Brooklynite.
Brooklynite
2 oz Jamaican dark rum
.75 oz lime juice
.5 oz honey
1 dash ango bitters
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.
From "The Big Bartender's Book" 2009 by Jeff Masson and Greg Boehm
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Brooklynite
Brooklynite
2 oz Jamaican dark rum
.75 oz lime juice
.5 oz honey
1 dash ango bitters
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.
From "The Big Bartender's Book" 2009 by Jeff Masson and Greg Boehm
Neuva Jersey
Nueva Jersey Cocktail
When I saw the "Jacko's End" from Mayahuel in the NYC Tasting Table's Best Cocktails 2010 artice, I thought the combination of mezcal and Laird's 100 proof straight apple brandy was a really good idea.
When I tried it though, I thought the Benedictine was overpowering and looked for a variation to focus more on the combination of base spirits.
After some experimenting, I decided that giving the mezcal/apple brandy combo the "old fashioned" treatment was my favorite way to really experience these flavors.
I love ango, but it didn't work here. The Fee's Whiskey Barrel Aged really a nice spice and worked best for me.
If you have it, the elixir vegetal really works well here too. It's unique herbal qualities really add a nice complexity.
Nueva Jersey Cocktail
Ingredients
1 oz Del Maguey Mezcal
1 oz Laird's 100 proof bonded straight apple brandy
1-2 tsp blue agave syrup (depending on desired sweetnes)
1 dash Fee's Whiskey Bitters
1 dash Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal (option, but excellent)
Instructions
1) In an old fashioned glass, combine the agave syrup and bitters.
 |
| Cracking ice is fun! |
3) Add Mezcal, apple brandy and a few more pieces of ice and stir again.
4) Optional garnish: lemon or orange twist.
...or, you can put a 2" ice cube on top of the agave and bitters, add the spirits and stir, This leaves a nice layer of agave on the bottom as it just won't dissolve completely. When you've finished with the drink and the cube has melted down, it picks up the flavored agave syrup and makes an excellent treat to chew on.
 |
| ...but chipped ice has it's own rewards too. |
Spirit of Agave
SPIRIT OF AGAVE
Here's a modern recipe from Danny Meyer's "MixShakeStir" book that came out in 2008.
This one hails from the Union Square Cafe, and is honestly the only recipe that I took away from this book that was accessible to the home bartender, and looked enjoyable. This recipe is both.
Spirit of the Agave
1 oz silver tequila
1/2 oz reposado mezcal
1/2 oz Lillet blanc
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz agave nectar
1 lime wheel (optional)
"Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and place the monster ice cube in a rocks glass. Add the tequila, mezcal, Lillet, lime juice and agave nectar to the shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into the glass. Garnish with the lime wheel, if desired, and serve."
Friday, December 10, 2010
On the Way
On the Way
ON THE WAY
1/2 Amer Picon
1/2 Italian Vermouth
Stir well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.
From Hugo R. Ensslin's 1916 book "Recipes for Mixed Drinks"
The Sidecar
The sidecar, #5 in my "Embury six" series.
THE SIDECAR
The sidecar was presented by Embury as the classic "must know" brandy drink. Here the choice of cognac or brandy used, and it's flavor profile, drive the proportions of the other ingredients.
Brandy is an ancient spirit, with roots going back to the 12th century. The word brandy is a shortening of "brandywine", which in turn is a derivative from the Dutch word "brandewijn" (which means "burnt wine").
Brandy is certainly my weakest area of knowledge when it comes to the spirit world. I've tended to avoid the whole category and looked to other (and in my mind safer) alternatives to brandy. It's hard to blame anyone for these thoughts after growing up with such disasters as peach brandy, blackberry brandy and the many other artificially created frankensteins that have become popular in the last 50 years.
The more I learn about the "burnt wine", the easier it has become to finally be able to enjoy it.
Armagnac was the first distilled spirit in France, and is made only in the Armagnac region in Southwest of France. It is "single-continuous" distilled in copper stills, and aged in oaken casks from Limousin or Gascony.
Cognac is a term only applied to grape brandy made in the Cognac region of France, and is double distilled in pot stills...and Cognac is what is called for in the original sidecar recipes (along with Cointreau and lemon juice).
The origins of this drink are just as unclear as the first four in the "Embury six" that I have explored. There are two main "origin" stories for this one. There is the "Paris School" and the "London School", each with their own recipe, which I will explore in greater depth later.
A third option, worth keeping in mind, was presented by Dale Degroff in his book "Essential Cocktail".
Dale points out that the word sidecar in the cocktail world refers to a small glass or shot glass that the bar tender keeps for "over-pours". When they miss their mark on their ingredients, and end up with a little left over, they would pour the extra into the "sidecar".
This drink bears a strong resemblance to the "Brandy Crusta", (which hails from New Orleans, and is accredited to a well known Spanish caterer by the name of Joseph Santini around 1852.) There are differences, the crusta calls for bitters and sometimes maraschino and has a sugared rim. Even today, some sidecar recipes include instructions for the sugared rim as part of the garnish.
If bartenders of the day found that the crusta was one of their favorite "overpours" to end up in their "side cars", then it's not too much of a stretch to think that this could be the actual origin of the name.
Since were on a historical journey, let's go ahead and take a look at the two main schools of thought anyway.
The Paris School
The more well known of the two schools, this story has many variables.
Sometime in Paris, during or shortly after World War I, an American Army captain often traveled around in a motorcycle sidecar. One day, when he was under the weather, he requested something that would help him feel better, and the drink was named the "Sidecar", as a tribute to its original patron.
Embury also credits the invention of the drink to an American Army captain in Paris during World War I. He also claimed that the drink was named after the motorcycle sidecar, in which the good captain was driven to and from the little bistro where the drink was born and christened".
I've also read that the captain had the driver bring the motorcycle right up to the bar to order! It then seems to evolve into the captain going to the Ritz Hotel on a regular basis, and this was his favorite drink to ward off the chill of the winter nights. This theory was dramatized in a recent Cointreau advert.
For me, the fact that there is no name associated with the captain, and that there are so many versions of the story out there, it smacks more of legend than fact.
The Paris School Recipe
(1:1:1 ratio)
1 oz Cognac
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz Lemon Juice
This is the earliest known recipe, and it appeared in two books published in 1922; Robert Vermeire's "Cocktails and How to Mix Them", and Harry MacElhone's Harry's "ABC of Mixing Cocktails".
The London School
The story here, is that the sidecar was created at the London Buck's Club in the 1920's. It is most often credited to Pat MacGarry, who was one of the Buck Club's well known bartenders at the time.
Interestingly, in early editions of "ABC of Mixing Cocktails", MacElhone cites the inventor as Pat MacGarry, "the Popular bar-tender at Buck's Club, London" but in later editions, he cites himself.
Vermiere said in his book, "This cocktail is very popular in France. It was first introduced in London by
MacGarry, the celebrated bar-tender of Buck's Club."
So. you have the two books publishing the recipe for the first time using the Paris School recipe, but pointing to the founder of the "London School" as the originator. Isn't that a bit of a sticky wicket.
The London School Recipe
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz Lemon Juice
The Embury School
Embury cites the motorcycle sidecar in France theory as the origin, but goes on to change the ratio of the drink to that of his daiquiri, or 8:2:1 ratio, making for a very dry, and much less sweet cocktail.
His view was that this drink was a daiquiri with Brandy, replacing the rum, lemon replacing the lime (lemons and limes were interchangeable ingredients for some time) and Cointreau replacing the sugar or simple syrup as the sweetener.
The Modern Sidecar.
Over the twentieth century a sugared rim, triple sec and even concentrated lime juice have been called for in the recipe.
The official IBA recipe follows the "Paris school" recipe and calls for the sugared rim, and lemon rind as the garnish.
Though not commonly ordered, many bars have the sidecar or a variation on their menu. The current Death & Company menu (one of the most imitated in the world) lists a sidecar variation with the addition of Orchard Pear brandy and Benedictine.
Esquire's drink database has a wonderful quote from David Wondrich on this drink. Robert Hess has his own versionas well and talked in his video series about how he, Dale DeGroff, Ted Haigh and David Wondrich all had strong opinions on what was the right recipe. They had difficulty settling on one recipe to put in their "Museum of the American Cocktail Pocket Recipe Guide". (That link is here if you are interested.)
So what do the board of directors at the Museum of the American Cocktail (MOATC) tout as their favorites? Here are recipes from each:
Sidecar - Dale DeGroff, Essential Cocktails (MOATC President)
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz lemon juice
garnish: Flamed orange peel.
Sidecar - Ted Haigh, cocktailDB (MOATC Curator)
(1:1:1 ratio)
1/3 Cointreau
1/3 brandy
1/3 lemon juice
garnish: not specified
as well as this variation
(3:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz brandy
.5 oz triple sec
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
garnish: none listed
as well as this variation from his book "Vintage Spirits and Forgotton Cocktails"
The Ritz Sidecar
5 parts very old cognac (1.5 oz)
3 parts Cointreau (9/10 oz)
2 parts fresh lemon juice (6/10 oz)
garnish: none listed
"Shake in iced cocktail shaker, strain tremulously in to chilled cocktail glass."
Sidecar - Robert Hess (MOATC Secretary)
(4:2:1 ratio)
2 oz cognac
1 oz Cointreau
.5 oz lemon juice.
garnish: lemon twist
and from the board of advisers
Sidecar (David Wondrich, Esquire)
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz lime juice
garnish: serve in glass rubbed with lemon juice and dipped in sugar.
Sidecar (Gary Regan, Joy of Mixology)
(3:2:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
1 oz triple-sec
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
garnish: lemon twist in sugar rimmed glass
NOW WHAT?
So....this is obviously a drink to play with, considering that the best minds in the cocktail world, past and present, have been unable to agree on a formula.
Ted Haigh points out in "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" that "The beauty of this cocktail is that if it is too strong you just decrease the brandy. Too sweet? Add more lemon juice. Too sour? Add more Cointreau."
Garry Reagan makes his point in the "Joy of Mixology" that since there is so much variance in the cognac and brandy worlds, it's impossible to have "one true recipe".
Take his example of Courvoiser vs. Hennessy, the former being "sweet, round and plump" and the latter needing more triple sec and just a tad more lemon juice to balance out.
My advice? Skip the sugar rim and garnish with a lemon peel. Use the Paris School (1:1:1) for the drier cognacs like Hennessy the London School (2:1:1) for the and sweeter cognacs like Courvoiser as your starting points. Play with the ratios until you dial in a flavor profile that you enjoy.
Happy Experimenting!
THE SIDECAR
The sidecar was presented by Embury as the classic "must know" brandy drink. Here the choice of cognac or brandy used, and it's flavor profile, drive the proportions of the other ingredients.
Brandy is an ancient spirit, with roots going back to the 12th century. The word brandy is a shortening of "brandywine", which in turn is a derivative from the Dutch word "brandewijn" (which means "burnt wine").
Brandy is certainly my weakest area of knowledge when it comes to the spirit world. I've tended to avoid the whole category and looked to other (and in my mind safer) alternatives to brandy. It's hard to blame anyone for these thoughts after growing up with such disasters as peach brandy, blackberry brandy and the many other artificially created frankensteins that have become popular in the last 50 years.
The more I learn about the "burnt wine", the easier it has become to finally be able to enjoy it.
Armagnac was the first distilled spirit in France, and is made only in the Armagnac region in Southwest of France. It is "single-continuous" distilled in copper stills, and aged in oaken casks from Limousin or Gascony.
Cognac is a term only applied to grape brandy made in the Cognac region of France, and is double distilled in pot stills...and Cognac is what is called for in the original sidecar recipes (along with Cointreau and lemon juice).
The origins of this drink are just as unclear as the first four in the "Embury six" that I have explored. There are two main "origin" stories for this one. There is the "Paris School" and the "London School", each with their own recipe, which I will explore in greater depth later.
A third option, worth keeping in mind, was presented by Dale Degroff in his book "Essential Cocktail".
Dale points out that the word sidecar in the cocktail world refers to a small glass or shot glass that the bar tender keeps for "over-pours". When they miss their mark on their ingredients, and end up with a little left over, they would pour the extra into the "sidecar".
This drink bears a strong resemblance to the "Brandy Crusta", (which hails from New Orleans, and is accredited to a well known Spanish caterer by the name of Joseph Santini around 1852.) There are differences, the crusta calls for bitters and sometimes maraschino and has a sugared rim. Even today, some sidecar recipes include instructions for the sugared rim as part of the garnish.
If bartenders of the day found that the crusta was one of their favorite "overpours" to end up in their "side cars", then it's not too much of a stretch to think that this could be the actual origin of the name.
Since were on a historical journey, let's go ahead and take a look at the two main schools of thought anyway.
The Paris School
The more well known of the two schools, this story has many variables.
Sometime in Paris, during or shortly after World War I, an American Army captain often traveled around in a motorcycle sidecar. One day, when he was under the weather, he requested something that would help him feel better, and the drink was named the "Sidecar", as a tribute to its original patron.
Embury also credits the invention of the drink to an American Army captain in Paris during World War I. He also claimed that the drink was named after the motorcycle sidecar, in which the good captain was driven to and from the little bistro where the drink was born and christened".
I've also read that the captain had the driver bring the motorcycle right up to the bar to order! It then seems to evolve into the captain going to the Ritz Hotel on a regular basis, and this was his favorite drink to ward off the chill of the winter nights. This theory was dramatized in a recent Cointreau advert.
For me, the fact that there is no name associated with the captain, and that there are so many versions of the story out there, it smacks more of legend than fact.
The Paris School Recipe
(1:1:1 ratio)
1 oz Cognac
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz Lemon Juice
This is the earliest known recipe, and it appeared in two books published in 1922; Robert Vermeire's "Cocktails and How to Mix Them", and Harry MacElhone's Harry's "ABC of Mixing Cocktails".
The London School
The story here, is that the sidecar was created at the London Buck's Club in the 1920's. It is most often credited to Pat MacGarry, who was one of the Buck Club's well known bartenders at the time.
Interestingly, in early editions of "ABC of Mixing Cocktails", MacElhone cites the inventor as Pat MacGarry, "the Popular bar-tender at Buck's Club, London" but in later editions, he cites himself.
Vermiere said in his book, "This cocktail is very popular in France. It was first introduced in London by
MacGarry, the celebrated bar-tender of Buck's Club."
So. you have the two books publishing the recipe for the first time using the Paris School recipe, but pointing to the founder of the "London School" as the originator. Isn't that a bit of a sticky wicket.
The London School Recipe
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz Lemon Juice
The Embury School
Embury cites the motorcycle sidecar in France theory as the origin, but goes on to change the ratio of the drink to that of his daiquiri, or 8:2:1 ratio, making for a very dry, and much less sweet cocktail.
His view was that this drink was a daiquiri with Brandy, replacing the rum, lemon replacing the lime (lemons and limes were interchangeable ingredients for some time) and Cointreau replacing the sugar or simple syrup as the sweetener.
Sidecar à la Embury
(8:2:1 ratio)
1 part (1/4 oz) Sugar Syrup
2 parts (1/2 oz) Lime Juice
8 Parts (2 oz) Brandy or Cognac
The Modern Sidecar.
Over the twentieth century a sugared rim, triple sec and even concentrated lime juice have been called for in the recipe.
The official IBA recipe follows the "Paris school" recipe and calls for the sugared rim, and lemon rind as the garnish.
Though not commonly ordered, many bars have the sidecar or a variation on their menu. The current Death & Company menu (one of the most imitated in the world) lists a sidecar variation with the addition of Orchard Pear brandy and Benedictine.
Esquire's drink database has a wonderful quote from David Wondrich on this drink. Robert Hess has his own versionas well and talked in his video series about how he, Dale DeGroff, Ted Haigh and David Wondrich all had strong opinions on what was the right recipe. They had difficulty settling on one recipe to put in their "Museum of the American Cocktail Pocket Recipe Guide". (That link is here if you are interested.)
So what do the board of directors at the Museum of the American Cocktail (MOATC) tout as their favorites? Here are recipes from each:
Sidecar - Dale DeGroff, Essential Cocktails (MOATC President)
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz lemon juice
garnish: Flamed orange peel.
Sidecar - Ted Haigh, cocktailDB (MOATC Curator)
(1:1:1 ratio)
1/3 Cointreau
1/3 brandy
1/3 lemon juice
garnish: not specified
as well as this variation
(3:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz brandy
.5 oz triple sec
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
garnish: none listed
as well as this variation from his book "Vintage Spirits and Forgotton Cocktails"
The Ritz Sidecar
5 parts very old cognac (1.5 oz)
3 parts Cointreau (9/10 oz)
2 parts fresh lemon juice (6/10 oz)
garnish: none listed
"Shake in iced cocktail shaker, strain tremulously in to chilled cocktail glass."
Sidecar - Robert Hess (MOATC Secretary)
(4:2:1 ratio)
2 oz cognac
1 oz Cointreau
.5 oz lemon juice.
garnish: lemon twist
and from the board of advisers
Sidecar (David Wondrich, Esquire)
(2:1:1 ratio)
1.5 oz cognac
.75 oz Cointreau
.75 oz lime juice
garnish: serve in glass rubbed with lemon juice and dipped in sugar.
Sidecar (Gary Regan, Joy of Mixology)
(3:2:1 ratio)
1.5 oz Cognac
1 oz triple-sec
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
garnish: lemon twist in sugar rimmed glass
NOW WHAT?
So....this is obviously a drink to play with, considering that the best minds in the cocktail world, past and present, have been unable to agree on a formula.
Ted Haigh points out in "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" that "The beauty of this cocktail is that if it is too strong you just decrease the brandy. Too sweet? Add more lemon juice. Too sour? Add more Cointreau."
Garry Reagan makes his point in the "Joy of Mixology" that since there is so much variance in the cognac and brandy worlds, it's impossible to have "one true recipe".
Take his example of Courvoiser vs. Hennessy, the former being "sweet, round and plump" and the latter needing more triple sec and just a tad more lemon juice to balance out.
My advice? Skip the sugar rim and garnish with a lemon peel. Use the Paris School (1:1:1) for the drier cognacs like Hennessy the London School (2:1:1) for the and sweeter cognacs like Courvoiser as your starting points. Play with the ratios until you dial in a flavor profile that you enjoy.
Happy Experimenting!
Turf Cocktail No. 2
TURF COCKTAIL NO.2
Basically a simplified Martinez, this cocktail appears in Jacques Straub's 1914 book, "Drinks" with the following instructions:
Turf Cocktail No.2
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1/3 jigger Italian Vermouth
2/3 jigger Holland Gin. Stir
Super simple, I used 2 oz of Zuidam 5 Oude Genever, 1 oz of Carpano Antica Italian sweet vermouth and added a lemon twist.
Not quite dark, not quite light...if there was a "medium and stirred" category this would qualify. It's nice, I also noticed the flavors improving as the drink warmed a bit.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
The Daiquiri
The Daiquiri, Drink #4 of my "Embury six" series.
This is a rum drink. I believe that it is the rum drink. It's certainly a fantastic benchmark recipe to judge a rum by. The daiquiri is also perhaps my favorite of the six drinks that Embury lists as "the six basics that everyone should know how to make".
With the simple ingredients of rum, lime juice and sugar, come an amazing array of flavors based on the rum used. Certainly there is some play in flavor with the sugar used, but this drink is really all about the base spirit...rum.
Give an educated bar tender a new bottle of rum to try. Chances are, the first thing that they will do is whip up a daiquiri to see how the rum works in a cocktail.
Where did this cocktail come from? Like most of the drinks in this series, it has undergone many drastic changes over the years which have lead to it's near complete downfall. The good news is that the daiquiri is slowly and steadily making a comeback in it's original form.
A popular story that ran in the Miami Herald in 1937, says that Jennings Cox invented the drink known as the daiquiri in the late 1800's. Cox was an American expatriate that worked for the Spanish-American Iron Company, situated near the village of Daiquiri about 4 miles east of Santiago de Cuba.
The story goes that Cox ran out of gin while entertaining American guests. Unsure about serving local rum straight up, Cox added lime juice and sugar to improve the rum’s taste.
There's evidence that the drink had been popular in Cuba for some time by then so this claim is often disputed. Maybe Cox had a house servent that "helped" him with the recipe?
It's also very close to the Navy grog recipe from the late 1700's, which is most likely the original inspiration for the daiquiri.
What does seem to be an accepted fact is that the drink stayed in Cuba until 1909, when Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, a US Navy medical officer, tried Cox’s drink. Johnson subsequently introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C. and popularity of the daiquiri increased over the space of a few decades.
The Daiquiri and the Bacardi Cocktail
The photo below, is a full page ad taken out in the January, 1915 edition of "Our Navy", which was dedicated to describing Cuba's importance as a naval stronghold for the US at the time.
It lists the recipe for a Daiquiri that is more or less the same as the modern version.
In 1936, Barcardi sought and was granted "An injunction prohibiting the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel and the Wivel Restaurant in West Fifty-fourth Street, from serving Bacardi cocktails containing other than the rum manufactured by the Compania Ron Bacardi,was issued yesterday by Supreme Court Justice John L. Walsh."
I believe that this makes the "Barcardi Cocktail" the oldest trademarked drink in the world.
When the case was tried in 1936, the prosecutors brought in top bar men from around the world, to testify to the fact that no respecting bar man would serve a Bacardi cocktail using any other rum. At this time, the recipe was still the same as that listed in the advertisment from 1915.
Eventually, the simple syrup or sugar in the Bacardi Cocktail was replaced with grenadine. The same drink now, with a non-Bacardi rum is called a "Daiquiri Grenadine" or a "Pink Daiquiri".
Hugo Ennslin's 1916 release "Recipes for Mixed Drinks" is considered the earliest cocktail book to include the daiquiri . His recipe called for:
Daiquiri - à la Ennslin (1916)
1 JIGGER BACARDI RUM
2 DASHES GUM SYRUP
JUICE OF HALF A LIME
Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.
There was an earlier recipe worth noting however. Mostly likly written in late 1912 and published in 1914, the book "Drinks" by Staub included this recipe. It was described by Wondrich in "Imbibe" as "garbled", which is quite fitting. Note the reversed proportions of the lime juice and rum.
Daiguiri Cocktail (not a typo)
2/3 jigger lime juice.
1/3 jigger rum
1 barspoon powdered sugar.
Shake well in fine ice; strain into a cocktail glass.
The following is an excerpt from "Cruise of the Hippocampus". It was published in 1922, and written by Alfred Loomis, who took his 28 foot sailboat down to Panama and wrote of his adventures. When stopping in Havana he wrote:
Dodging the terrible Fordingos (as Cubans term the familiar Ford, which, all decked out in gorgeous upholstery, taxies in great numbers along Havana's congested thoroughfares) we next strolled about looking for a restaurant.
When we had found one that seemed commensurate both with our fastidiousness and the leanness of our pocketbooks, we entered, sat down before a clean white tablecloth, and ordered a meal which ineluded Spanish omelet and an ice-cream flavored with the delicious tropical fruit mamey.
All of this, which is long-winded in the telling, but was longer in the happening, we did before— We ordered a round of daiquiris.
A daiquiri, be it known, comes to the table in a cool, dewy glass of the type used at home in the ancient, unregenerate heyday of the cocktail. In color it may be a delicate shade of green or it may be the hue of claret. But it contains no such vinous admixture, being composed of lime, sugar, and the finest Bacardi rum.
It was my treat, in expiation of the old sin of making an atrocious landfall at Charleston, South Carolina, and we drank to happy days. Were I a doctor I would universally prescribe daiquiris for parched throats and arid dispositions.
I think this sums up the general experience travellers to Cuba had around the early twentieth century. (I would also agree wholeheartedly that a daiquiri could be universally prescribed for parched throats and arid dispositions!)
So what about that frozen daiquiri? That has to be an abomination from the 70's right? Not exactly.
In 1914, a Catalan immigrant by the name of Constantino Ribalaigua Vert started working in the bar, as cantinero (bartender). Constantino, nicknamed Constante, became the owner in 1918. He is credited for inventing the frozen daiquiri in the early 1930s, a drink that became linked to the fame of the place and is still known as the "El Floridita".
One of Constantino's most famous patrons was Earnest Hemingway. The "Papa Doble" and the "Hemingway Special" are popular frozen variations on the drink that originated in the El Foridita. These drinks have their own convoluted history which is long enough to warrant a new post entirely.
What's not in question is that rather than shake the drink, Constantino mixed them in "an electric mixer over shaved ice, whirled vigorously and served foaming in large goblets.” This according to a 1948 report from A.E. Hotchner who went to "drink innumerable Papa Dobles at the Floridita, with the great man himself", and paid attention to what Constante was doing.
Hemingway himself was known to describe a well made daiquiri's texture as looking “like the sea where the wave falls away from the bow of a ship when she is doing thirty knots.”
So they made a frozen daiquiri. They didn't use triple sec or flavored schnapps, they didn't use "lime concentrate" or Rose's lime juice, and they certainly didn't use a pre-made mix with all kinds of artificial syrups and flavorings. Yet it was a frozen daiquiri, and it was first made at the El Floridita.
So, as long as you are using fresh ingredients with good proportions, a frozen daiquiri has historical roots and deserves to be called a legitimate cocktail.
What really pushed the daiquiri into the spotlight in the US, was wartime rationing in the 40's which made whiskey, gin, etc. hard to come by.
Because of Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy, which opened up trade and travel relations with Latin America, Cuba and the Caribbean, rum was easily obtainable.
The Good Neighbor Policy, which was also known as 'The Pan-American program" also helped make Latin America seem fashionable. Rum-based drinks had been commonly frowned upon as being the domain of sailors and those down on their luck. Now they were all the rage, and the daiquiri saw a precipitous rise in popularity.
The drink did not survive the cocktail dark ages well. It emerged as a sickly sweet & syrupy mess, in all manner of exotic flavors using flavored schnapps and the like.
The reputation of the daiquiri has fallen as a result. As recently as a year ago, when asking bartenders for a daiquiri - even in "reputable" establishments - I have received the response "We don't do daiquiris here".
My response to which has always been, "of course you can". Do you have rum? limes? simple syrup? Then you're aces mack.
Now I'm starting to hear the response, "Oh, I meant we don't do frozen daiquiris."...its a start.
Before I get into the new modern version, let's check in with our good friend Mr. Embury.
Embury on the Daiquiri
David said that:
"The original and correct recipe for the Daiquiri is stated in terms of a single cocktail as 1/2 teaspoonful of sugar, juice of half a lime, and 1 jiggerful of white label rum. This is a difficult (to)t improve upon. It is dry, yet smooth. The reaction time is short. The lime and rum blend perfectly. The Daiquiri, like the Old-Fashioned, deserves an even greater popularity than it now enjoys."
He goes on to say that in his opinion, the Daiquiri is vastly superior to the Manhattan. He points out that most bars sell more Manhattans than Daiquiris blaming it on inferior rums and use of improper proportions. However his proportions do make for an extra-dry variation.
THE DAIQUIRI
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| Simply an easy favorite...when made well. |
This is a rum drink. I believe that it is the rum drink. It's certainly a fantastic benchmark recipe to judge a rum by. The daiquiri is also perhaps my favorite of the six drinks that Embury lists as "the six basics that everyone should know how to make".
With the simple ingredients of rum, lime juice and sugar, come an amazing array of flavors based on the rum used. Certainly there is some play in flavor with the sugar used, but this drink is really all about the base spirit...rum.
Give an educated bar tender a new bottle of rum to try. Chances are, the first thing that they will do is whip up a daiquiri to see how the rum works in a cocktail.
Where did this cocktail come from? Like most of the drinks in this series, it has undergone many drastic changes over the years which have lead to it's near complete downfall. The good news is that the daiquiri is slowly and steadily making a comeback in it's original form.
A popular story that ran in the Miami Herald in 1937, says that Jennings Cox invented the drink known as the daiquiri in the late 1800's. Cox was an American expatriate that worked for the Spanish-American Iron Company, situated near the village of Daiquiri about 4 miles east of Santiago de Cuba.
The story goes that Cox ran out of gin while entertaining American guests. Unsure about serving local rum straight up, Cox added lime juice and sugar to improve the rum’s taste.
There's evidence that the drink had been popular in Cuba for some time by then so this claim is often disputed. Maybe Cox had a house servent that "helped" him with the recipe?
It's also very close to the Navy grog recipe from the late 1700's, which is most likely the original inspiration for the daiquiri.
What does seem to be an accepted fact is that the drink stayed in Cuba until 1909, when Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, a US Navy medical officer, tried Cox’s drink. Johnson subsequently introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C. and popularity of the daiquiri increased over the space of a few decades.
The Daiquiri and the Bacardi Cocktail
The photo below, is a full page ad taken out in the January, 1915 edition of "Our Navy", which was dedicated to describing Cuba's importance as a naval stronghold for the US at the time.
It lists the recipe for a Daiquiri that is more or less the same as the modern version.
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| Bacardi, the "Latest in Clubdom." |
In 1936, Barcardi sought and was granted "An injunction prohibiting the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel and the Wivel Restaurant in West Fifty-fourth Street, from serving Bacardi cocktails containing other than the rum manufactured by the Compania Ron Bacardi,was issued yesterday by Supreme Court Justice John L. Walsh."
I believe that this makes the "Barcardi Cocktail" the oldest trademarked drink in the world.
When the case was tried in 1936, the prosecutors brought in top bar men from around the world, to testify to the fact that no respecting bar man would serve a Bacardi cocktail using any other rum. At this time, the recipe was still the same as that listed in the advertisment from 1915.
Eventually, the simple syrup or sugar in the Bacardi Cocktail was replaced with grenadine. The same drink now, with a non-Bacardi rum is called a "Daiquiri Grenadine" or a "Pink Daiquiri".
Hugo Ennslin's 1916 release "Recipes for Mixed Drinks" is considered the earliest cocktail book to include the daiquiri . His recipe called for:
Daiquiri - à la Ennslin (1916)
1 JIGGER BACARDI RUM
2 DASHES GUM SYRUP
JUICE OF HALF A LIME
Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.
There was an earlier recipe worth noting however. Mostly likly written in late 1912 and published in 1914, the book "Drinks" by Staub included this recipe. It was described by Wondrich in "Imbibe" as "garbled", which is quite fitting. Note the reversed proportions of the lime juice and rum.
Daiguiri Cocktail (not a typo)
2/3 jigger lime juice.
1/3 jigger rum
1 barspoon powdered sugar.
Shake well in fine ice; strain into a cocktail glass.
The following is an excerpt from "Cruise of the Hippocampus". It was published in 1922, and written by Alfred Loomis, who took his 28 foot sailboat down to Panama and wrote of his adventures. When stopping in Havana he wrote:
Dodging the terrible Fordingos (as Cubans term the familiar Ford, which, all decked out in gorgeous upholstery, taxies in great numbers along Havana's congested thoroughfares) we next strolled about looking for a restaurant.
When we had found one that seemed commensurate both with our fastidiousness and the leanness of our pocketbooks, we entered, sat down before a clean white tablecloth, and ordered a meal which ineluded Spanish omelet and an ice-cream flavored with the delicious tropical fruit mamey.
All of this, which is long-winded in the telling, but was longer in the happening, we did before— We ordered a round of daiquiris.
A daiquiri, be it known, comes to the table in a cool, dewy glass of the type used at home in the ancient, unregenerate heyday of the cocktail. In color it may be a delicate shade of green or it may be the hue of claret. But it contains no such vinous admixture, being composed of lime, sugar, and the finest Bacardi rum.
It was my treat, in expiation of the old sin of making an atrocious landfall at Charleston, South Carolina, and we drank to happy days. Were I a doctor I would universally prescribe daiquiris for parched throats and arid dispositions.
I think this sums up the general experience travellers to Cuba had around the early twentieth century. (I would also agree wholeheartedly that a daiquiri could be universally prescribed for parched throats and arid dispositions!)
So what about that frozen daiquiri? That has to be an abomination from the 70's right? Not exactly.
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| This is just wrong, so very, very wrong. (...stock photo) |
One of Constantino's most famous patrons was Earnest Hemingway. The "Papa Doble" and the "Hemingway Special" are popular frozen variations on the drink that originated in the El Foridita. These drinks have their own convoluted history which is long enough to warrant a new post entirely.
What's not in question is that rather than shake the drink, Constantino mixed them in "an electric mixer over shaved ice, whirled vigorously and served foaming in large goblets.” This according to a 1948 report from A.E. Hotchner who went to "drink innumerable Papa Dobles at the Floridita, with the great man himself", and paid attention to what Constante was doing.
Hemingway himself was known to describe a well made daiquiri's texture as looking “like the sea where the wave falls away from the bow of a ship when she is doing thirty knots.”
So they made a frozen daiquiri. They didn't use triple sec or flavored schnapps, they didn't use "lime concentrate" or Rose's lime juice, and they certainly didn't use a pre-made mix with all kinds of artificial syrups and flavorings. Yet it was a frozen daiquiri, and it was first made at the El Floridita.
So, as long as you are using fresh ingredients with good proportions, a frozen daiquiri has historical roots and deserves to be called a legitimate cocktail.
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| Spencer Tracy with Ernest and Mary Hemingway in "La Florida", Havana, Cuba, ca. 1955 |
What really pushed the daiquiri into the spotlight in the US, was wartime rationing in the 40's which made whiskey, gin, etc. hard to come by.
Because of Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy, which opened up trade and travel relations with Latin America, Cuba and the Caribbean, rum was easily obtainable.
The Good Neighbor Policy, which was also known as 'The Pan-American program" also helped make Latin America seem fashionable. Rum-based drinks had been commonly frowned upon as being the domain of sailors and those down on their luck. Now they were all the rage, and the daiquiri saw a precipitous rise in popularity.
The drink did not survive the cocktail dark ages well. It emerged as a sickly sweet & syrupy mess, in all manner of exotic flavors using flavored schnapps and the like.
The reputation of the daiquiri has fallen as a result. As recently as a year ago, when asking bartenders for a daiquiri - even in "reputable" establishments - I have received the response "We don't do daiquiris here".
My response to which has always been, "of course you can". Do you have rum? limes? simple syrup? Then you're aces mack.
Now I'm starting to hear the response, "Oh, I meant we don't do frozen daiquiris."...its a start.
Before I get into the new modern version, let's check in with our good friend Mr. Embury.
Embury on the Daiquiri
David said that:
"The original and correct recipe for the Daiquiri is stated in terms of a single cocktail as 1/2 teaspoonful of sugar, juice of half a lime, and 1 jiggerful of white label rum. This is a difficult (to)t improve upon. It is dry, yet smooth. The reaction time is short. The lime and rum blend perfectly. The Daiquiri, like the Old-Fashioned, deserves an even greater popularity than it now enjoys."
He goes on to say that in his opinion, the Daiquiri is vastly superior to the Manhattan. He points out that most bars sell more Manhattans than Daiquiris blaming it on inferior rums and use of improper proportions. However his proportions do make for an extra-dry variation.
Daiquiri à la Embury
1 part (1/4 oz) Sugar Syrup
2 parts (1/2 oz) Lime Juice
8 Parts (2 oz) White Label Cuban Rum |
I thought this sounded very dry but that maybe with a really good rum that it might be good. I used Havana Club 7 and gum syrup, it was very dry, but also very good! |
THE DAIQUIRI
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| El Dorado 3 year old makes an exceptionally good daiquiri and is worth looking for. |
The Daiquiri
2 oz rum
3/4 oz lime juice (fresh)
1/2 oz simple syrup
Shake well with ice and strain into a coupe.
Lime slice garnish optional.
Lastly, a word on simple syrup and rum drinks.
When using a light rum like an El Dorado 3 or Flor de Cana 4, I prefer the clean and crisp taste provided by a regular simple syrup made with processed (white) sugar.
If making your simple syrup at home, use white sugar in a 1:1 ratio to make your syrup to use with these (light) rums.
If making your simple syrup at home, use white sugar in a 1:1 ratio to make your syrup to use with these (light) rums.
You can use pretty much any rum you want, with the spiced and black strap rums being the possible exceptions.
If you are going with a darker rum, then try a syrup made with a darker (rawer) sugar. The petite canne sugar cane syrup goes especially well with darker rums, like the El Dorado 15 or even a Havana 7.
If making a syrup at home to mix with these rums, go with a 2:1 sugar to water ratio and use a turbinado or demerara sugar.
If making a syrup at home to mix with these rums, go with a 2:1 sugar to water ratio and use a turbinado or demerara sugar.
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| When I served this to my wife she told me that she would have to be careful not to drink it in less time than it took to make. A perfect compliment, because this is very hard to do! |
Enjoy a Daiquiri.
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