Drink Matron

Tag: rum

  • Easy Camping Cocktails for Memorial Day

    Easy Camping Cocktails for Memorial Day

    It’s Memorial Day weekend, and for many of you that means it’s the first big camping holiday of the year. When I think of camping, it’s drinking that comes to my mind. While beer is most definitely the easiest way to imbibe while enjoying the great outdoors, there are plenty of mixers that are perfectly simple and even easy to pack. If you only have room for one bottle, that’s okay! Muddling, shaking, straining, and garnishing aren’t always necessary when you have the right combinations.

    Beergarita

    The most complicated drink on our list, the beergarita is perfect for those of you who are looking for a different take on the standard margarita. Plus, maybe those beer lovers at your campground will enjoy it. If you don’t have a blender, you can always mix this on the rocks, it’s just as nice, maybe even better.

    Ingredients:

    1 oz gold tequila
    1 oz triple sec
    1 oz lime juice
    12 oz bottle Corona® lager

    Mix all ingredients except the lager in a blender with ice. Pour into a large pilsner/pint glass, then add the Corona (which should be chilled) over the top. Garnish with a slice of lime, and serve.

    Cuba Libre

    Sometimes I think they named the Cuba Libre because “rum and coke” doesn’t sound as nice.

    Ingredients:

    1 part rum*
    1 part cola

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    *Whiskey is a good alternative.

    Dark N’ Stormy

    Ginger beer is so refreshing, and rum relaxing, that the combination may put you in a vacation mode immediately.

    Ingredients:

    1 part dark rum
    1 part ginger beer

    Pour ginger beer in a cup over ice. Add rum. Mix with your straw as you drink, slowly combining rum and ginger beer to create the best taste.

    Screwdriver

    You probably packed orange juice for breakfast anyway.

    Ingredients:

    1 part vodka
    1 part orange juice

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Greyhound

    If you don’t have orange juice, you probably have grapefruit juice.

    Ingredients:

    2 parts vodka
    1 part grapefruit juice

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Gimlet

    This is one that you probably should garnish. Cut up a lime and toss a few slices in.

    Ingredients:

    2 parts gin*
    1 part lime juice

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    *Alternatively, vodka can be used.

    Gin and Ginger

    Since you’ve got that ginger beer already…

    Ingredients:

    2 parts gin
    1 part ginger beer

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Whiskey Sour

    Nice and refreshing.

    Ingredients:

    2 parts whiskey
    1 part sour mix

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Bourbon Sweet Tea

    In the afternoon, nothing is better than sitting around the picnic table having a nice refreshing sweet tea. Why not liquor it up?

    Ingredients:

    2 parts bourbon
    2 part flavored sweet tea

    Combine bourbon and your choice of flavored sweet tea in a cup over ice. If you’re garnishing, garnish with lemon.

    Foodie extra

    Smoreos

    A new take on an old classic. Recipe courtesy of Andi Ponkey.

    Ingredients:

    Irish Cream
    Marshmallows
    Oreos

    Dip marshmallows in Irish cream before roasting. Instead of graham crackers, place the marshmallow between two sides of an Oreo.

  • Found on the Internet: One Drink, Five Ways: Rum and ginger beer

    Here’s a great article from Metromix New York about the many ways the Dark ‘n’ Stormy can be interpreted.

    http://newyork.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/standard_photo_gallery/one-drink-five-ways/731037/content

  • Ron de Jeremy Rum is Coming!

    It looks like Ron Jeremy’s Rum, Ron de Jeremy, is on it’s way to the United States and is scheduled to arrive in New York on February 28!

    For those of you who don’t know, Ron Jeremy has decided to join the ranks of other celebrity booze hounds like Sammy Hagar (tequila), Willy Nelson (bourbon), and Dr Dre (Cognac) in introducing his own brand of liquor. Why he chose rum is still a mystery to me, but what is not a mystery is that he has chosen to work with legendary Cuban Master Blender Francisco Don Pancho Fernandez to create this sure-to-make-him-lots-of-money spirit.

    The seven year old premium rum is traveling to us from Panama, and is being released by a company called One Eyed Spirits. Fitting name, don’t you think?

    I’ve got my pre order in, and I cannot wait to sip the drink that’s said “comes through robustly and satisfyingly, yet gentle enough to allow hints of vanilla and raw sugarcane to reveal themselves. The finish is elegant and long.”

  • Rum Runners

    The Prohibition era was an interesting time for the liquor industry in America.  In the short time in which booze was illegal in the States, it didn’t stop Americans from drinking it. In fact, black market spirit sales sprang to an ultimate high, making way for money to be made from illegal booze. And the rum runners made a killing.

    Rum runners were smugglers who specialized in bringing alcohol into the United States via boat. What started with Caribbean rum (hence the term rum runner) eventually moved to include Canadian whiskey and English gin.  Rum runners would go to any number of Caribbean islands, buy enough rum to fill their boats and head back to a U.S. port. Originally, they traveled from Bimini to southern Florida, but as authorities started tightening down on booze smuggling, ships would make runs up and down the entire eastern seaboard.

    Rum was inexpensive to procure, but the rum runners couldn’t turn much of a profit on it because rum was so inexpensive.  Typically, runners employed “profit enhancing” techniques such as watering down the rum or putting expensive brand labels on cheaper or unmarked rum. One of the more famous rum runners, Captain Bill McCoy, made a name for himself by never stooping to these “cost cutting” tactics.  This is where the term “The Real McCoy” comes from.

    McCoy was also known for the Rum Line.  In order to avoid the crack down on the major ports by federal authorities, the runners had to use mid-sized boats to transport the rum and other spirits. After running rum for a while, the intrepid captain realized that they could make most of the trip in much larger boats and then move the cargo to smaller boats offshore and make more profit per trip.  Utilizing this model, they could use even smaller boats to make landfall, allowing them to use smaller ports or even beach access points. Once they started implementing this, making the cargo transfer five miles from the U.S. coast (where International waters begin) the idea took hold.  The large vessels coming in would sit in a long line just outside of U.S. waters and wait for the smaller vessels to pick up the rum, eventually earning the name, “The Rum Line.”

    Rum runners brought in roughly $200,000 in product per week when the average American was making $50 per week.  It was a highly lucrative business for the few short years that alcohol was prohibited in the U.S.  After prohibition was repealed with the 21st Amendment in 1933, rum running became far less profitable, and fell mainly to less boisterous smugglers. The golden era of the rum runner was gone.

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  • The Controversial History of the Mai Tai

    Like any good cocktail, the Mai Tai begins with a good old fashioned controversy over who really invented it. The story of the Mai Tai begins in Oakland, California in 1944, when Victor Bergeron, also known as Trader Vic, claimed to have invented the cocktail at his restaurant.

    Trader Vic stakes his claim as Mai Tai Inventor

    According to the Trader Vic website, Bergeron was looking for a way to mix a bottle of his 17-year old Jamaican rum, J Wray Nephew. He wanted to mix it with something that would accentuate the flavor rather than over power it, so he mixed the rum with fresh lime, orange curacao and Rock Candy Syrup with a splash of French Orgeat and poured it over shaved ice.

    Naming the cocktail was easy, Vic said in a 1970 statement posted on the Trader Vic’s restaurant website.

    “I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, ‘Mai Tai – Roa Ae!’ In Tahitian this means ‘Out of This World – The Best.’ Well, that was that. I named the drink ‘Mai Tai.’”

    Don the Beachcomber says the Mai Tai is his

    However, although Vic claimed to have invented the drink, his rival, Don the Beachcomber, jumped on the bandwagon to claim that it was actually him who had invented the exotic cocktail. While Don had invented a similar drink, it was vastly different from Trader Vic’s in both ingredients and taste.

    Legacy of the Mai Tai

    For years after its invention, the Mai Tai enjoyed a large amount of popularity and was featured in Trader Vic’s restaurants as well as other Tiki themed restaurants. It was also famously shown in the Elvis Presley film “Blue Hawaii.”

    Today, the Mai Tai continues to maintain its popularity at Tiki-themed bars and restaurants. Variations on the drink have always been around, but most Mai Tai fans prefer to drink it as Trader Vic originally intended.

    Because of the popularity of the Mai Tai, the original rum used to make the drink was soon unavailable, and was replaced with other long-aged rums. Today, it is recommended that the drink be made with Jamaican rum aged either 8 or 15 years.

    Old style Mai Tai

    Ingredients:

    • 1 oz Fine Jamaican Rum (aged 15 or 8 years)
    • 1 oz Martinique Rum
    • 1/2 oz Orange Curacao
    • 1/2 oz Orgeat Syrup
    • Juice from one freshly squeezed Lime

    Add ingredients together in a shaker and shake vigorously. Pour in a cocktail glass over ice. Garnish with lime and sprig of mint, if available.