can get Clamato juice at any grocery store. I’m not certain about the US or elsewhere, but you can get some online here:
A Classic Caesar Cocktail with a Pickle Twist
A caesar cocktail with vodka, calmato juice, a dash worcestershire, a dash tabasco sauce, a squeeze of lime, and our secret pickled ingredient. Pickles!
Ingredients
- Celery salt or Montreal Steak Spice for the rim
- 2-3 Lime wedges
- 2 oz Vodka
- 2 oz Pickle juice or more to taste
- 6 oz Clamato Juice
- 2-3 dashes Worcestershire Sauce or more to taste
- 2-3 dashes Tabasco or more to taste
- 1/4 tsp Celery salt or Montreal Steak Spice to sprinkle on top
Instructions
Take a lime wedge and run it around the top rim of your glass, then dunk the rim in the celery salt or montreal steak spice. Fill the glass with ice.
Pour in the vodka and the pickle juice. Squeeze in some lime juice ( I like at least 2 wedges, but I usually have a bit more. I like it limy). Fill the glass with clamato juice.
Add the worcestershire and tabasco and sprinkle some montreal steak spice in, or you can use garlic plus, or lemon pepper... whatever you like. Give it a good stir.
Garnish with pickles, cheese, pepperoni or spicy beans, or olives or whatever you like.
This sounds amazing! But I have a “from a Southern US state” question…what kind of pickle juice do you prefer? Is it a dill pickle juice or a sweet pickle juice? I love the idea of adding spicy bean juice so I am guessing its NOT a sweet pickle juice but let me know anyway please. Have you tried pickled okra in this? That really might be just a southern thing but they are wonderful in Bloody Mary’s and I am guessing they will be yummy in this too.
Love this comment 🙂 Yes, dill pickle juice. I have not tried pickled okra! ever! but I would love to and I bet it would taste amazing as well.
Thank you! I have all the ingredients ready to make these this weekend! Oh, and here is my favorite pickled okra brand…looks like you can buy them on line…give them a try! http://www.talkotexas.com/
Loving the blog, thanks for all the wonderful ideas!
Definitely dill pickle juice!
For an even tastier Caesar I like to add a garlic clove… I dare you!
Yes that would be good too! We have used garlic infused vodka before and it was delish! We also often use a garlic plus seasoning in it, but haven’t tried grating fresh garlic. We will have to try. We are garlic fanatics 🙂