The Hemingway Daiquiri

When we think of a daiquiri, some of us may envision the super sweet, frozen, machine-dispensed concoctions or something you get at Red Lobster with whipped cream on top. The original daiquiri was an entirely different animal, consisting of mainly rum, lime juice, and a little bit of sugar.
Ernest Hemingway was a huge cocktail connoisseur, ordering the creation of new cocktails everywhere he went. This particular variation of the daiquiri is the only one to bear Hemingway's name and was created in 1921 at the famous El Floradita in Havana by Constanino Ribailagua in honor of his daiquiri-loving regular. According to the story, Hemingway often worked his way through a dozen or so of these, sometimes ordering doubles, which were called Papa Dobles. Interesting facts, eh?

 

Ingredients:

• 2 oz white rum (I used Bacardi)
• 1/2 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
• 3/4 oz freshly-squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 oz freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice
• 1/4 oz simple syrup (not in the original recipe but added to several variations and I think it rounds things out nicely

Shake hard with ice and and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime and/or brandied cherry.

And if I may quote Hemingway (not something I pull out often), "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut".

"How about a nice Swedish Punsch?"

Tonight I have been playing with my new bottle of Swedish Punsch, a sharp, smoky, rummy liqueur produced and sold in Sweden where it used to be very popular and is enjoyed in cocktails or sipped straight, warm or cold. It is an essential ingredient in several recipes in classic cocktail books. In the US it became somewhat of a lost ingredient after Prohibition but is now making a comeback. The base spirit of Swedish Punsch is Batavia Arrack, a southeastern Asian liquor derived from sugar cane and red rice.I have since made my own homemade, adding black tea and citrus and sugar and demerara rum to the arrack, to varied results. Personally I LOVE the already marketed Kronan. I have tried several recipes tonight, trying it with gin and brandy and rum, but my favorite is the one from my "Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails" book, simply called "Doctor Cocktail", after the author. I adjusted the lime juice slightly and found this to be a good decision. I LOVE this drink and I really feel it is just waiting for the right audience, which I plan to find, one way or another. Get me behind a bar and I will put this to good use.

Doctor Cocktail Ingredients:

• 2 oz Jamaican rum (I used Meyers dark)
• 1 oz Swedish Punsch (Kronan)
• 1/2 oz freshly squeezed lime juice (adjusted)

The book's recipe calls for 1 ounce of lime juice but I found that even taking it down to 3/4 oz, the lime hijacks the drink. I love the taste of the Punsch and I prefer the lime to be just a buddy and not overpower. Trust me, I did the legwork. Sometime in the 19th century, the Swedish tradition was to warm it up and enjoy it with pea soup on thursdays. Punsch and Pea soup thursday. Sounds pretty good to me.

"Punsch has fallen out of flavour in mainstream Swedish society, but is still big at formal dinners at the oldest universities and engineering schools. There it is served ice cold to accompany very strong drip coffee. While waiting to be served the guest sings a song in anticipation."

Tonight: The Alamagoozlum Cocktail

Now that I have managed to secure nearly every ingredient needed to make the cocktails in my "Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails" book, I'm starting at the beginning and working
my way through the recipes that only a couple months ago seemed so out of reach.
This cocktail, containing a very long list of ingredients including raw egg white and an unusually large jolt of bitters, was first published in "The Gentleman's Companion" by Charles H. Baker, Jr.,in 1939. Unless you are committed to classic cocktails and acquiring these uncommon spirits, you will most likely not have half of the bottles on this list, so i'll just make you one sometime, as this recipe makes 2-3 drinks. As far as the egg goes, do not be afraid. It creates a soft foam at the top. It is not slimy and it will not give you food poisoning or taste like scrambled eggs. What it will do is provide a delightful silky texture as you enjoy tasting every ingredient in this complex drink. I have been using the carton egg whites from the supermarket. Super easy and you don't waste the yolks.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 egg white
• 2 oz genever gin (Holland gin- I used Boomsma Oude Genever)
• 2 oz water
• 1.5 oz jamaica rum (I used Appleton)
• 1.5 oz Chartreuse (yellow or green)
• 1.5 oz simple syrup
• 1/2 oz orange curacao
• 1/2 oz Angostura bitters

Shake very, very hard for a minute or so in a large iced cocktail shaker and strain into 2 or 3 glasses.
And then smile and pat yourself on the back. 
This one took some doing.