tomato juice started to gain traction as a beverage in the United States during Prohibition. Tomato juice was known prior to the American Civil War, especially as an ingredient in sauces, vinegars, and tomato wine and as a braising liquid. By 1870, cases of French spiced tomato juice were being imported to New Orleans, possibly as a sauce for cooking. What’s more, by the 1910s the liquid drained off of canned tomatoes was in common use in American sporting circles as a hangover cure. But in 1917, when Chef Louis Perrin at the French Lick Springs Hotel in Orange County, Indiana, made a batch for guests to drink after his kitchen ran out of orange juice, it became a hit and led to wide demand. From there, canned tomato juice quickly became a popular mass-produced beverage and by the late 1920s was widely advertised as a breakfast drink in the United States. It also saw service during the Volstead years, either plain or as the “Tomato Juice Cocktail,” as an alternative to alcohol for upright citizens (less upright ones who had overdone things the night before sometimes added gin to it). The cocktail, heavily promoted by the tomato juice industry beginning in 1928, was simply the juice, chilled and seasoned with “salt, lemon juice, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce.” See Bloody Mary. Manufacturers also pushed the canned juice as a panacea for infirm Americans and healthy babies alike. Consisting of pressed tomato juice or tomato paste, often with added salt, the juice can also contained additives such as garlic powder or onion powder. Tomato juice features in a number of mixed drinks besides the Bloody Mary, from some versions of the Michelada to the Red Snapper, to Canada’s Bloody Caesar.
See also Bloody Caesar; Michelada; and Red Snapper.
Drowne, Kathleen, and Patrick Huber. The 1920’s. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004.
“Landing from Bark Johanne Marie.” New Orleans Daily Picayune, February 17, 1870, 6.
McIntyre, O. O. “New York Day by Day.” San Francisco Examiner, January 19, 1929, 28.
Smith, Andrew. Pure Ketchup: A History of America’s National Condiment. Columbia: South Carolina University Press, 1996.
“Tomato Cocktails Click.” Johnson City (TN) Staff-News, October 19, 1928, 10.
By: Chloe Frechette