Havana Club Cocktail

Havana Club Cocktail

Another Embury recipe, this one gets a little more explanation than most. Embuy starts by saying:

The manufacturers of Havana Club, one of the finest Cuban rums, recommend the use of sweet vermouth instead of dry, thereby making the drink a Rum Manhattan. The recipe suggested by them, however, is much too sweet. Here is a modification:


HAVANA CLUB


1 part (3/4 oz)Italian Vermouth
3 parts (2 1/4 oz) Havana Club Gold Label Rum


Stir with large cubes of ice. Decorate with a cherry. This drink is improved by adding 1 dash of Angostura to each drink.

Even with the cherry and dash of bitters this cocktail is very dry, just as Embury preferred. 


It has quite a bite at first, but then mellows as you get further in. As it warmed, the crisp, nutty flavors of the rum become more pronounced taking on an almost rye-like quality, while maintaining the vanilla and tropical fruit flavors which are a perfect match for the Antica's sweet heady florals. 

The Demi-Virgin

The Demi-Virgin

A recipe from David A. Embury's 1948 book, "The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks".

When I came across this one it looked worthy of a try, and what better "quirky" Embury drink to cap the series with?

I did a little digging on the drink's unusual name, and found that the "The Demi-Virgin" was also the name of a play that ran in New York City's "Eltinge" theater in late 1921. It was put on by a prominent promoter of the day, Avery Hopwood, who had two other shows running at the same time.

It was quite a controversial play and after a short run, it was ordered  to shut down.

The "Gossip of Rialto" column, that ran in the NY Times on Sept. 4, 1921, announced that the play had begun rehearsals. It was reported that on October 16th, local police had seen it fit to shut down an early viewing in Pittsburgh, before the show had ended.

It's Broadway opening on October 18th caused quite a sensation. (The article is a great read, I've linked it here.) By late November, New York City officials had begun attempts to shut the play down by revoking the theater's license.

The NY Times ran an article on January 4, 1922 announcing that the ban on the play had been upheld by a judge, and that the theatrical producer's request to lift the ban had been denied. It also mentioned that the play was still running as of that day, and that the city official in charge of the matter had been waiting for word of the Judge's order to shut down the production for good.

During the hearing to overturn the ban, a witness for the city characterized the play as "immoral, obscene and shocking to the sense of decency of even the most abandoned."

The "shock-rock" of it's day if you will...and great inspiration for a drink name.

This cocktail is a tasty treat, that it never caught on is probably due to it's name. "I'll have a Demi-Virgin, she said with a wink." How about Don Draper calling for one? I just don't see too many of the 50's cocktail-types having the confidence to pull that one off.

Well, maybe the "most abandoned"...but this was a time when the mainstream culture was extremely conservative, and that's putting it mildly.

It's a gem though, and worthy of a second chance.

The Demi-Virgin

Ingredients


1 part Grenadine (1/4 oz)
2 parts Lime Juice (1/2 oz)
8 parts Gin (2 oz)
1 dash orange bitters "to each drink" (which I take to mean, "after you've strained into the glass for maximum aromatic effect").


Instructions


Shake well with cracked or crushed ice. 

The Jack Rose

This is the sixth and final installment in my "Embury six" series.

THE JACK ROSE

Some of you will no doubt be familiar with this cocktail, others I will assume "don't know Jack".

Of Embury's six basic cocktails there are 1 gin, 2 whiskey, 1 rum, 1 brandy...and 1 applejack recipe. Applejack? Really? It seems out of place with the other base spirits...or does it?

Applejack and America

What is Applejack? Nothing less than America's original whiskey.

Applejack, or "Jersey Lightening" is basically really hard apple cider and was commonly made in colonial America. Early in New Jersey's history, applejack was used as currency to pay the workers building the state's roads.

"Jacking" is the term for freeze distillation. The colonists would leave barrels of hard cider (or even shallow bowls) out in the winter elements, and scrape the ice off the top as it formed. Eventually they were left with a concentrated alcohol.

The process also concentrates impurities (fusel alcohols) that are removed when "heat" distillation techniques are employed, making this a brutal and dangerous form of hooch.

When Scottish distiller William Laird settled in New Jersey in 1698, he applied his technical know-how to the local crop of his new home, apples!

Apples had been cultivated in the colonies since the 1630's and were readily available. By employing traditional whiskey making techniques that he brought with him from Scotland, he produced America's first refined apple brandy. A heat distilled product that was aged in oak, just like any other whiskey, and which was America's first fine spirit.

In 1717, a "descendant" of William Laird built the Colts Neck Inn in Colts Neck, New Jersey.

William Laird's grandson Robert was a Revolutionary War soldier, and the Laird family supplied the troops with applejack. Sometime around 1760, George Washington wrote to the Laird family requesting their recipe for producing applejack, which the Laird family gladly supplied.

In 1780, operating out of the family center of operations at the "Colt's Neck Inn", Robert started "Laird & Co." and received United States Liquor license #1. The company still has records that date all the way back to this beginning!

Their first commercial records show that "cyder spirits" - applejack - was a standard item on the menu and sold at a price of four shillings, six pence per gallon. This represented about a half-day’s wages at the time! (For more on the Laird's unique history in America, here's an excellent article from the New York Times.)



James and Joseph Laird on left. Door to bonded warehouse indicating licence #1 on right.



Applejack Today

Although at one point there were more than 400 small, farm-based distilleries in New Jersey making applejack, Laird's is now the only one left from that group.

Current law requires that any "applejack" be aged in used bourbon barrels for a minimum of four years. The 80-proof bottle easily found on shelves in any liquor store is a product of the 1970's. At the time, it was created in response to America's growing taste for "lighter "spirits.

Laird's 80-proof applejack is made up of a blend of 35% straight apple brandy and 65% neutral grain spirits. It takes about 6 pounds of apples on average to make one bottle of this blend.

The un-blended styles, basically apple whiskeys, are still available.There is the Laird's 100-proof straight apple brandy, Laird's 80-proof Old Apple Brandy (Aged for a minimum of seven and a half years), and Laird's 88-proof 12 Year old apple brandy.

These are hard to find however. The easiest of the un-blended expressions to find is the 100-proof, straight apple brandy. Here the brandy that makes up only 35% of the 80-proof "applejack" is bottled at full strength. It takes around 20 pounds of apples to make a single bottle of this spirit!

Johnny Appleseed

One of the more interesting facts to come to light when researching America's love for applejack, regards one John Chapman, a.k.a. "Johnny Appleseed".

We were taught as school children that Johnny Appleseed wandered the country barefooted, wearing tin pots on his head and spreading apple seeds randomly. All bollocks with the exception of the bare feet, and then only in the summer to "save on leather".

He actually planted nurseries rather than orchards, going so far as to build fences around the nurseries to protect them from livestock. He would leave the nurseries in the care of a local, who would sell the trees on shares. John would return every year or two to tend to the nurseries.

Chapman's managers were asked to sell the trees on credit. He would accept corn meal, cash or used clothing in barter. While Chapman was hardly alone in this business pattern, he was unusual in that he remained a wanderer his entire life.

Here's the real kicker. It was the (hard) cider industry that drove this activity. By Chapman's time, the nation's thirst for cider and apple brandy was greater than what the supply of apples could provide! A fact conveniently omitted from the Appleseed legend.

Grenadine

Grenadine derives it's name from the French word grenade, meaning pomegranate. True grenadine syrup is made from the pomegranate's juice. Nearly every culture in the world has cultivated and revered the pomegranate as a symbol of fertility and abundance. (There's a great wiki on it here.)

By medieval times or even earlier, pomegranates have been processed into all sorts of syrups and tinctures.

It's first use in barcraft is often (and erroneously) accredited to a bartender by the name of "Jack Bender". Jack is said to have used grenadine for the first time when he introduced the original Sea Breeze cocktail in the 1920's.

Since bartending manuals were calling for grenadine in the Jack Rose (and other) recipes as early as 1910, we can assume that the credit should go elsewhere and that it was a fairly common ingredient by the 1920's

Today's ubiquitous "Rose's" grenadine, is compiled mainly of high fructose corn syrup. It is artificially flavored to taste more like raspberries than pomegranates.

For off the shelf choices, Stirrings makes a decent pomegranate grenadine, and Monin's Pomegranate syrup works well too (if not better).

If you want to make the fresh stuff, you can easily make your own grenadine with a pomegranate juice like POM's, but it's likely to result in a dark product that will turn your cocktails brown.

I used POM juice the last time I made grenadine at home and it was not terrible aside from the muddy appearance it gave my cocktails. I decided to pick up some fresh pomegranates and make it with fresh juice this time, and what a difference! Fresh pomegranate juice is definitely the way to go.

FRESH GRENADINE

Ingredients

1 cup fresh pomegranate juice
1 cup unbleached sugar
1/2 oz Tanqueray 10 (or other high proof, quality gin)
1/4 oz Monin's Raspberry syrup
1/4 oz DeKuyper Bessen Genever (you could use Plymouth sloe gin)
1 barspoon orange flower water

Instructions

1) Juice the pomegranates. You will need a sturdy juicer with a cone and seed catcher.

2) Strain the juice.

3) Add the sugar, heat over low heat stirring until sugar has dissolved. Let Cool.

4) Stir in the remaining ingredients and bottle.

Pomegranate molasses is a common ingredient that I did not have so I used the sloe gin-like "bessen genever" I picked up in Germany this fall. The gin is only used as a preservative so you can substitute vodka if you like.

What a color!

The Jack Rose's History

This was a post about a cocktail right? The Jack Rose's history is also a bit tricky, with varying legends associated with it's origin.

Jacob "Bald Jack" Rosenweig (1875-Oct 4, 1947)

The most colorful and popular story claims that a gambler and New York City underworld figure, Jacob Rosenweig, had this drink named after him or created it himself.

Jacob had several alias' including "Bald Jack Rose", "Baldy Jack Rose" and "Billiard Ball Jack". He operated a gambling resort on the east side of Manhattan known as 'The Rosebud", which was a popular underworld hangout.

The story goes that a drink containing "one jigger of applejack, juice of half a lemon, half an ounce of grenadine, shaken with ice, and strained", was named in his honor.

In 1912, the same year that Bald Jack was a star witness in the controversial "Becker-Rosenthal" case, an article appeared claiming that his infamy had put such a dent in the drink's popularity that some bartenders started calling the drink the "Royal Smile" instead.

The drinks roots in print actually go back to an article from 1905, in the April 22nd edition of the "National Police Gazette", which read:

"Frank J. May,  better known as Jack Rose, is the inventor of a very popular cocktail by that name, which has made him famous as a mixologist.  He is at present looking after the managerial affairs of Gene Sullivan's Cafe, at 187 Pavonia avenue, Jersey City, N. J., one of the most popular resorts in that city."

We're not quite done with the story yet though. Most historians agree that the drink was likely to predate any of these references. 

As we've seen, Applejack has long been the state drink of New Jersey and the early colonies in general. It's far more likely that someone sweetened their Jersey or Applejack Sour with some grenadine, noted it's rosy appearance, and named the drink accordingly.

Early Jack Rose Recipes

The first time we see the Jack Rose recipe in a cocktail book, is in the 1908 publication of "Jack's Manual" by J. A. Grohusko. The then appears in several books over the next decade, as the recipe evolved.

1908 - J.A. Grohusko from "Jack's Manual"

1 teaspoonful sugar

10 dashes Raspberry syrup

10 dashed lemon juice

5 dashes orange juice

Juice 1/2 lime

75% cider brandy.

Fill glass with cracked ice, shake and strain, fill with fizz water and serve.

Appearing in a new appendix added in the 1910 edition and accredited to R.H. Townes of 62 William St., New York. 

1910 - William H. Boothby from "The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them"

"The juice of one lemon, one part grenadine syrup, and two pats Apple Jack. Shake well with cracked ice, and strain into a cocktail glass."

David Wondrich in his book "Imbibe", credits Jacques Straub's 1914 recipe as the first to resemble today's drink.

1914 - Jacques Straub - Drinks

1 jigger applejack

1/2 lime.

1/4 jigger grenadine syrup. Shake Well.

The Embury Jack Rose

David's reasoning for apple brandy's lack of favor with the public was it's lack of proper aging. He ventured to say that "if some enterprising distiller would put out an apple brandy made with the same loving care as cognac and aged in wood for ten, twenty, or even forty years, it would soon rival grape brandies in popularity, especially for use in mixed drinks". If only someone had listened to him, when the book was first published in 1948.

His take was that this was basically a sidecar with apple brandy used in place of the grape brandy and grenadine (primarily for color) used in place of the Cointreau. He claimed that the drink was "...nothing but a Pink Apple Car." and calmed we should make it like that, prescribing:

JACK ROSE DE LUXE

1 part Grenadine

2 parts Lemon Juice

8 parts Apple Brandy

Shake vigorously with plenty of cracked or crushed ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.A twist of lemon may be used and the peel dropped into the glass if desired. Otherwise no decoration.

He went on to suggest frosting the glass by putting some grenadine in a saucer, dipping the glass in the grenadine, spinning the glass to remove excess drops and dipping the glass into powdered sugar.

The Modern Jack Rose

When researching my post on the sidecar I found it interesting that the members of the Museum Of The American Cocktail (MOTAC) could not agree on a sidecar recipe. Upon digging further into the sidecar, I realized why this made sense. 

The sages of the day 100 years ago did not seem to agree on the Jack Rose, which made me wonder about the MOTAC crew. It turns out they all have their own takes on this cocktail as well.

Dale DeGroff, Essential Cocktails (MOATC President)

1 1/2 oz applejack
3/4 oz simple syrup
3/4 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 oz grenadine
Apple Slice, for garnish
Maraschino cherry, for garnish

Combine applejack, syrup, lemon juice, and grenadine in a mixing glass with ice and shake well. Strain into a small cocktail glass and garnish with the apple slice and cherry.

Ted Haigh, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails (MOATC Curator)

1 1/2 ounces applejack

Juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon - about 1 ounce)
2 or more dashes of real pomegranate grenadine

Shake well in an iced cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a lime (or lemon) wedge.

Robert Hess, Essential Bartender's Guide (MOATC Secretary)

2 1/2 ounces (75ml) applejack

3/4 ounce (22ml) lemon juice
1/2 ounce (15ml) grenadine

Shake well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

...and from the board of advisers

David Wondrich, Esquire Drinks

2 ounces applejack
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce grenadine

Shake the applejack and other ingredients well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Gary Reagan, Joy of Mixology

2 1/2 ounces applejack
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
grenadine to taste
1 lemon twist, for garnish

SHAKE AND STRAIN into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the garnish.

THE JACK ROSE

I must admit to a bit of luck on the lemon version below. The first time out, it was just right. Granted, I'd just transcribed several of the major recipes throughout history, but there it was. A nice rosy aroma from the orange flower water in the fresh grenadine. The beautiful pink blush. The sour apple bite. The warming lemon. It was spot on.

The lime version took a bit of experimenting though. The first time out I tried a 1/2 oz grenadine to 1/2 oz lime juice and it was too sweet. I pulled back to 1/4 oz grenadine and 3/4 oz lime, as I'd done with the lemon juice, and it was too tart.

Splitting the difference at 1/3 oz grenadine and 2/3 oz lime juice and I was back in the pleasure zone with all the wonderful qualities that appeared in the lemon drink reemerging without loosing the bite of the lime. (Be careful though, even sharing the experiments with my wife, we found that the potent 100-proof applejack can really sneak up on you quickly!)

This was my own tasting with a homemade grenadine. I'm posting these recipes as reference only. As you've seen above and throughout this series, it's always best to consider your ingredients, and adjust to your own tastes accordingly.

The Jack Rose with Lemon Juice

Ingredients

2 ounces Laird's 100-proof bonded apple brandy

3/4 ounce Fresh Lemon Juice

1/4 ounce fresh grenadine

Instructions

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. No Garnish

The Jack Rose with Lime Juice

Ingredients

2 ounces Laird's 100-proof bonded apple brandy

2/3 ounce Fresh Lime Juice

1/3 ounce fresh grenadine

Instructions

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. No Garnish

What are you waiting for? Isn't it time for a Jack Rose?

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.

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!

The Daiquiri

The Daiquiri, Drink #4 of my "Embury six" series.

THE DAIQUIRI

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.

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.

This is just wrong, so very, very wrong. (...stock photo)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned. Recipe #3 of my Embury six series.

THE OLD FASHIONED COCKTAIL

In my post on the Manhattan, I included an excerpt from a legal case in 1908 where the definition of a cocktail was quoted from the "Century Dictionary" as being "an American drink, strong, stimulating, and cold, made of spirits, bitters, and a little sugar, with various aromatic and stimulating additions."

This pretty well sums up the Old Fashioned. Originally named so in the late 19th century because even by then this was considered the "Old Fashioned" way of making a cocktail, but how did we get there?

As early as 1803 the cocktail was known well enough to be mentioned in print, without any explanation as to what a cocktail was.

An 1818 edition of the "International Steam Engineer" ran an article titled "The Card Man".

It is the brief account of a man named "Brown" talking to "Jones" on the pros and cons of dealing with union labor. Brown tells Jones:

"...Then there's Pete's place down on the corner where I get my cocktail. Now I am particularly fond of my cocktail ; it's got to be just so, and I seldom can find a union bartender that knows just how to mix a cocktail, but that fellow down at Pete's"

This seems to indicate that union bartenders have always been slow to adopt! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Up until the 1830's these beverages were served at room temperature or even boiling hot. When ice become more readily available it was a total game changer for the cocktail. It was only then that the cocktail really began to take hold.

At some point in the late 1800's, when the Manhattan and Martini started to become really popular, if a customer wanted what had up till then been simply a "whisky cocktail" they would order one to be made in the "Old-Fashioned" way to make sure they got what they wanted.

The first recipe in print appears under the name "Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail" in George Kappler's 1895 book "Modern American Drinks: How to mix and serve all kinds of cups and drinks".

Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail - Kappler 1895

Dissolve a small lump of sugar with a little water in a whiskey-glass; add two dashes Angostura bitters, a small piece ice, a piece lemon-peel, one jigger whiskey. Mix with small bar-spoon and serve, leaving spoon in the glass.

A practice now coming back into style is the use of over-sized ice cubes in cocktails.

David Wondrich found an article from 1899 in the Chicago Chronicle indicating even this early that 2" cubes, or even an ice ball carved to fit the glass perfectly, were used by some of the more ambitious saloons. It's somehow reassuring for me to know there is historical precedence in this practice.

St. Charles Hotel bar in Toronto, Canada - 1911

The 20th Century

Like many of the early creations, the Old Fashioned went through several changes in the twentieth century.

Somewhere between the end of prohibition and the cocktail dark ages, it ended up a mix-mosh dressed up with a muddled orange and maraschino cherry. It was then usually filled with soda water because the resulting drink didn't look "full".

What not to make! Still the official IBA recipe.

The Old Fashioned according to Mr. Embury

I won't go into detail about how there is no one right way to make an old fashioned. Instead let me simply direct you to an excellent article written by Robert Hess, where he kindly lists nearly every version known!

So the Old Fashioned is a group or class of cocktails rather than a singularity. Embury's always good for a strong opinion so let's see what he has to say...

THE OLD-FASHIONED

If properly made, this is a truly magnificent cocktail. The principal reason that it does not enjoy an even greater popularity than it now claims is that what is usually served as an Old-Fashioned is actually a short Highball rather than a cocktail. Water, either plain or charged has no more place in an Old-fashioned than it has in a Manhattan or a Martini. The water is usually added ostensibly for the purpose of dissolving the sugar.

You can make perfect Old-Fashioneds only by using sugar syrup. However, if you do not have sugar syrup available you can make a fairly passable cocktail by using loaf sugar as follows: Put one medium-sized lump of sugar in the Old-Fashioned glass and add enough lukewarm water to cover it completely. Watch carefully until the sugar starts to dissolve and then pour off all the water. Add three dashes of Angostura, crush the sugar with a muddler, and blend sugar and bitters thoroughly. Add a small quantity of whisky and stir with a small spoon until the sugar is completely dissolved and blended with the liquor. Then, and then only, complete the cocktail. It takes about twenty minutes to make a satisfactory Old-Fashioned starting with dry sugar; it takes about two minutes starting with sugar syrup. Also, the sugar syrup makes a smoother, better drink. Therefore, let's make our Old-Fashioneds this way, using medium-sized Old-Fashioned glasses (about 5 to 7 ounces):

OLD-FASHIONED DE LUXE Pour into each glass 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls simple syrup and add 1 to 3 dashes Angostura. Stir with a spoon to blend the bitters with the syrup. Add about 1 oz. whisky and stir again. Add 2 large cubes of ice, cracked but not crushed (see page 100). Fill glass to within about 3/8" of top with whisky and stir again. Add a twist of lemon and drop peel in the glass. Decorate with a maraschino cherry on a spear. Serve with short stir rod or Old-Fashioned spoon.

I have been intentionally somewhat indefinite about the quantity of sugar and bitters for two reasons. First, you should experiment and determine for yourself just how sweet you like the drink and just how much of the bitters flavor suits you best. Second, I have stated the recipe in terms of filling your Old-Fashioned glasses to within about 3/8" of the top and I do not know the exact size of your glasses. Tastes vary somewhat, of course, but I have found that most people like about 1 teaspoonful of sugar and 1 to 2 dashes of Angostura to each 2 ounces of whisky.

Also, please note that I have suggested only a cherry and a bit of lemon peel for decorations. You will frequently find Old-Fashioneds served with lemon, orange, cherry, and pineapple. The bartenders' manuals of the Gay Nineties were replete with illustrations of cocktails, Sours, Crustas, Smashes, Cobblers, and other drinks decorated with all the above fruits together with strawberries, grapes, raspberries, etc., according to the available supply and the fancy of the writer. At the other extreme stand those who contemptuously refer to any cocktail decoration as "the garbage."

My own opinion is that fruit flavors and liquors blend exquisitely and that, for a midafternoon or an evening drink, and Old-Fashioned is greatly improved in its over-all appeal by the judicious addition of a few fruits. Fruits, however, properly belong at the end of a dinner rather than at the beginning. Accordingly, when serving Old-Fashioneds as an aperitif, I recommend using only the lemon peel with no fruit at all, or at the most, a cherry or a slice of orange.

Note that in the Old-Fashioned the only modifying agents used are the bitters and sugar. The reaction time of this cocktail is slower than that of a Martini both because of its sugar content and because the whisky is slower than gin. Don't be deceived by this. It is not a lighter drink than the Martini; it is stronger. Its action is merely delayed.

As an occasional variation in you Old-Fashioned try adding a teaspoonful of the juice from your bottle of maraschino cherries or a dash of curaçao, Cointreau, Chartreuse, or Liqueur Strega.

Old-Fashioneds are also frequently made with liquors other than rye or bourbon. SOUTHERN COMFORT makes and excellent OLD-FASHIONED but is a bit on the sweet side. This can be offset by using less sugar. There are also GIN OLD-FASHIONEDS, SCOTCH OLD-FASHIONEDS, BRANDY OLD-FASHIONEDS, RUM OLD-FASHIONEDS, APPLEJACK OLD-FASHIONEDS, etc. All are made exactly the same as the Whisky Old-Fashioned except for the liquor used. With Gin and Rum Old-Fashioneds, orange bitters may be substituted for or used in combination with Angostura.

A nice treatment overall. David's approach is a solid one. By his time, the addition of "charged" water and extra garnishes was already in use, and he rightfully discourages the practice.

Luckily today we are seeing big trend in getting "back to the basics" and this drink is getting back to it's roots.

Apparently there are even improvements still to be discovered as well. Jaimie Bourdreau recently posted a recipe for an "old fashioned simple syrup".

The Roomer's hotel bar in Frankfurt (winner of the 2010 BCB "Bar Team of the Year" award) had a house made old fashioned simple syrup they used with great results, not only in their old fashioned but in other drinks as well. Whip up a batch and see what you think!

My approach in making an Old Fashioned is guest based. Do they like their drinks on the sweet side? I may add a (luxardo or house made) maraschino cherry. On the medium side? Skip the cherry, add an orange peel. Dry? Lemon peel works great.

I also try to get a feel for their whiskey preferences. "Soft Corn" (examples: Buffalo Trace or Dickel Old No. 12), "Sweet Wheat" (Maker's Mark or Old Weller), "Rich and Oaky" (Eagle Rare, Ridgemont Reserve 1792, Wild Turkey 101) or "Spicy Rye" (Four Roses Bourbon, Rittenhouse Rye, Sazarac Rye, Woodford Reserve).

This is also the benchmark drink for whiskey so once you get a feel for how your favorite brands do in this drink, it's a great way to judge a new bottle that you are trying for the first time.

When making this drink for myself I tend to use only an orange peel. That could change depending on the choice of whiskey used. A spicy rye tends to be improved more by lemon than orange. If I want one for dessert, I'll go for a soft corn and add the orange and the cherry.

If you can arm yourself with the customer's flavor preferences (sweet vs. dry) and their favorite style of whiskey, then your chances of successfully building your guest a drink they will love will improve dramatically.

So you've quizzed yourself or your guest and you're ready to build your drink. Here's the basic recipe.

THE OLD FASHIONED COCKTAIL

Ingredients

2 oz Whiskey
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 sugar cube


Instructions

1. Place cube in bottom of an old fashioned glass.

2. Add the bitters directly to the cube and let saturate.

3. Crush the cube up in the bottom of the glass.

4. Add 1/2 oz of Whiskey of choice and stir to dissolve most of the sugar. No need to try to get it all dissolved, a small amount of grains in bottom is desirable.

5. Add some ice and stir, you want to get a little extra dilution in this step. You are also starting to chill the glass.

6. Add another 1.5 oz of whiskey, a few more ice cubes and stir again. Add desired garnish and you are ready to enjoy the original cocktail, made in the old fashioned way.

One last note. You will need to serve this with a stir stick of some sort so you can continue to stir up the sugar on the bottom of the glass as the drink is consumed. This is part of the fun, and to neglect the stir stick in an old fashioned would be downright uncivilized.

This drink is much quicker and easier to make if you use simple syrup. The texture will be smoother and the flavor profile is the same. You just pour a little (1 tsp max) of simple syrup in the bottom of the glass, and add your bitters to the syrup.

If you want to go this route, go all the way and make some old fashioned simple syrup for some great added depth of flavor. Of course there's nothing wrong with using regular simple syrup either, it's easy peasy.

For that true "old fashioned" experience though, go for the sugar cube at least once to see if you like it.