May 2011

Rum. It’s been on my mind a good bit the last week or so. Why? I spent last week in Puerto Rico, the self proclaimed home of rum. Did they invent it? No, but they make more of it there than anywhere else so I won’t argue the title. Personally, I like rum. I like fine aged sipping rums. What I haven’t given much thought to was the rum used in cocktails and mixed drinks. I never really thought about it for a couple of reasons. First, I figured that like vodka and tequila, as long as you’re not buying crap to put in it then it doesn’t matter too much. Second, being a whiskey drinker most of the classic whiskey cocktails have a somewhat muddled (no pun intended) history and identifying a specific brand for that cocktail can be nearly impossible. With rum that isn’t the case at all. Almost every rum cocktail with some distinction has a pedigree and specific rum it was originally made with. Those specific rums wear those recipes like a badge of honor. None do this more so than Bacardi and DonQ. I actually toured the Bacardi distillery while in San Juan but I’ll talk more about that in another post. What I found very interesting is this cocktail association that is latched onto by certain rum producers. With that in mind we’ll outline four classic rum cocktails and the “official” recipes by the rum producers that make the spirit the drink was invented with. Purists take note.

Cuba Libre
The Cuba Libre, otherwise known as a rum and coke was originally made with Bacardi Rum and Coca-Cola. The story goes that it was put together by American Soldiers on Neptuno Street in Havana around 1900. Bacardi was the preeminent Cuban rum at the time (originally made in Cuba prior to the Castro administration) and US servicemen wanted to mix it with this great new beverage from the U.S. called Coca-Cola. Bacardi will point out that this should always be made with Bacardi rum and Coke. Not any other rum and never Pepsi.

Recipe:
2 parts Bacardi Superior Rum
4 parts Coca-Cola
2 Lime wedges
Fill a highball glass with ice cubes. Squeeze and drop 2 wedges of lime into the glass. Pour on Bacardi rum. Top with chilled Coca-Cola.

Mojito
Everyone has their own twist on making Mojitos but the original was made with Bacardi. There was a forerunner concoction call The Draque made from some really nasty stuff you really shouldn’t even call rum. The Mojito as we know it came into existence in the late 1800s using the fine rum made by Don Facundo Bacardi Masso.

Recipe:
2 parts Bacardi Superior Rum
12 fresh mint leaves
½ lime in wedges
2 tablespoons simple syrup or sugar
Club Soda
Muddle 12 fresh mint leaves and ½ a lime. Cover with 2 tablespoons of simple syrup or sugar; top with ice. Add Bacardi rum and top with club soda. Stir well and garnish with a sprig of mint and a lime.

Daiquiri
I’m not talking about the fruity concoctions swirling in the mixing machines at your local Wet Willy’s. This is the original daiquiri. In 1898 an engineer at the Daiquiri copper-ore mines near Santiago, Cuba named Jennings Stockton Cox supposedly came up with this drink. It’s kind of like a rum version of a margarita. Try one of these and you may not go back to the strawberry party drink every again. I honestly have no idea where the bastardization of this drink came from that put it in swirly machines around the world in every color imaginable.

Recipe:
3 parts Bacardi Superior Rum
1 part fresh squeezed lime juice
1 part simple syrup
Put all ingredients into a shaker. Fill with ice. Shake vigorously until chilled. Double strain into a rocks glass filled ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Pina Colada
This is one of the few classic rum cocktails not claimed by Bacardi. Don Q (only recently sold in the U.S.) has a certified letter from Ramon Marrero stating that he invented the Pina Colada using Don Q rum. By the way, Don Q is the favorite rum of Puerto Rico. That should say something. Anyway, as the story goes Mr. Marrero introduced the Pina Colada on August 16, 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hotel management had expressly requested Monchito to mix a new signature drink, and after 3 intense months of blending, shaking and experimenting, the first Pina Colada was born.

Recipe:
1 ½ ounces DonQ Cristal (although Marrero said he used DonQ Gold)
1 ounce coconut cream
2 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice
Add ice, mix in a blender and garnish with a slice of pineapple and one cherry.

Personally, I don’t think the cocktail gods will hit you with a vermouth thunderbolt if you don’t use these recipes or the “appropriate” rum. I just found all this drink history interesting and thought you might too.

Drink wisely my friends,

Richard