This is a guest post from Humuhumu [http://www.humuhumu.com] – a designer, programmer and tikiphile living in San Francisco where she has nearly unfettered access to what may be the best rum bar in the US, if not the world or even possibly the Solar System: Smuggler’s Cove.

The Space:

Most everyone who walks into Smuggler’s Cove thinks the same thing: “pirate bar.” I can’t say that those people are wrong,  especially since it looks more like Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride than anything else. But the thing is: it’s Smuggler’s Cove, and pirates != smugglers. Smugglers had a few things in common with pirates: rum, evading the law, hanging out in the Caribbean. But they had different modi operandi. Pirates stole, smugglers didn’t pay their taxes.

Now, I don’t imagine that pirates were paying taxes on the stolen goods they were moving, but by and large smugglers weren’t  stealing and didn’t tend towards violence. Maybe I’m splitting hairs. Look, let’s not get hung up on these things. It’s a rum bar. It’s the prettiest damned rum bar you’ll find.

I won’t describe it past that. Some things are best experienced in person.

The Rum:

Smuggler’s Cove has over 200 rums, making it the largest rum list in the Bay Area, and probably second in the nation (after Rum Jungle in Las Vegas). It’s made all the more impressive by its omissions: the list could easily be puffed up to a much higher number, but owner Martin Cate simply will not stock uninteresting crap. No silly flavored rums, none of the mass-market Bacardi slop, and for goodness sake, no Captain Morgan’s. (Some Malibu will occasionally make an appearance in the bar, but only in the context of horrific hazing rituals.)

Those interested in experiencing them all should enroll in the Rumbustion Society. Milestones are celebrated at 20, 100 and 200 rums, and recognition comes in the form of access to the vault of rare rums, a rather natty fez, and once all 200 rums are completed, a trip to visit a rum distillery.

The Drinks:

There is no well rum here. More than two hundred different rums are used in making the menu’s seventy-seven cocktails, including some rums available only at Smuggler’s Cove and nowhere else. There are innumerable different syrups, flavorings and tinctures used, mostly homemade. All fresh juice—very fresh, Martin is maniacal on that point. Nothing goes into the glass that isn’t high quality.

The drinks themselves were selected with the same care as the ingredients that make them. The menu is itself an education in the
history of rum, with drinks arranged chronologically from the mid-1700s to today. Included are simple pre-cocktail drinks, punches, prohibition era drinks, traditional drinks from the Caribbean and further south, tiki drinks, and of course modern creations. Like the rum list, a celebration is in store when you finish the list of cocktails. I’ve tried them all, and I’ve loved all but one… I won’t tell you which, because with that kind of success rate, I have to question whether it’s a personal failing on my part.

The People:

San Francisco’s pool of cocktail talent is famously deep, and yet somehow this one little bar is bogarting more than its fair share of the best of San Francisco’s best. Most of the bartenders have headed up their own bartending programs at rather prestigious venues, and hold award after award to show for it. But they would rather be here, even though the drinks are quite likely the most challening, the most labor intensive, in the city. Or maybe because of the challenge. I don’t want to question it, I just want to enjoy it.

The other side of the bar is pretty swell, too, I must say. The Cove attracts a friendly crowd, a casual, come-as-you-are crowd. The patrons tend to be jovial, and seem to always know how to handle their liquor with at least a little grace. If you come in on a Tuesday, you’ll probably see me there. I’ll help you pick out your first drink.

And last but not least… all of the details above, every single last one, plus a thousand more that I didn’t cover… it’s the vision of one man, Martin Cate. He has drawn together a lot of talented people to execute his vision, but it is unmistakably his; this little corner of the world is pretty pure projection of Martin Cate. We’re damned lucky to have him in our town.

Humuhumu [http://www.humuhumu.com] is a designer, programmer and tikiphile living in San Francisco.

Related posts:

1. Rum Bar Opening This Fall In San Francisco
2. An Interview With Martin Cate
3. Where To Drink Rum: Trailer Happiness, London

This is a guest post written by Peter and Pauline Holland of The Floating Rum Shack.  Peter and Pauline are avid rum enthusiasts and great friends of both this site and its humble author.  They live in the UK, where they have a much easier time making it down to Trailer Happiness to enjoy what Rikki Brodrick has wrought there than I do.

To quote their website “Trailer Happiness is an intimate lounge bar, den and kitchen… with the e-z-boy feel of a low rent, mid-60’s California valley bachelor pad.”

Well, after reading that, I wasn’t really sure of what I was expecting to find the first time we visited Trailer.  A below street level bar which is filled with so many kitsch items that it’s like stepping back in time (for those above a certain age).  It is without question easy-going – there’s no dress code, it’s just all about having a good time.  There’s always a DJ to add a cool/crossover/eclectic vibe – especially when there’s a tiki DJ in.

Trailer Happiness is located at 177 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London (if you’re in London and heading there in a taxi – asking for the corner of Elgin and Portobello drops you right off outside).  The nearest tube is Ladbroke Grove which is to the north, or Notting Hill Gate to the south (approximately) – a bit of a walk in either case.  Trailer Happiness is generally quieter during hot summer days as the underground bar doesn’t get any sunshine and this keeps people away.  There are a few smokers seats at street level.  As soon as the sun goes down, expect the party to begin.  Trailer Happiness is located within a veritable hub of top quality bars – this area of Notting Hill is really nice – I’d love an apartment there, but then a lottery win will be required to fulfil that ambition.

So go on… ask me what are the drinks are like.

Top quality, I’m telling you! This is a Tiki haven in the trendy, cosmopolitan surrounds of Notting hill.  Combining fantastic flavours with interesting drinking vessels, and more importantly it’s not going to blow your hard earned cash.  Drink prices are very good – £9 for a great Mai Tai.  The Zombie experience is something I’ll hint at, but leave to you to experience first hand… Trailer Happiness isn’t afraid to set fire to things!  Anyone who keeps a mister filled with Wray & Nephew Overproof is a serious firestarter.

[Note: Peter may not want to describe it, but I have video of my experience there in 2008]

The menu is a starting point really – the knowledgeable staff can pretty much whip up anything from their well stocked bar.  There’s all manner of other classic style and rum based cocktails suggested – more than enough to guarantee you’ll find yourself becoming pleasantly inebriated.

Mixed drinks side, Trailer Happiness has one of the best rum collections in London. It’s not the largest, but it’s certainly very impressive.  The menu shows about forty key rums in the collection, but the back bar must have over a hundred, probably two hundred present.  It looks very impressive I can tell you and, if I could, I’d be there more often, working my way though them.

So why did Pauline and I head there for the first time?

Well our early days of rum researching when we launched TheFloatingRumShack.com, we turned up references to the Rum Club which is located there.  It was just a regular Saturday for our first visit and although busy, the hostess was just fabulous ensuring a very positive first feel.

A cocktail or two later, I was ready to try the rum collection – I may have chosen one or two, but I then started saying “I’ll have whatever the bartender recommends.” This is when the true measure of Trailer came out.  It was a long time ago, but through the haze, I recall that once an interest in rum was shown, our bartender, James (as it was at the time), got interested.  A few minutes after we got our drinks served, he left the bar to come and talk about the rum and to make sure I was happy with the selection.  A couple more suggestions later and I was being introduced to rums that I’d probably never have picked from the menu.  This is surely the best way and I’m happy to thank Trailer for encouraging my early inquisitive forays.

We visit whenever we can, but it is Rum Club that gets us there most regularly.  The first Monday of the month (normally) is Rum Club.  It’s the opportunity for a particular brand to take the floor and tell the enthusiastic, knowledgeable, geeky rum fans all about what separates their brand from the others.  This is the key thing for me – it’s so easy to generalise with a spirit, but there really is so much variation with rum in terms of flavour and history.  I find it absolutely fascinating and can inspire a passion that general manager: Rikki Brodrick and bartenders Matthew and Inko will do all in their powers to encourage.

So get yourself down there and tell them that The Floating Rum Shack sent you.  You won’t get a prize or even a free drink, but you might get an education in rum!

For more of Peter and Pauline’s adventures in rum, be sure to check out TheFloatingRumShack.com!

Question of the Day:

Have you ever been to Trailer Happiness?  Care to share your experiences?

Related posts:

1. Where To Drink Rum: Smuggler’s Cove, San Francisco
2. UK RumFest 2008
3. Awards For 2009 – The Golden Barrels

Rum Dood
created by Paul Etter

1.5 oz Smith & Cross
.5 oz Cruzan Black Strap
.5 oz Lemon Juice
.5 oz Lime Juice
.5 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Orchard
.25 oz Ginger Syrup
.25 oz Falernum
Dash Angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients with a cup of cracked ice and pour unstrained into a scary Tiki mug (or 15 oz DOF) and top with more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with mint sprig and miniature fedora, if you have one.

It’s all over!  It’s official and in the books and now, on the site.

The contest to create the official RumDood.com cocktail started about a month ago as my fellow rum fanatics at RumConnection.com and The Floating Rum Shack joined me in a massive search for signature cocktails for each of our sites.

We collected tons of interesting and tasty recipes for each site and shared them between us in a virtual cocktail party to pick the winners.  And the winners have, indeed been picked.

It took tasting more than 20 cocktails, the juicing of countless limes, lemons and oranges, and more than $200 in liquor – these contests always seem to highlight the liquor I don’t already own – to find the winner.  After working for many hours rating each of the entries my editor and I spent the better part of an hour doing a round-robin tasting of what we ranked as our top 5 cocktails.

The winning recipe comes from Paul Etter in San Francisco, California.  Paul says the recipe is one that he had come up with prior to the contest, but that he felt was a good match for the site.  The tart, sweet, spicy mixture of rum, citrus, ginger and falernum combines just about everything I love about rum drinks into a single glass or mug.  It would be hard to better tailor a drink to my own preferences.

Paul’s submission called for “Gold Jamaican Rum” which made me immediately grab bottles of Appleton Estate and Smith & Cross for testing.  You can’t really go wrong with this drink and either the S&C or the Appleton Estate 12 Year Old, but I really REALLY liked this drink with the Smith & Cross’ funkiness playing off of the Black Strap, ginger syrup and falernum (which may or may not have been RumDood Falernum #2…just sayin’).

Thank you to all who participated in this contest.  You all submitted some fantastic drinks!

Related posts:

1. Create The Rum Dood Cocktail – A Contest
2. Homemade Falernum
3. Zombie Punch

While many rums embrace the pervasive idea that rum is a mixer to be poured with cola or blended with coconut water and never taken alone, others are fighting against the collegiate stereotype and attempting to establish the category as one equal in sophistication to whiskey or brandy.  Zaya is one of the latter.

Zaya Gran Reserva is a rum constructed of other rums.  It is a private label rum, meaning that the rum is purchased from various sources and then blended to create the final spirit that rests in a very nicely-crafted bottle.

In Zaya’s case, the rums are sourced and blended in Trinidad and Tobago in the Southern Caribbean.  The rums in question have been aged a minimum of 12 years in used bourbon barrels before being blended together by the Master Blender.  Once the blend is complete, the rum is bottled at 80 proof (40% abv) and shipped to liquor stores and bars near you.

Appearances

In the bottle, as well as in the glass, Zaya has a deep, rich mahogany color with just a tinge of honey gold on the edges when it rests in the glass.  The rum has almost a velvety appearance all on its own.

Nose

A sniff of the rum reveals vanilla and caramel immediately and in a dominant fashion.  There is a strong, sweet smell as the two scents give way to notes of cocoa and banana.  After a little more searching you’ll find a hint of orange peel at the very back of the nose, but vanilla and caramel continue to dominate throughout the nose.

The character of the nose is rich and sweet.

Palate

Rich and luxuriant vanilla and caramel great your palate on the entry, just as they did on the nose.  Notes of cocoa persist throughout the experience while underneath the heavy and sweet flavors you’ll find hints of apples and bananas before the finish arrives with a strong showing of cherry accompanied with the ever present vanilla.

The body of the rum is heavy and oily, giving an almost velvety feeling on the tongue.  In the throat it leaves almost no burn whatsoever.  This is a rum that announces its presence to all of your senses.  The richness of flavor make this a good candidate to sip while enjoying a cigar.

Some people may find the richness and sweetness of Zaya to be a bit overwhelming for a sipper.  When it comes to personal taste, that’s just how these things go.  Personally I prefer Zaya as the centerpiece in a cocktail or if I do sip it, I do so in conjunction with a cigar or appropriate food pairing (something savory and salty).  My partner/editor especially enjoys the heavy sweetness of Zaya along with its almost complete lack of any heat in the finish.

Mixing

Zaya is marketed as a sipping rum and if your taste runs more towards the sweet and rich side of the spectrum you’ll find yourself in complete agreement.  Whichever direction your palate swings, though, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a reason to keep Zaya out of your mixing glass or shaker.

Those same strong qualities of flavor and texture that make Zaya an excellent mate to a cigar make it a great centerpiece in a cocktail.  Zaya will not lay down in a drink, but plays well with other strong flavors.  One of my favorite ways to use Zaya is with ginger beer in a Dark’n'Stormy Jamaican Mule or Añejo Daiquiri.  It also makes a pretty fantastic Sweet Palmetto.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time at 320 Main in Seal Beach, California (for various reasons) where owner/head bartender Jason Schiffer has a drink that actually combines Zaya with the incredibly flavorful amaro, Fernet Branca.

The Devil’s Own
by Jason Schiffer @ 320 Main

1.5 oz Zaya
.5 oz Fernet Branca
.25 oz Gran Gala
1 tsp Vanilla Syrup

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe that has been rinsed with absinthe.  Add a twist of lemon and discard the peel (no garnish).

The Long & The Short Of It

Zaya is a rum designed around the idea of a luxuriant sipper.  That it works so well in a cocktail is a very pleasant bonus.  Its intense vanilla and caramel flavors can be either very welcome or entirely off-putting depending on your palate, and a poll of rum or any other spirits connoisseurs will likely find the group fairly evenly split on where Zaya ranks compared to other premium rums.  In the end, Zaya is a rum I have a hard time picturing being absent from my bar.

Dood’s Rating: 4 Bottles of Rum Out of 5

This site accepts samples for review. Please review our Policies & Disclaimers

Related posts:

1. Rum Review: Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva
2. Rum Review: Ron Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva
3. Rum Review: Dos Maderas PX

People often ask me if I ever get a big head being “The Rum Dood.”  At those times I find myself forced to sit back and reflect on exactly how self-important I’ve become.  I have my own business cards.  I have my name on cocktail menus of bars that use my falernum.  I get invited to speak or judge at events.  I even have a signature hat!

What I don’t have though, is something that any website with such a self-important author should have: a signature cocktail.

I may dote on daiquiris, muse over mai tais and get all geeky for Tiki, but I never get to sit down and enjoy a Rum Dood cocktail.  No one gets to ever ask a bartender for a me.  This is obviously something that needs to be fixed.

While in Miami at the Rum Renaissance with other rum enthusiasts, I sat down with Peter and Pauline Holland from The Floating Rum Shack, as well as Mike Streeter from Rum Connection for a few rounds of drinks.  It was then that the trio told me of an idea they had come upon while enjoying Key West without me: a contest to come up with signature drinks for all three websites.

Short of coming up with three different signature cocktails for my website, this was the greatest idea I had ever heard!

The Contest:

Create one, two, or three original cocktails and submit them to be the official, signature cocktail(s) for any of our sites.   Each cocktail should include a note as to which specific site it is being submitted for.  Don’t just send in 3 cocktails and ask us to sort it out.

Each cocktail should feature rum as the primary spirit.  I know, it’s crazy to think that two of the premier rum websites (and this one too) would all insist on their signature cocktails featuring rum, but what can I say?  We’re nothing if not predictable.

Submit your cocktail recipes to contests@rumdood.com or to competition@thefloatingrumshack.com before midnight (Pacific Time) of the evening of June 30/morning of July 1, 2010.  The winners will be selected by the writers/owners/editors of the three websites and announced on July 5, 2010.

Win, and you’ll have all three sites talking about your cocktail.  In addition, there may be some other, more liquid prizes in store, but as this is our first ever international competition, there are still details being sorted out on that front.

The Fine Print:

• Entries must be received by 11:59:59 pm on June 30, 2010 (Pacific Daylight Time – aka UTC – 8).
• Recipes must feature rum as the primary spirit
• Entrants must be residents of either the United States of America or the United Kingdom
• Entrants must be of legal drinking age in their country (i.e. 21 in the USA or 18 in the UK)
• 1 entry per contestant per site, for a total of 3 possible recipe submissions per person
• Entrants cannot be grizzly bears or great white sharks
• By submitting your recipe to this contest, you hereby grant RumDood.com, TheFloatingRumShack.com and RumConnection.com full publication rights to the cocktail without fee or limitation beyond attribution (in plain English: You can’t charge us or sue us for posting your drink recipe, but we’ll definitely give you credit for the drink in our articles and recipe pages).

Some Doodly Inspiriation:

Peter over at The Floating Rum Shack already put up a little bit about his site and drinking habits to help people craft a drink he’d actually like.  This must have been my idea because, frankly, it’s brilliant and I’m therefor doing the same.

Obviously I like rum.  I like it in a hat.  I like it with a cat.  I like it on a boat.  I like it on a moat.  I like it in a mug.  I like it for to chug.

I’m a big fan of rum cocktails both simple and elegant as well as gaudy and blended (except for my daiquiris, Hemingway can keep his filthy blender to himself while I drink mine frappe).

If you’re creating a drink for RumDood.com, I’d like it to capture (what I hope is) the fun and rich character of the site.  I don’t know that I can give you much beyond that.  My tastes vary from the classic El Presidente to the Zombie to the Beachbum’s Own.  I can say that I’m a huge fan of functional garnish (i.e. make sure that orange peel really ties the drink together).  I also enjoy long walks along the beach with a frosty beverage in my hand.

Related posts:

1. Rum Dood Cocktail
2. ‘Twas The Punch Before Christmas: A Contest
3. Hurricane Cocktail

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 oz White Rum
.75 oz Lime Juice
1 tsp Maraschino
1 tsp Grapefruit Juice
1 tsp Sugar

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Serve frappe. (Download)

Daiquiris, Daiquiris everywhere and oh so many to drink.  These days there are more Daiquiri “variations” than you can shake a Japanese Barspoon at, with everything from strawberries to thyme to bacon in them.  Perhaps the most famous and somewhat hazy variant is the one named for author and Olympian drinker Ernest Hemingway: The Hemingway Daiquiri.

If the Daiquiri is the Holy Grail of rum mixology, the Hemingway Daiquiri may be the Lost Ark.  Everyone claims to know what it is, but the actual history around it is somewhat nebulous.

The cocktail above is what you’ll commonly receive if you order a Hemingway Daiquiri.  It is essentially La Florida Bartender Constante Grande’s Daiquiri #3.  The 1935 edition of the La Florida Cocktail Book instructs the maker to serve the drink frappe, meaning that the cocktail glass should be filled with crushed ice.  This is actually still very common with Daiquiri service in Cuba and Spain today – and it’s ridiculously good.

Now, looking at this you may ask, What, exactly, is so nebulous about the Hemingway Daiquiri?

The nebulous part is that nowhere in the Big Constante’s bar guides does he ever refer to a drink as the “Hemingway Daiquiri.”

The recipe above was used for quite some time as La Florida’s house Daiquiri.  This has led several to claim that this recipe is not the Hemingway Daiquiri, but rather the Floridita Daiquiri – another “famous” Daiquiri variant that is never mentioned in Constante’s work.

The evidence against the recipe being the Floridita (a diminutive, “nick-name” version of Florida, often used by locals when referring to La Florida), is somewhat circumstantial, but sufficient for me -  and near as I can tell, for Ted Haigh, aka Doctor Cocktail.  In Ted’s opus, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, he lists the recipe for the Floridita Daiquiri as matching what Constante referred to as Daiquiri #4, which is essentially the same as the recipe above, minus the grapefruit juice.

By their 1939 edition [of  the La Florida Cocktail Cocktail Book], Constante…listed five daiquiris, #3 [was] the grapefruit variety.  Two pages beyond the daiquiri recipes is a cocktail titled the “E. Henmingway [sic] Special.”  It was the grapefruit recipe, blended.

This makes sense to me, especially since in the 1935 edition of Constantino’s guide, the Daiquiri #4 is subtitled “Florida Style.”  Plus, who am I to argue with Doctor Cocktail?  He’s got “Doctor” in his title!

Regardless of which recipe was the Floridita Daiquiri, the Hemingway Daiquiri still has plenty of history to it.  Wayne Curtis outlines the connection between Papa Hemingway and Constante’s creation in his work, And a Bottle of Rum:

As [Constante] presided over his bar one day, a scruff, bearish man entered and asked to use the toilet.  According to one account, when the man emerged from the bathroom and saw the daiquiris lined up on the bar, his curiousity was piqued.  He asked for a sip.  “That’s good, but I prefer it without sugar and double rum,” the man said.  Constantino mixed one up to those specifications, and the man declared it very good.  He was, of course, Ernest Hemingway.  This modified version of the daiquiri became known as the Papa Doble.  A later variation also enjoyed by Hemingway included a splash of grapefruit juice and a dash of maraschino liqueur: The Hemingway Special.

Mr. Curtis actually brings up another interesting point.  You’ll note that in the account, the Papa Doble is invented when Hemingway orders the house Daiquiri with double the rum and no sugar.  While the topic of which Daiquiri that was is still hotly debated (and the subject of a whole ‘nother post), what is obvious is that the Papa Doble is not the same drink as the Hemingway Daiquiri.

This is an important point because all too often I see bartenders and mixologists use the terms Hemingway Daiquiri and Papa Doble interchangeably, as though they are two names for the same drink.  This is not the case.

Whereas the Doble was the house Daiquiri with no sugar and twice as much rum, the modern Hemingway Daiquiri and even the 1939 Hemingway Special both have only 2 ounces of rum and both contain sugar.  There’s no way that either can be considered the Papa Doble.

In terms of the actual Hemingway Daiquiri, if we take the E. Hemingway Special and use it as the actual recipe, we see that it should be blended instead of shaken and served frappe-style, and none of the recipes call for the drink to be served “up.”  This goes against what you commonly find served today at most cocktail bars.  Part of the reason for this is the distaste for blenders in classic cocktail bars and the desire to bring the public around to the idea that Daiquiris do not come from slushee machines.

Personally I think that the Hemingway Daiquiri, like the original Daiquiri, is good enough that you should drink it in the way that you like – whether that be up, frappe or blended to a smooth slush.

In the end, we’re left with deductions and little in the way of real detail.  We know that Hemingway liked Daiquiris at La Florida.  We know that the Papa Doble was the first Hemingway-inspired Daiquiri, and we know that Constante added an “E. Henmingway Special” to his bar guide in 1939 which seems to be the Daiquiri #3 recipe, but blended.

As Ted Haigh says in his book, “Those are the facts, and from there the story goes straight to Hell.”

Question of the Day:

Where do you stand on the Hemingway Daiquiri debate?

Related posts:

1. Daiquiri
2. Daiquiri #2
3. El Presidente

You may or may not know Marie King.

Marie is the bar manager at Don The Beachcomber in Huntington Beach, California.  DTB is, of course, the former bastion of the Tiki movement that one Donn Beach once held court in as he introduced the world to drinks like the Zombie (and the 34 other varieties thereof) and a few dozen other classic Tiki drinks (be sure to have your eyedropper of absinthe ready).

About a month ago Marie was driving on the Santa Monica Freeway (I-405) near Downtown Los Angeles when she was involved in a near fatal accident.  She suffered numerous serious injuries, some which will/have require(d) surgery to repair.

The local Tiki community has sprung into action to try and support Marie as best they can, and, with the cooperation of Don The Beachcomber Restaurant, they’re holding MariePalooza this Memorial Day Weekend.  On Sunday, May 30, from 2pm until midnight there will be music, deals on food and drinks, and even some Tiki memorabilia for auction. A $25 donation gets you a wristband to take part in the festivities, and you can buy your tickets here.

If you can’t make it because you have plans or you choose to live in some place other than Southern California where beneficial Dood-rays have been known to help bring about bumper rum crops in liquor cabinets, please consider still making a donation.

I hope to see a lot of friendly faces there.  I know that some of Orange County’s best bartenders will be in attendance (work-schedules-permitting) to show their support as well.

Mahalo to Humuhumu for the fez-tip on the event.

Related posts:

1. Rum Events For The End of 2009
2. Tiki Crawl 8: Day 2
3. Blogtailing

Last month I had a crazy idea.

What if I held a contest to get people to write about their best rum experiences and then picked the best one and had someone send them a bunch of booze?

That dream has become a reality.  After a few weeks of collecting entries, we finally have a winner in RumDood.com’s Mai Tai Madness.

At stake for each of the entrants was a chance at an entire kit of rum, liqueur and syrup for making their own Mai Tais.  The kit for the winner includes:

• Clement VSOP Rhum Agricole Vieux
• Appleton Estate 12
• Clement Creole Shrubb
• Trader Tiki Orgeat Syrup

All the winner has to do for a fantastic party is find some limes and they can Mai Tai the day away all through Memorial Day weekend!

All told, eight blogs submitted their rummiest stories.  They ranged from stories about amazing rum cocktails they encountered at special events to tales of woe at parties hosted by supposed rum experts to stories relating the bloggers’ journeys from simple drinkers of Bacardi Silver and Coke to rum-crazed lunatics, bent on owning and trying every rum in existence (the CDC suggests that it’s a disease that appears to be communicable through this site).

After reading through all of the stories and writing down more than a few drink recipes to visit at RumDood Central, my editor and I picked what we thought was the best of what was a great collection of submissions.

Keith, over at the Speakista, blogs about cocktails, spirits and bars in New York City.  It’s a great blog that I heartily recommend to anyone interested in reading some writing by an up-and-coming cocktail blogger.

Keith started off with rum as most of us did: poorly.  It was a spirit to be consumed in mass quantities and only paired with either Coca Cola or thermonuclear waste materials infused with sugar and as many artificial coloring agents as possible.  Rum was cheap and easy to find and guzzle with reckless abandon, just so long as you didn’t really think about what you were drinking.

As Keith’s interest in cocktails expanded, he picked up some good rums along the way, found a recommendation on how to make a daiquiri that wasn’t served from a slushy machine, and fell before the greatness that is rum’s classic drinks.

Keith’s travels didn’t stop there though.  He eventually discovered, as we all do, that a love-affair with rum leads to experimentation on a near collegiate level as we are all led down the path that inevitably leads to all things Tiki.  From the sound of things, the love affair and it’s sordid experimentations aren’t going to end any time soon.  I’m guessing that a few more bottles of rum and syrup are only going to help for a romantic summer weekend with those bottles.

Keith’s not the only one walking away a winner though.  The three runners up are all getting something as well (that’s a 50% prize ratio!).

• Matt Browner Hamlin walked us through an amazing cocktail from the Obama inauguration party.
• Hohenheim devotes his entry to a cigar cocktail delivered straight from Paris, France.
• Fiona at Gourmet Pigs writes about an experience in which she sacrificed limb (or nearly so) to enjoy a rum tasting at some quack’s place.  Clearly she should have sued her host, who now openly mocks her whenever she and absinthe are in close proximity, and is totally not trying to buy her off with a book.

Each of the three people above will be receiving a copy of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s newest book, Beachbum Berry Remixed!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest!

Related posts:

1. May Mai Tai Madness: Win A Mai Tai Party!
2. Labor Day Rum Punch Giveaway!
3. Visiting Brugal

Daiquiri #2

2 oz Gold Rum
.75 oz Lime Juice
3 Dashes Curacao
1 tsp Orange Juice
1 tsp Sugar

Shake with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Daiquiri may be THE sacred cow of rum mixology.  It is the drink that a rum connoisseur insists be made correctly without any sort of fiddling or funny business.  The Daiquiri is serious business.

In Cuba during America’s Great Mistake (read: Prohibition), the Daiquiri may have been even more than that.  It has become a lifestyle, and one that spawned lots of creativity.

At Floridita, in Havana, the bartender known as El Constante Grande built an entire menu of daiquiri drinks.  Not the fruity, frozen concoctions that you get served out of a Slurpee machine on Bourbon Street or the Las Vegas Strip, but serious tweaks on the world’s most perfect drink.

In the Floridita Bar Guide each of these variations were merely numbered.  The original Daiquiri was #1, and there were versions up to #4.  Over time, a few of these grew to earn their own names.  The Daiquiri #3, made with a touch of Maraschino liqueur and grapefruit juice, became known as the Hemingway Daiquiri.  The #3 eventually earned itself the moniker of the Floridita Daiquiri.

For some reason the #2 never earned itself a nickname.

Actually, since trying it, I can understand why that is.

Where the #3 and #4 Daiquiris are perfectly balanced and can – at times – feel fully superior to the original titan, the #2 just seems off somehow.  The orange flavors don’t seem to like playing with the lime and the gold rum.  Granted, I don’t have the 1930′s-era Bacardi Carta Oro that Big Constante called for, but my first few attempts at making this drink didn’t blow my socks off.  It was just a drink.

There were a few things I found that worked better than others.  For one thing, I don’t recommend just any gold rum.  I’d reach for something with some age on it, and preferably something with a bit of viscosity and a decent body to it.  I found that Zaya and Santa Teresa 1796 were both especially good matches for the orange and lime blend in the tin, taking the drink from passable to enjoyable.

All in all, I’d still skip over this one and head directly to the #3 and #4 or just stick with the original.  It does give me some interesting ideas on directions the Daiquiri #2 could go, other than just down my gullet.

Question of the Day:

Have you ever had a Daiquiri #2?

Related posts:

1. Hemingway Daiquiri
2. Daiquiri
3. El Presidente

Daiquiri

2 oz Rum
.75 oz Lime Juice
1 tsp Sugar

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

In the world of rum there are iconic drinks and then there are ICONIC drinks.  While most people may not be familiar with the Palmetto or the Twelve Mile Limit, just about everyone the world over knows of the Mai Tai and the Mojito.  Both drinks are standard-bearers for rum, but both also share a common ancestor – the most iconic rum drink of all, the Daiquiri.

A simple rum sour, the Daiquiri is perhaps the single most important rum drink ever created, and one more abused than any other as well.

Fresh lime juice, rum and just the right amount of sugar should mix together to form an incredibly refreshing drink.  This is a cocktail that you want to sip when the weather is warm and you need something crisp.  Unfortunately, there has been a tendency of mass-produced daiquiris to somewhat sully the reputation of what I consider to be the world’s most perfect drink.

If you look above, you’ll notice that nowhere in the recipe does it call for Sweet & Sour mix or a special daiquiri machine to make the drink.  In fact, the original daiquiri requires no blender of any sort.

The daiquiri is said to have originated in Cuba at the end of the 19th Century, but its roots stretch back much further.  Rum, sugar and lime was hardly a new idea by the time the daiquiri came into being.  The most famously recorded early example of the rum sour comes from the British Navy in 1740 when Admiral Vernon started issuing sailors their rations of grog – a mixture of rum, sugar and lime.

After the Spanish-American War, American servicemen and industrialists found themselves spending a lot of time in Cuba.  Here is where legends start to mingle with mixilogical history.  As Wayne Curtis points out in his masterful And a Bottle of Rum, there are several distinct stories detailing the creation of the daiquiri.  Most credit an American by the name of Jennings Cox, who managed mines near the town of Daquiri, in Cuba.  From these facts the story fragments into versions involving him creating the drink because he was out of gin (unlikely), he was hosting a collection of dignitaries including Facundo Bacardi, or that he did not invent the drink at all but simply gave the drink its name.

Other possible histories involve another American, William Shafter.  According to legend, Shafter took the preferred libation of the Cuban rebels (rum, sugar and lime) and added America’s greatest addition to mixology: ice.

Whatever the actual origins of the drink, it was a hit.

By the time the US found itself locked in the grips of Prohibition, Americans were flocking to Havana to sample daiquiris of all shapes and sizes.  The drink grew and evolved as the more well-known bars and bartenders in Havana tried to find more and newer ways to tickle the American palate.

Perhaps most famously – when it comes to daiquiris – was La Florida and its most famous bartender, Constantino Ribalaigua Vert (aka El Grande Constante).  The Big Constante took the daiquiri to new and dizzying heights and drew praise from the glitterati of his age, as well as the faithful following and patronage of one Ernest Hemingway.

Constante created numerous variations of the daiquiri.  The number 1, or original daiquiri, was made with 2 ounces of Bacardi rum, 1 teaspoonful of sugar and the juice of one half of a lime (the famous La Florida Cocktail Guide says “lemon” but the Spanish side of the recipe says limon verde or green lemon – meaning lime).  Other versions added Curacao (the #2), Maraschino (the #4 and eventually Floridita Daquiri) and finally grapefruit juice, Maraschino and a bigger helping of rum (the famous Hemingway Daiquiri).

Anyone who has studied American Literature probably knows that Ernest Hemingway was quite fond of daiquiris during his time in Havana.  If there was one thing that Hemingway was famous for other than his incredibly dry and sparse prose, it was his Herculean drinking – especially of my favorite drink.

One thing that might not be as well-known though is that the manly man that was Papa Hemingway liked his daiquiris blended.

But Dood, you just argued that blended daiquiris were wrong!  You’ve said so many times!

Somewhere along the way in Havana, people figured out that you could achieve the proper dilution and frigidity of a daiquiri by mixing it in a blender.  This isn’t as much of a leap as you might think.

The original recipe calls for the drink to be shaken with cracked ice.  It’s a small step from that to crushed ice, and a daiquiri served over crushed ice is an incredibly tasty treat – a daiquiri frappe!

In Cuba and Spain today, in fact, you can order your daiquiris either way.  On particularly warm days it can be difficult to find a better way to enjoy a daiquiri than to prepare it normally (no blender) and then strain it into a cocktail glass or Double Old Fashioned glass filled with crushed ice.  The drink stays blindingly cold and there is no way you’ll have any ice left when you finish it after downing it in 2 or 3 “sips.”

When it comes to rums, the daiquiri continues to be one of the most versatile and interesting drinks ever.  Purists will insist that you can only make a daiquiri with white rum (some will go so far as to argue only white Cuban rum or only Bacardi White).  I find this to be an overly-rigid definition.  The daiquiri is a drink that lends itself to experimentation.

One of my favorite drinks is what a lot of bartenders today are calling an Añejo Daiquiri – a daiquiri made with aged rum.  The differences as you move from one rum to another allow you to tweak the proportions of sugar to rum to lime to get just the right balance and find a daiquiri that suits any weather and any mood.

This may be one of the very few rum drinks which I encourage people to try with every rum they can get their hands on.  It’s a drink tailor-made to be tailor-made.  It is, to be bold, the world’s most perfect drink.

Question of the Day

What’s your favorite way to make your Daiquiri?

Related posts:

1. Hemingway Daiquiri
2. Daiquiri #2
3. El Presidente