A Kind Word for Free Trade
The Wall Street Journal today had an article proclaiming that Mott’s Clamato juice, moribund in the US for the last decade, has a surprisingly strong Hispanic following, owing to a previously undetected regard they have for the beverage as an aphrodisiac:
Shellfish are rich in iron and zinc, minerals that may marginally improve sexual performance. But Carmen Boullosa, a Mexican writer and visiting professor at Columbia University, says many countrymen believe in clam’s libido-boosting properties, and that might explain why they consider Clamato some kind of aphrodisiac.
Mott’s, of Stamford, Conn., makes no claims to Clamato’s powers. Still, the company understood that it could leverage that perception among Latinos to sell more of the beverage it describes as a “light and refreshing, zesty drink with a blend of tomatoes, onions, celery and spices with a dash of clam.”
I don’t believe I’ve ever tasted Clamato on purpose. I love shellfish, including clams, mussels and raw oysters. I guess because I can obtain them fresh pretty much whenever I desire here in Seattle, Clamato has simply been beneath my radar. Even though I took 4 years of high school Spanish.
It may be a cross-cultural coincidence, but MY idea of an aphrodisiac very often involves some incarnation of Sauza tequila. In this regard, the perfect fulfillment of the NAFTA promise would be the untrammelled flow of Clamato south, in exchange for a concomitant surge of Hornitos north.
