How many clams are in a bottle of clamato? How do they get in there?
Are they slaughtered humanely? And what's the deal with Beefmato,
besides it's inherent disgustingness? Is it really what I think and
fear it is?

Hello,

It appears that someone already has contacted them about this and
received the following reply:

"Thank you for writing. You ideas and comments will be shared. In
making the
Clamato Juice, we use Clam Broth. We do not actually harvest the Clams
nor make
the Clam Broth ourselves, so you can be assured no inhumane treatment
of clams
is ocurring here at Mott's. We definitely do not have anything against
the Great Clam. In fact, although the Clamato has very little Clam
Broth in it, we still gave the Clam the main part of the name! Quite
the honor for the Clam! I will send along some great coupons and
recipes. Cheers!"
Source: My Life As An American Gladiator
http://www.kafkaesque.blogspot.com/2001_08_01_kafkaesque_archive.html

I wasn't so sure though, especially after I read the following: "The
Bloody Caesar, the most popular Clamato cocktail, is an excellent
substitute for a traditional Bloody Mary"
Source: http://www.mottsinteractive.com/products/mix_clamato_about.php3

Not only are innocent clams being put into tomato juice, but the above
appears to be suggesting that it is ok to drink blood from this Caesar
fellow!!!

So the real question now is how much Clam Broth does Clamato have, and
how many clams are inside clam broth?

Well, here is a picture of the Nutrition Facts from Motts: 
http://www.mottsinteractive.com/nutritional/Clamato%20Tomat_cktail%201liter.pdf
The Ingredients are listed in order of most quantity to least
quantity... and we have at the very end, "garlic powder, dried clam
broth, vinegar, red 40."

Now Mott's isnt going to tell us how much dried clam broth they put
into Clamato (all hush hush about their recipe... its their bread and
butter is the excuse), but we do know that it must be less than the
amount of garlic powder... so its probably a safe bet that one clam
may find itself in between 5 to 100 litres of clamato.

As for Beefamato, as a vegetarian you might be alarmed to find that
"dried beef broth" is higher up on the list, so there is more of it
inside compared to Clams.
Source: http://www.mottsinteractive.com/nutritional/Beefamato%2032oz.pdf
Note that we have, "Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Tomato
Concentrate Salt, Monosodium glutamate, citric acid, DRIED BEEF BROTH,
Vinegar, Spices, Onion Powder, Molasses, Garlic Powder, Caramel Color,
Natural Flavor, Sugar."

Perhaps the rationale for this is that there is less beef (or cows
dying) in "dried beef broth" compared to clam in "clam broth".

One recipe that I found for 3 cups worth of clam broth calls for 24
clams!!!
"24 clams, well washed
3 cups water"
Source: http://www.freerecipe.org/Soups/Seafood/ClamBrothR_baijj.htm

Notice that in this recipe for Beef Broth:
http://www.hugs.org/Beef_Broth.shtml
Only one pound of lean beef is used to make 1 quart of broth!!!

We do know therefore that more % of a clams life is consumed per
clamato sip than is per beefamato sip, even though in the later case
more beef broth can be made from one beef cow.

Here is an interesting xcerpt that I found:
"To gain wider acceptance for their product, the makers of Mott's
Clamato juice advertise it as, of all things, "99.9 percent clam
free." That's still one-tenth of 1 percent too much for us."
Source: http://www.vivavegie.org/vvi/vva/vvi32/

How interesting that the "Vegetarian" section on this website links
directly to the Clamato.com website:
http://my.net-link.net/~rgginger/food.htm

I wonder how many vegetarians out there are not aware of the clams
they have eaten with their Clamato juice?

I hope this was the type of researching you were expecting. Let me
know if you need any clarifications and I will do my best to further
assist you.

tisme-ga


Search Strategy:

clamato clams inhumane
://www.google.com/search?q=clamato+clams+inhumane

"clam broth"
://www.google.com/search?q=clam+broth

beef broth
://www.google.com/search?q=beef+broth

vegetarian clamato
://www.google.com/search?q=vegetarian+clamato

You didn't find the exact quantities, but I suspect getting exact
information might require some sort of Mott's espionage, and I doubt
$5 would cover it. Good work and enjoy this well-earned $1 tip.

~ Adam ~

Dear synesthesiatic-ga, 

I thought everyone knew that if you leave vats of tomato juice in your
backyard overnight, it will attract garden clams who crawl in and
drown.

Regarding the Beefamato matter, this has got to be one of those
genetic engineering projects gone wrong. Gotta hope those suckers
don't stampede.

On the off chance that you seriously want your question answered, I
will bow out now and leave you at the mercy of my colleagues. Gotta go
look in that backyard vat and see how many of the little bivalves have
fallen into their tomatoey grave.

~pinkfreud-ga, Google Answers Researcher and Clam Trapper

Again on the subject of The Beefamato Horror, I submit this photo:

http://www.mortalwombat.com/Image/Beefamato.jpg

Those Beefamato ranchers must be some really brave dudes. You couldn't
pay me to milk that thing.

My roommate and I indeed are very interested in the answer to this
question. Although we are both vegetarian, we ourselves have tried to
find the answer, going so far as to calling Mott's! Now we've got $5
on the table here, which is nothing to sneeze at (enough to buy a car
in 1963, if I know my history) so if anyone's up for the task, we're
willing to blow our bread fund.

PS pinkfreud your little picture is now on our fridge

~ Adam and Meaghan ~

There used to be a tiny little FAQ on the Clamato website, but Mott's
took it down.

However, thanks to the Internet Wayback Machine, an archived copy of
the FAQ exists:

http://web.archive.org/web/20011009020634/http://www.clamato.com/faq/index.htm

It isn't much of a FAQ. There are only two questions, one of which is
"Can I ask a question about Clamato?" (Fortunately, the answer was
"yes," or there would have been only one question.) The mini-FAQ
offers this contact info for those who crave Clamato data:

Phone: 800-426-4891 9-6 Eastern time

Mott's Consumer Services
PO Box 3800
Stamford, CT 06905

Great, now someone do the legwork for us, we're lazy students!

Pinkfreud wroted in one of the above comments:

"Gotta go look in that backyard vat and see how many of the little
bivalves have fallen into their tomatoey grave."

Ahem...er...aherm?  Apologetically to the intended humor around here,
but technically...(who said that!?)...garden clams ie. snails aren't
bivalves but gastropods.  Now, technically...(I know, I know; humor.
;-)...bivalves include clams, oysters, (ersters), and scallops. 
Gastropods are the "stomach foots", (literal trans. of gastropod),
like snails, conchs, etc.  However, they ARE all mollusks, except for
the rare Clamato, which is technically, (yes, yes...), neither fruit
nor vegetable, bivalve, gastropod nor mollusk, but "trademark", and so
subject to full protection under the 14th Amendment of the US
Constitution as a *person*.  So, there you have it in a nutshell, but
that's a whole 'nother order of classification.

Cheers!

--Kutsavi