Oh my. Yet another sourced rum from Don Pancho, who if nothing else looks the part...
I think it wise to skip the usual hyperbolic marketing typical of new brands, and discuss the realities of this rum. First and foremost the rum is distilled to within an inch of its life, to very high and thin alcohol levels (the website claims 94% but I doubt that (vodka is 95%). Perhaps the low 90’s is more like it. This is done in name of economy, just like Canadian blended whiskey is largely based on CWS (near neutral spirits) with very little flavor in and of itself.
This very thin rum product is accomplished by using five column stills, which can only be described as a continuous industrial process.
So what to do? First this near neutral spirit is stored for 1-1/2 to 2 yrs in new oak – which is usually not done for good rums, but must be used in this case to at least add a little flavor in the form of some quick new wood extractives (usually vanillan and a bit of coconut). But not for too long or the spirit will pick up raw wood (ugh). So then they move the thin spirit to typical used ex-bourbon oak for another year or two. The result remains a very young spirit (3 years) which likely still lacks much real rum taste. Thus the final attempt to induce flavor to what is really aged near vodka appears required, and is implied by blending in a certain amount of good 6 year old aged rum to add enough actual rum flavors to make it minimally palatable or mixable. But then they have the problem of wood color and the remaining harshness of youth, so the rum is then triple filtered (carbon, standard, and chill filtered) . This will smooth the harsh edges and remove most of the color (leaving it straw colored), but such filtering unfortunately removes some flavor!
And sold at premium prices...
Truly fine spirits are not filtered with either carbon or by chill filtering for that reason. Last I note that the Brava seems to selling at premium prices (for a near white mixer), in the low $30’s! That’s serious money for what is still a mixer. BTW, Mount Gay made a rum like this for some years, but at a much better price.
My prediction: many promoters have tried to introduce a premium white without success (anyone remember Tommy Bahama Sand), and I really don’t think there is much of a market for what seems to be little more than a tricked out column produced near white, when one can buy a good four year old Flor de Cana White for less than half the price. Speaking of Charbay (who does their bottling), Charbay DOES make a truly exceptional white rum made by hand and using an all copper pot still, and which is properly distilled to much lower and tastier levels and for less money to boot. Another excellent alternative choice would be Sammy Hagar’s white, which is also exceptional, and again at a lower price.
Flat Ass Bottom Line
I know Fernandez’ company has some truly old and well aged product, but this one isn’t one of them. "Don Pancho" (Francisco Don Pancho Fernandez) - who certainly looks the part - has been made into a marketing image, convenient for promoting any number of invented products sourced from the company wiith whom is is affiliated. Want to see what he's actually working with? Check out his refurbished old 5-column set up in Panama, as pictured in their shiny but simplistic brand website: http://canabravarum.com/
Personally I have little interest in spending my good dollars for a yet another invented label by a company who seems to specialize in sourcing rum for new brand promoters (Zaphra, Origene, Selvery, Ron de Jeremy, Abuelo, Panamonte, Panama Red, Yolo, Copacabana, et al), all household names, nicht vahr?
It appears as though his benefactor is Carlos Esquivel, the owner of PILSA - "A rum distillery and production company, specializing in Aged Rums, and Rum related products in Panama and South America". Make of that what you will. Shelf space speaks louder than words, and at least in South Florida most of these brands are hard to find, much like an expired fireworks rocket. Loudly and quickly promoted, but dark in short order...
*******
The myth of "Don Pancho"
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... don+pancho
Damn Pancho Dept: Cana Brava?
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Capn Jimbo
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Cap'n, I have to ask, have you tried it?
I tried Caña Brava neat at a bar and liked it enough to buy it.
First of all, it's sold in litre bottles only, so the price is a little more palatable. Secondly and more importantly, it really does have a good Cuban rum flavor (comparing it to the Havana Club that I remember, or the FdCs, etc of the world). Remember that Facundo Bacardi's revolution was to bring mega-industrial column stills to the Caribbean rum industry (for better or for worse) but that original Bacardi was distilled to a very high proof yet still were, if we believe those who tried it, the gold standard for a light tasting yet characterful rum.
The company that imports/distributes Caña Brava (The 86 Co.) sells stuff intended for high-end cocktail bartenders, and they commissioned Fernandez to make a Cuban-style rum to meet their specs. I can't speak to whatever else the distillery makes, but think of it like this: Angostura makes Scarlet Ibis for Death & Company/Haus Alpenz, while their branded releases are basically sweet rubbish. Looks like Las Cabres is doing the same.
As for there not being much of a market, many, many of the serious cocktail bars of the world have picked up Caña Brava because it's perfect for classic Floridita-era Cuban cocktails. I don't think the 86 Co really intends it to be bought by the home consumer, and it's certainly not intended to be a sipper or anything of the sort (indeed, much like Scarlet Ibis)
Bottom line, Caña Brava is a seriously good Cuban-style white rum, and not as expensive as it would seem it first. Also, on the bottle there isn't much chatter about "premium" this and that, or Don Pancho.
PS: Flor de Caña white rum is also charcoal filtered to remove color, and that's still a great rum. The process was fairly well established in Cuba in the golden age and is still done by HC, not to mention all white rums from Puerto Rico (where by law rum has to be aged at least a year)
I tried Caña Brava neat at a bar and liked it enough to buy it.
First of all, it's sold in litre bottles only, so the price is a little more palatable. Secondly and more importantly, it really does have a good Cuban rum flavor (comparing it to the Havana Club that I remember, or the FdCs, etc of the world). Remember that Facundo Bacardi's revolution was to bring mega-industrial column stills to the Caribbean rum industry (for better or for worse) but that original Bacardi was distilled to a very high proof yet still were, if we believe those who tried it, the gold standard for a light tasting yet characterful rum.
The company that imports/distributes Caña Brava (The 86 Co.) sells stuff intended for high-end cocktail bartenders, and they commissioned Fernandez to make a Cuban-style rum to meet their specs. I can't speak to whatever else the distillery makes, but think of it like this: Angostura makes Scarlet Ibis for Death & Company/Haus Alpenz, while their branded releases are basically sweet rubbish. Looks like Las Cabres is doing the same.
As for there not being much of a market, many, many of the serious cocktail bars of the world have picked up Caña Brava because it's perfect for classic Floridita-era Cuban cocktails. I don't think the 86 Co really intends it to be bought by the home consumer, and it's certainly not intended to be a sipper or anything of the sort (indeed, much like Scarlet Ibis)
Bottom line, Caña Brava is a seriously good Cuban-style white rum, and not as expensive as it would seem it first. Also, on the bottle there isn't much chatter about "premium" this and that, or Don Pancho.
PS: Flor de Caña white rum is also charcoal filtered to remove color, and that's still a great rum. The process was fairly well established in Cuba in the golden age and is still done by HC, not to mention all white rums from Puerto Rico (where by law rum has to be aged at least a year)
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Capn Jimbo
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Let me be clear...
...Hass, I do understand and thanks for the post, but allow me to clarify. This is neither made nor promoted as a sipper, but at an average retail price of around $30 ($27 to $35) is being sold as a yet another premium white. For that kind of gold (pun intended) it had better be special. That of course begs the question, what is "special".
To most our regulars here that would mean pot stilled, charcoal filtered only as necessary, aged at least years or more, and delivered at a higher proof if possible.
Let's compare:
1. Cana Brava: high alcohol industrial produced, flavor forced by new wood and the addition of just enough 6 year old rum to give it a modicum of flavor. Call it $30 for a liter.
2. Barbancourt White: $14.99. Column and pot, French oak, a masterpiece.
3. Appleton White: $14.99. Column and pot, very well done.
4. Diplomatico Blanco. $27.99. a true 6 year, traditionally aged white.
5. El Dorado 3 Year White: $16.99, a good one.
6. Flor de Cana 4 Year White: $17.99, 1.75 liters, well respected, great mixer.
7. Myers's White: $22.99, 1.75 liters, pot stilled. Far superior, and known to all living bartenders.
8. Prichard's Crystal: $22.99, pot stilled, exceptional.
9. Ron Matusalem Platino: $16.99 (or less). As Cuban as you're going to get.
10. Sammy's Beach Bar: $19.99. Batch rum, handmade, really exceptional.
11. Doorly's Macaw White: $9.99, excellent, by Richard Seale.
12. Wray & Nephews OP: $17.99, pot stilled, world class, perhaps the best on the list for those who know how to use it.
All of these would do just as well if not much better, and in most cases are of significantly higher quality and exhibit far more authentic rum profiles.
What I'm getting at...
My point is this. Likeable or not, Cana Brava is simply not very special, particularly being made with near neutral, continuous column produced rum spirit. If you haven't seen many of Pancho's sourced creations there's a reason why. Be it the juice or the promoters it's hard to find them because they apparently don't sell very well. If it succeeds with the bars it will be because of promotion more than the product.
It's clear this is not a even a premium from a marketing standpoint as it has stooped to the so, so overworn pirate party theme, not to mention a relatively simplistic website. It is priced WAY too high for that crowd, yet way too low (and promoted incoherently) as to the actual, 1% super-premium crowd.
Even before the economy tanked 10 Cane and Tommy Bahama bit the big weiner. Believe me if anyone could have cracked the upper eschelon crowd it would have been Tommy, made by Richard Seale yet (with even some 12 year old thrown in). Never happened.
Glad you liked it, but there's no real market for yet another made-up white mixing rum, regardless of the story. Tell me, when's the last time you lamented that there just wasn't a good white mixing rum?
Some closing thoughts...
Bacardi truly owns the bar trade. Their affiliation with Cuba is now ancient history, and its fair to say the rum they make now is far different than the rum they made in Cuba 50 years ago. Bartenders can promote the Floridita all they want to, but if a thin smooth rum is the answer to Hemingway's alcoholism, then even today's Bacardi works just as well, and does a better job with its party imagery.
There's no real demand for the old Bacardi or the old Cuban mixed drinks. For the godz sakes the only place you can even find an authentic Mai Tai is at the Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale plus perhaps one or two other remaining relic bars.
Since Cuban rums have been illegal in the United States for more than two generations, no one here has a clue as what those rums were or are now; ergo the demand - if true - is not for a true Cuban rum/mixed drink, but only the promoted and romantic idea of one. Ergo the promotion of "Don Pancho" and his far distant Cuban heritage, hardly relevent or meaningful now (as should be evident from his missing-in-action portfolio).
In closing, it is well to remember that Bacardi's success at the time was not necessarily due to its quality, but as an inexpensive component to mix with Coca Cola - the Cuba Libre - and a low cost but high profit rum to unlawfully run into the U.S. during Prohibition, when Americans were desperate for anything containing alcohol. Their still and method was not really theirs but were obtained from a Frenchman. Facundo's big contribution was simply charcoal filtering to smooth and to make their white rum more palatable/mixable.
...Hass, I do understand and thanks for the post, but allow me to clarify. This is neither made nor promoted as a sipper, but at an average retail price of around $30 ($27 to $35) is being sold as a yet another premium white. For that kind of gold (pun intended) it had better be special. That of course begs the question, what is "special".
To most our regulars here that would mean pot stilled, charcoal filtered only as necessary, aged at least years or more, and delivered at a higher proof if possible.
Let's compare:
1. Cana Brava: high alcohol industrial produced, flavor forced by new wood and the addition of just enough 6 year old rum to give it a modicum of flavor. Call it $30 for a liter.
2. Barbancourt White: $14.99. Column and pot, French oak, a masterpiece.
3. Appleton White: $14.99. Column and pot, very well done.
4. Diplomatico Blanco. $27.99. a true 6 year, traditionally aged white.
5. El Dorado 3 Year White: $16.99, a good one.
6. Flor de Cana 4 Year White: $17.99, 1.75 liters, well respected, great mixer.
7. Myers's White: $22.99, 1.75 liters, pot stilled. Far superior, and known to all living bartenders.
8. Prichard's Crystal: $22.99, pot stilled, exceptional.
9. Ron Matusalem Platino: $16.99 (or less). As Cuban as you're going to get.
10. Sammy's Beach Bar: $19.99. Batch rum, handmade, really exceptional.
11. Doorly's Macaw White: $9.99, excellent, by Richard Seale.
12. Wray & Nephews OP: $17.99, pot stilled, world class, perhaps the best on the list for those who know how to use it.
All of these would do just as well if not much better, and in most cases are of significantly higher quality and exhibit far more authentic rum profiles.
What I'm getting at...
My point is this. Likeable or not, Cana Brava is simply not very special, particularly being made with near neutral, continuous column produced rum spirit. If you haven't seen many of Pancho's sourced creations there's a reason why. Be it the juice or the promoters it's hard to find them because they apparently don't sell very well. If it succeeds with the bars it will be because of promotion more than the product.
It's clear this is not a even a premium from a marketing standpoint as it has stooped to the so, so overworn pirate party theme, not to mention a relatively simplistic website. It is priced WAY too high for that crowd, yet way too low (and promoted incoherently) as to the actual, 1% super-premium crowd.
Even before the economy tanked 10 Cane and Tommy Bahama bit the big weiner. Believe me if anyone could have cracked the upper eschelon crowd it would have been Tommy, made by Richard Seale yet (with even some 12 year old thrown in). Never happened.
Glad you liked it, but there's no real market for yet another made-up white mixing rum, regardless of the story. Tell me, when's the last time you lamented that there just wasn't a good white mixing rum?
Some closing thoughts...
Bacardi truly owns the bar trade. Their affiliation with Cuba is now ancient history, and its fair to say the rum they make now is far different than the rum they made in Cuba 50 years ago. Bartenders can promote the Floridita all they want to, but if a thin smooth rum is the answer to Hemingway's alcoholism, then even today's Bacardi works just as well, and does a better job with its party imagery.
There's no real demand for the old Bacardi or the old Cuban mixed drinks. For the godz sakes the only place you can even find an authentic Mai Tai is at the Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale plus perhaps one or two other remaining relic bars.
Since Cuban rums have been illegal in the United States for more than two generations, no one here has a clue as what those rums were or are now; ergo the demand - if true - is not for a true Cuban rum/mixed drink, but only the promoted and romantic idea of one. Ergo the promotion of "Don Pancho" and his far distant Cuban heritage, hardly relevent or meaningful now (as should be evident from his missing-in-action portfolio).
In closing, it is well to remember that Bacardi's success at the time was not necessarily due to its quality, but as an inexpensive component to mix with Coca Cola - the Cuba Libre - and a low cost but high profit rum to unlawfully run into the U.S. during Prohibition, when Americans were desperate for anything containing alcohol. Their still and method was not really theirs but were obtained from a Frenchman. Facundo's big contribution was simply charcoal filtering to smooth and to make their white rum more palatable/mixable.
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Capn Jimbo
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Special Note...
Our good man Hass posted a worthwhile take on the promotion of Cana Brava to bartenders for "Cuban" style drinks. That post was here, but was split off in its entirety to the "Mixers" section.
Here's the link:
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=1513
A good read. I'll avoid a spoiler and simply encourage you to read it...
Our good man Hass posted a worthwhile take on the promotion of Cana Brava to bartenders for "Cuban" style drinks. That post was here, but was split off in its entirety to the "Mixers" section.
Here's the link:
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=1513
A good read. I'll avoid a spoiler and simply encourage you to read it...
In the days of Don Facundo column distilling was still quite "lo-tech" when comparing to today's multi-column systems - best examples in the Caribbean being the Bacardi plant in PR and Angostura's systems in Trinidad. Dual-column was the best they had achieved in those days I believe, of course a huge hop ahead from the single columns and La Salle singles. And yes, they did achieve somewhat higher strength than the old pots ever could.Hassouni wrote: Remember that Facundo Bacardi's revolution was to bring mega-industrial column stills to the Caribbean rum industry (for better or for worse) but that original Bacardi was distilled to a very high proof yet still were, if we believe those who tried it, the gold standard for a light tasting yet characterful rum.
I believe all aged rum sold as "white" is filtered to remove any hint of colour - the exception being 3yo Havana Club, which still bears the natural light colour given to it by the casks.
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Capn Jimbo
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J...
Thanks for clarifying those historical facts. Cuba and Hemingway are widely romanticized, but truth be told, the rums/drinks of those days are over. WWII and Morey Amsterdam's song "Rum and Coke" is over. Castro's takeover was 50 years ago. The Bacardi of today is not at all like their romanticized history.
What American's know now is not really Cuban, but Americanized versions of the drinks, and for romanticized marketing icon "Don Pancho" to somehow represent "real" Cuban rum is a stretch, to say the least.
BTW there was indeed a straw colored light rum made for some years by Mount Gay, called "Special Reserve". As the godz are my witness, this was the very first bottle of rum we ever bought, as a gift to friend for his motorboat tour of Ft. Lauderdale's amazing Christmas lights.
Every once in a while I still see one covered with dust...
. . . . . . .
(Bad pic - actually light straw in color)
Thanks for clarifying those historical facts. Cuba and Hemingway are widely romanticized, but truth be told, the rums/drinks of those days are over. WWII and Morey Amsterdam's song "Rum and Coke" is over. Castro's takeover was 50 years ago. The Bacardi of today is not at all like their romanticized history.
What American's know now is not really Cuban, but Americanized versions of the drinks, and for romanticized marketing icon "Don Pancho" to somehow represent "real" Cuban rum is a stretch, to say the least.
BTW there was indeed a straw colored light rum made for some years by Mount Gay, called "Special Reserve". As the godz are my witness, this was the very first bottle of rum we ever bought, as a gift to friend for his motorboat tour of Ft. Lauderdale's amazing Christmas lights.
Every once in a while I still see one covered with dust...
. . . . . . .
(Bad pic - actually light straw in color)
Certainly.Capn Jimbo wrote: Cuba and Hemingway are widely romanticized,
Not quite so certain. We may not have pre-embargo Bacardi, Matusalem, Cubaney, and the rest, in production, but rare bottles of them are still around and a lucky few rum experts (such as Jeff Berry, if I recall correctly) have tried them (at least the old Bacardi Carta Blanca). In other words, there are respected people around today who know what the old Cuban rums tasted like and can accurately judge whether Flor de Caña, or Caña Brava, or indeed whatever else, accurately resembles pre-embargo Cuban rum. To go back to Berry, he also recommends the extremely limited-release Bacardi 1909 as being a very good facsimile of classic Carta Blanca. Now, that one is also incredibly hard to find, expensive, and what's more, I don't really want to be buying Bacardi products, because...but truth be told, the rums/drinks of those days are over. WWII and Morey Amsterdam's song "Rum and Coke" is over. Castro's takeover was 50 years ago. The Bacardi of today is not at all like their romanticized history.
What American's know now is not really Cuban, but Americanized versions of the drinks, and for romanticized marketing icon "Don Pancho" to somehow represent "real" Cuban rum is a stretch, to say the least.
Certainly the Bacardi of today is not at all like their romanticized history - Bacardi white today is utter swill, and they're a corporate giant of the likes Don Facundo likely never could have imagined. I've heard Bacardi 8 is the only decent full-time production they make, and it's a B-grade rum at best. They've utterly sold out their legacy. They could EASILY put that 1909 rum into full production, charge $30 for it, and because of the romanticism you mentioned, it would certainly sell. But when 95% of the market is OK with the standard crap, why bother putting in effort for the 5% of us who care?
To backtrack, for practical purposes pre-embargo Cuban rum may be gone, but the classic Cuban drinks are not. As I mentioned, Berry's new book extols Cuba (especially Constante of La Floridita) as a paragon of mixology and provides historically accurate recipes, both from La Floridita's own cocktail book (also available in print) and from several other sources. Just as Berry brought authentic tiki back into the light, he's doing so for Cuban drinks as well. The craft cocktail community is very much into historical authenticity, and a real daiquiri, nothing but rum, lime, and sugar (a recipe that was forgotten in the US seemingly for decades) has ingrained itself as a staple among cocktailians, to use Gary Regan's term. This is to say nothing of other drinks such as El Presidente, and a properly-made mojito.
Mind you: this is not to say the average consumer going into a bar ordering a super sweet mojito, or god forbid, a strawberry frozen daiquiri, is going to say "hey this isn't authentic!", but again, the point of Caña Brava is not for it to be a mass-market rum, but rather something akin, albeit in a different way, to Smith & Cross - a recreation of a once popular but now mostly dormant style. Pretty much nobody except rum and cocktail obsessives knows what S&C is, but that hasn't stopped it being a runaway success.
So yes, you are right in that for most Americans, the classic Cuban drinks are over and done with, but historically, most Americans probably never had much exposure to them anyway. However, for those of us who are deeply into cocktail culture, they never really disappeared, and the last 10 years or so have seen a vigorous return, coinciding naturally with the "craft cocktail renaissance" of the past decade.
For us, Caña Brava, as an apparently successful recreation of Carta Blanca (according to those who have tried the real thing), is a very welcome addition to our rum choices.
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Capn Jimbo
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But surely it depends on what is is...
Hass are you speaking of the Cuban drinks as made during Prohibition in Cuba? During and after WWII? During Hemingway's days of residence? Or now?
Is the focus what you call the original Carta Blanca, and if so from what year? Or the current Havana Club 3 Anos (which is popular everywhere except in Cuba where the bartenders' first choice is to use Santiago, then Caney, but Havana Club as a last choice)?
And assuming you have Berry's book, what white rums does he suggest for the Mojito, and for the Daiquiri and why? It'd be terrific if you could state his recipes for each...
Hass are you speaking of the Cuban drinks as made during Prohibition in Cuba? During and after WWII? During Hemingway's days of residence? Or now?
Is the focus what you call the original Carta Blanca, and if so from what year? Or the current Havana Club 3 Anos (which is popular everywhere except in Cuba where the bartenders' first choice is to use Santiago, then Caney, but Havana Club as a last choice)?
And assuming you have Berry's book, what white rums does he suggest for the Mojito, and for the Daiquiri and why? It'd be terrific if you could state his recipes for each...
I'm speaking of the drinks made since the explosion of the Cuban rum industry that began with Facundo Bacardi, until, let's say, the death of Constante Ribalaigua in 1952, or at a stretch, until Castro. Which covers Prohibition, WWII, and the first part at least of Hemingway's stay. Certainly the most famous bars of that era were Sloppy Joe's, La Floridita, and La Bodeguita del Medio, where rum, lime and sugar combined reached its apotheosis. These drinks are the ones so beloved by the craft bartenders of the world today, and I agree that there's a fair amount of romanticism involved, but it should be also be said that these are damn good drinks that stand on their own merits.
As for Carta Blanca, I do mean the Cuban-made Bacardi generically. It's my understanding that the Cuban-made stuff was more or less similar from the start until production left the island for PR, Mexico, and elsewhere. I'm sure there were variants inasmuch as there are in any spirit over the decades, but it sounds like they used an entirely different recipe than what they use now. I have to say for the record that I haven't had Santiago, or Caney, but have had lots and lots of Havana Club and I think the 3 Años is AWESOME for Cuban-style drinks.
I do own Berry's new book, and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's much more a history book than a recipe book. Unfortunately I don't have access to it at the moment, but I can tell you off the top of my head that he mentions HC, FdC, Bacardi 1909, and Doorly's 3 yr white as good substitutes. I am *fairly* sure he mentions Caña Brava, but I also read the Death & Co. book more recently, and I may be confusing it with that, in which I know for certain they recommend Caña Brava alongside FdC. By the way, I guess that Doorly's 3 yr white must be a damn sight better than the NAS Macaw white, because the latter is not so impressive (incidentally I asked Seale on Facebook what the difference was and he maintains that they're basically the same except for 3 guaranteed years on the 3 year!)
Anyway, when I can get to the book I can post the recipes, but I can post my own in the recipe section, they're more or less in line with what he suggests.
As for Carta Blanca, I do mean the Cuban-made Bacardi generically. It's my understanding that the Cuban-made stuff was more or less similar from the start until production left the island for PR, Mexico, and elsewhere. I'm sure there were variants inasmuch as there are in any spirit over the decades, but it sounds like they used an entirely different recipe than what they use now. I have to say for the record that I haven't had Santiago, or Caney, but have had lots and lots of Havana Club and I think the 3 Años is AWESOME for Cuban-style drinks.
I do own Berry's new book, and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's much more a history book than a recipe book. Unfortunately I don't have access to it at the moment, but I can tell you off the top of my head that he mentions HC, FdC, Bacardi 1909, and Doorly's 3 yr white as good substitutes. I am *fairly* sure he mentions Caña Brava, but I also read the Death & Co. book more recently, and I may be confusing it with that, in which I know for certain they recommend Caña Brava alongside FdC. By the way, I guess that Doorly's 3 yr white must be a damn sight better than the NAS Macaw white, because the latter is not so impressive (incidentally I asked Seale on Facebook what the difference was and he maintains that they're basically the same except for 3 guaranteed years on the 3 year!)
Anyway, when I can get to the book I can post the recipes, but I can post my own in the recipe section, they're more or less in line with what he suggests.
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Capn Jimbo
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Hass, thanks...
Good contribution. I love Berry's books as he too is mad for research and history. Still at least one great controversy remains, that of the attribution of the Mai Tai. Berry won't say for sure and leans toward Bergeron, while a then well-known writer later admitted he'd joined Vic and Donn Beach at a bar, where Vic admitted that "Yes, dammit" I got it from Donn. But that's another subject.
FWIW, in Cuba Santiago was/is the pre-Castro Matusalem, while Caney refers to the pre-Castro Bacardi, both taken over. One rum that few know abouti is the Cuban Ron San Pablo, which is still made in now in Curacao (Dutch) as it was in Cuba. Do check this out...
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... ht=curacao
Unlike the Mai Tai which was rather singular, it seems that the two most Cuban - the Mojito and the Daiquiri - are not so easily positioned. Not only have the rums changed over the years, so have the recipes. No doubt the Hemingway years are the most influential but his recipes differed from those of the Floridita and La Bodegita ("the little cellar"). There is some evidence that the Cuban Matusalem (also established in Santiago, and practically as old as Bacardi) was much the preferred pour, from Hemingway to now. So which rum?
And as for the ingredients, even the lime, sugar and mint is not sacrosanct. Even Hemingway's mixologist Constantino had four recipes for the Daiquiri. Tino used marachino liqueur, and Hemingway hated sugar. Today's Cubans often use lemon, icing sugar instead of cane sugar, Angostura bitters, et al. Whole cubes or crushed? Even in the day was it sugar or Floridita's syrup? Depends. It's not like the Mai Tai or the Zombie, both of which emanated from one man, one place, one recipe and can still be found (Mai Kai, Tiki Ti) in their original form. And if we pay attention to those who should know best - the Cuban people - the task becomes ever more muddled (pun intended).
It's just my impression, but I suspect the actual, original, historical version - if there is one - will take an end stool to the romanticized Hemingway version (assuming the question of whether Santiago/Matusalem was the rum can be settled).
Really have to buy the book now.
BTW, perhaps the best history of these drinks is ("and a Bottle of Rum") by Wayne Curtis, along with "Rum, a Social and Sociable History" by Ian Williams, "Caribbean Rum" by Frederick Smith and "Rum, the Epic Story..." by Charles Coulombe. As much as I dig Berry (who stood alone in examining the Tiki culture), the story of Caribbean rum has already been told very well indeed, by competent authors, and well-cited scholars. Let's not forget Dave Broom's "Rum" and Luis Ayala's "The Rum Experience" (a collector's item).
All essential reading for rum fanatics.
Good contribution. I love Berry's books as he too is mad for research and history. Still at least one great controversy remains, that of the attribution of the Mai Tai. Berry won't say for sure and leans toward Bergeron, while a then well-known writer later admitted he'd joined Vic and Donn Beach at a bar, where Vic admitted that "Yes, dammit" I got it from Donn. But that's another subject.
FWIW, in Cuba Santiago was/is the pre-Castro Matusalem, while Caney refers to the pre-Castro Bacardi, both taken over. One rum that few know abouti is the Cuban Ron San Pablo, which is still made in now in Curacao (Dutch) as it was in Cuba. Do check this out...
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtop ... ht=curacao
Unlike the Mai Tai which was rather singular, it seems that the two most Cuban - the Mojito and the Daiquiri - are not so easily positioned. Not only have the rums changed over the years, so have the recipes. No doubt the Hemingway years are the most influential but his recipes differed from those of the Floridita and La Bodegita ("the little cellar"). There is some evidence that the Cuban Matusalem (also established in Santiago, and practically as old as Bacardi) was much the preferred pour, from Hemingway to now. So which rum?
And as for the ingredients, even the lime, sugar and mint is not sacrosanct. Even Hemingway's mixologist Constantino had four recipes for the Daiquiri. Tino used marachino liqueur, and Hemingway hated sugar. Today's Cubans often use lemon, icing sugar instead of cane sugar, Angostura bitters, et al. Whole cubes or crushed? Even in the day was it sugar or Floridita's syrup? Depends. It's not like the Mai Tai or the Zombie, both of which emanated from one man, one place, one recipe and can still be found (Mai Kai, Tiki Ti) in their original form. And if we pay attention to those who should know best - the Cuban people - the task becomes ever more muddled (pun intended).
It's just my impression, but I suspect the actual, original, historical version - if there is one - will take an end stool to the romanticized Hemingway version (assuming the question of whether Santiago/Matusalem was the rum can be settled).
Really have to buy the book now.
BTW, perhaps the best history of these drinks is ("and a Bottle of Rum") by Wayne Curtis, along with "Rum, a Social and Sociable History" by Ian Williams, "Caribbean Rum" by Frederick Smith and "Rum, the Epic Story..." by Charles Coulombe. As much as I dig Berry (who stood alone in examining the Tiki culture), the story of Caribbean rum has already been told very well indeed, by competent authors, and well-cited scholars. Let's not forget Dave Broom's "Rum" and Luis Ayala's "The Rum Experience" (a collector's item).
All essential reading for rum fanatics.
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
The mojito definitely has no traceable single origin. The daiquiri, on the other hand, or at least the name, can with fair certainty be traced to Jennings Cox, but his recipe was not quite the same. Really Constante (that's the short form he preferred, btw) set the gold standard for the daiquiri, and his variations on them (1 through 4) are mere accents rather than a wholesale change of his original, No. 1 recipe. He's also held in the highest praise by David Embury, author of 1948's seminal The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. It's worth nothing that he was a celebrity bartender, if we can call it that, well before Hemingway ever showed up in Havana.
Re: the Mai Tai and the Zombie - the Zombie is 100% a Don drink, and the Mai Tai....that gets served today and whose original recipe Berry dug out is 100% a Vic drink. HOWEVER, Don claims to have invented a "Mai Tai Punch" before that, but it's a totally different recipe and is pretty much never the one made today. I think it's reasonable to say that Vic's only shares the name, which might very well just be a coincidence. I've done a lot of reading about this - both the Zombie and the Mai Tai, when made according to the original recipes (for both of which we have Berry to thank), are AMAZING drinks and some of my favorites.
Re: the Mai Tai and the Zombie - the Zombie is 100% a Don drink, and the Mai Tai....that gets served today and whose original recipe Berry dug out is 100% a Vic drink. HOWEVER, Don claims to have invented a "Mai Tai Punch" before that, but it's a totally different recipe and is pretty much never the one made today. I think it's reasonable to say that Vic's only shares the name, which might very well just be a coincidence. I've done a lot of reading about this - both the Zombie and the Mai Tai, when made according to the original recipes (for both of which we have Berry to thank), are AMAZING drinks and some of my favorites.
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Capn Jimbo
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Let's continue to fuzz this up, lol...
"Constante"? How delicious, nice nut. Though I prefer to call him "Tino" (Greek heritage), and I'd insist he call me Capn Jimbo, Sir! Although the Jennings Cox myth is the most common, even it is not clear.
Per Wayne Curtis ("...and a Bottle of Rum") et al, Cox's granddaughter was alleged to have held out that he (Cox) was entertaining not a fellow engineer, but a group of dignitaries. In another version, Facundo was present when Cox was alleged to have said "...we all work at Daiquiri (a city) and we all drank this first there. Let's call it a Daiquiri!".
However, the second most popular myth (Curtis) is that in 1898 an American officer named William Shafter came ashore during the war and had a number of what was the Cuban patriotic drink (rum, lime juice and muddled sugar) and commented "All it's missing is ice", and thus the Daiquiri was born. Curtis' own opinion: myths all, noting "...it's a bit odd that anyone would claim credit for a cocktail whose ingredients had been mixed well and often since at least 1740".
Back to the Mai Tai:
Here you need to refer back to both Jeff, and to "Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Donn the Beachcomber" by Arnold Bittner. The respected writer who spoke directly to the issue is Jim Bishop (his descendants live in Florida) is quite clear that Vic finally fessed up. Berry's reference to Donn as the possible source is not based on his "Mai Tai Punch" (which all agree is different), but rather on Beach's "QB Cooler". Vic only later experienced the Cooler, loved it and many believe that Vic's Mai Tai was actually a copy of the Cooler.
Berry in Sippin Safari:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bishop
BTW, the Mai Kai still serves the original QB Cooler. As far as recipes go, it was the surviving bartenders and notebooks that provided the recipes to Jeff, not the reverse, although his reproduction of what he honestly believes to be the recipes is a great service. If you ever visit Ft. L., you simply have to try the absolutely original Zombie and Q.B. Cooler, and taste for yourself.
*******
"Don" is correct if referring to the bars, which were named "Don the Beachcombers", but not when referring to the man, who legally changed his name to "Donn Beach" (two "n's").
"Constante"? How delicious, nice nut. Though I prefer to call him "Tino" (Greek heritage), and I'd insist he call me Capn Jimbo, Sir! Although the Jennings Cox myth is the most common, even it is not clear.
Per Wayne Curtis ("...and a Bottle of Rum") et al, Cox's granddaughter was alleged to have held out that he (Cox) was entertaining not a fellow engineer, but a group of dignitaries. In another version, Facundo was present when Cox was alleged to have said "...we all work at Daiquiri (a city) and we all drank this first there. Let's call it a Daiquiri!".
However, the second most popular myth (Curtis) is that in 1898 an American officer named William Shafter came ashore during the war and had a number of what was the Cuban patriotic drink (rum, lime juice and muddled sugar) and commented "All it's missing is ice", and thus the Daiquiri was born. Curtis' own opinion: myths all, noting "...it's a bit odd that anyone would claim credit for a cocktail whose ingredients had been mixed well and often since at least 1740".
Back to the Mai Tai:
Here you need to refer back to both Jeff, and to "Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Donn the Beachcomber" by Arnold Bittner. The respected writer who spoke directly to the issue is Jim Bishop (his descendants live in Florida) is quite clear that Vic finally fessed up. Berry's reference to Donn as the possible source is not based on his "Mai Tai Punch" (which all agree is different), but rather on Beach's "QB Cooler". Vic only later experienced the Cooler, loved it and many believe that Vic's Mai Tai was actually a copy of the Cooler.
Berry in Sippin Safari:
Jeff makes several other references, including to Donn's ex-wife, Phoebe Beach (who also published), that also supports this view (Donn as source), but in the end he makes clear that the resemblance between the Donn's QB Cooler and Vic's Mai Tai is more than remarkable. Unfortunately his books completely missed famed writer Jim Bishop's quote, published by Don Chapman in a Honolulu newspaper in 1989, and reproduced in Bittner's out of print book. Chapman's article/Bittner's book quotes directly from a letter he received from famous columnist Jim Bishop:"We replaced the Q.B. Cooler recipe in the first edition... with this earlier one from 1937, as that's the year Trader Vic first visited Don the Beachcomber's - and allegedly obtained the recipe to create the Mai Tai".
FWIW I put a great deal of belief into Jim Bishop's quote, as he was a not only a very famous columnist, but actually more of a noted Christian, and non-fiction writer of history ("The Day Christ Died", "The Day Lincoln was Shot", et al.). This is as close to an impeccable source as one is going to find. The newspaper article is completely real and reproduced as a printed photo.Writer Jim Bishop:
"In probably 1970 or '71 Donn and I were with Vic at Vic's in San Francisco. In the friend-foe relationship Donn and Vic had, Vic said in effect that night "blankety blank Donn, I wish you'd never come up with the blankety blank thing. It's caused me a lot of arguing with a lot of people". Then Vic looked at me and said "Jim, this blankety...blank did do it. I didn't"".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bishop
BTW, the Mai Kai still serves the original QB Cooler. As far as recipes go, it was the surviving bartenders and notebooks that provided the recipes to Jeff, not the reverse, although his reproduction of what he honestly believes to be the recipes is a great service. If you ever visit Ft. L., you simply have to try the absolutely original Zombie and Q.B. Cooler, and taste for yourself.
*******
"Don" is correct if referring to the bars, which were named "Don the Beachcombers", but not when referring to the man, who legally changed his name to "Donn Beach" (two "n's").
Personally I am not all that interested in Cuban rum (or Hispanic rums in general), pre-Castro or not. Why? Because it was precisely the secrets and "skills" of Spanish brandy making traditions that was behind the widespread use of macerated fruits, essences etc to create a false taste for rum. Matusalem was in Cuba pre-Castro, and as we know, their original recipe called for the use of macerated fruits. Pretty sure many others did use/ still use similar methods...which make Hispanic rums in general not very interesting. Combine that with the code of silence & efforts to keep this hidden, and you have a tarnished history of rums which are spiced secretly.
It interests me to study when the additions of sugar to make rum sweet started...and where. Another not-so-great "tradition".
Best Cuban rum I've tasted? Bristol's Classic rum 2003 vintage from Sancti Spiritus distillery. And BOY does it taste different from other Cuban rums...as it is not sugarized or spiced. It may not be the best rum I've tasted, but it is an honest RUM. That goes a loooong way in my books.
It interests me to study when the additions of sugar to make rum sweet started...and where. Another not-so-great "tradition".
Best Cuban rum I've tasted? Bristol's Classic rum 2003 vintage from Sancti Spiritus distillery. And BOY does it taste different from other Cuban rums...as it is not sugarized or spiced. It may not be the best rum I've tasted, but it is an honest RUM. That goes a loooong way in my books.