Level Up Your AF Caesar (Or Bloody) with Shrubs

The best thing about a Caesar is the savoury ingredients like celery, pickle, worchestire and jalapenos. Most of the time, you can’t really taste the vodka. Random, nonofficial surveys by Some Good Clean Fun indicate people just really crave the salty, spicy, earthy flavour when it comes to a good brunch cocktail.

If you’re American, you’ll be familiar with the typical tomato-juice based Bloody Mary. In Canada, we add clam juice to the tomato juice and we call that a Bloody Caesar. Clamato juice is found in every grocery store and corner store, so this is an accessible nonalcoholic drink for anyone. *Caution: don’t drink this if you’re pregnant because clams are a no-no….

To add flavour and depth to my brunch Caesar, I always use False Ox Celery Jalapeno shrub. The unique thing about using this shrub rather than just adding heat, is that the vinegar mimics some of the bite that’s missing when you remove the vodka. Although you can’t taste vodka most of the time in a Caesar, an AF version sometimes needs the sharpness added back in. You definitely get this with the Celery Jalapeno shrub, along with heat and savoury flavour.

My secret ingredient is always pickle brine. It adds saltiness and tang that marries nicely with the shrub.

So this Sunday, grab a pitcher and serve up some Bloody’s (with clam or not!) and make sure you’re adding in a spicy shrub to level up your AF brunch game!

AlcoHol-free bloody caeser

Ingredients:

Ice
Walter’s Caesar Mix (or Clamato/Tomato Juice)
2 oz. False Ox Celery Jalapeno Shrub (or to taste)
1 Tbsp Pickle Brine
Salt to rim your glass (if preferred)

Add ice and the shrub to a glass. Top with Caesar mix and add the pickle brine. Give it a good stir and then sit back and enjoy!