The Bacardi Cocktail.

[ThinkingBartender]

Some cocktails have multiple recipes, whiles some cocktail recipes have

multiple names; the Daiquiri belongs to the latter and the former, while the

Bacardi Cocktail belongs simply to the latter. However, and this is where it

gets complicated, the Bacardi Cocktail may have originally been the same drink

as the Daiquiri. By Daiquiri, I mean the cuban rum, fresh lime juice and sugar

variety, without fruit or juice.

Lets look at what the Bacardi Cocktail and Daiquiri recipes are now, and then

I will attempt to reveal what they were, way back when they were first

concocted.

Daiquiri:

2 shots Cuban Rum (light),

1/2 shot Fresh Lime Juice,

1 bar spoon of Gomme syrup

(substitute: thick sugar syrup, 9:1 ratio; the same ratio as Giffards use

for their Gomme Syrup)

Bacardi Cocktail:

2 shots Bacardi Rum,

1/2 shot Fresh Lime Juice,

1 barspoon of Grenadine Syrup.

Now let us look at the history of the Bacardi Cocktail/ Daiquiri recipes, and

other items of interest:

Oakland Tribune, 13th November 1913.

Rum and Grenadine: "There's a new cocktail in town - a fresh importation

from New York. Take half a whisky glass of Porto Rican rum, add the juice of

half a lime and dash into it a squirt of grenadine; shake with ice. This was

introduced by Rhys Thomas..."

Now the above cocktail looks like a Bacardi Cocktail, but is called a "Rum and

Grenadine". Bear this in mind as I confuse things even further by looking into

Tom Bullocks' "Ideal Bartender" (1917) where he lists two Bacardi Cocktails;

pay particular attention to the first recipe:

"Ideal Bartender", by Tom Bullock (1917)

1) BACARDI COCKTAIL

Use a large Mixing glass. Fill with Lump Ice.

1/2 jigger Cusinier Grenadine.

1 jigger Bacardi Rum.

Shake well and serve in a Cocktail glass.

2) BACARDI COCKTAIL -- Country Club Style

Use a large Mixing glass. Fill with Lump Ice.

1/2 Lime Juice.

2 dashes Imported Grenadine.

1 jigger Bacardi Rum.

Shake well; strain into Cocktail glass and serve.

The first Bacardi Cocktail recipe that Tom Bullock lists could quite easily be

called "Rum and Grenadine", being as that is all it is. The Bullock "Rum and

Grenadine only, Bacardi Cocktail" is the first appearance of the Bacardi

Cocktail with Grenadine in it. (The 1913 reference wasn't called a Bacardi

Cocktail remember?)

Moving onto Bullock's second Bacardi Cocktail recipe, you see that it is

exactly same as the Bacardi Cocktail recipe which I listed at the beginning of

this article, but the problem is that Bullock's recipe is not the first

appearance of the specifically named "Bacardi Cocktail", that honour belongs

to Hugo Ensslin.

Note that Bullock's Recipe states that the second Bacardi Cocktail is, in

fact, "Country Club Style"; I will come back to this later in the article.

In the 1917 edition of his book, ""Recipes for Mixed Drinks", Hugo Ensslin has

a Bacardi Cocktail recipe. Now, instead of showing the recipe for Hugo

Ensslin's Bacardi Cocktail, I will instead list the "Cuban Cocktail" which was

featured in the previous edition of Ensslin's book (1916):

Cuban Cocktail

1 jigger Bacardi Rum

2 dashes Gum Syrup

Juice of 1/2 Lime

Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.

The only difference between Ensslin's Cuban Cocktail, of 1916, and Ensslin's

Bacardi Cocktail of 1917 is that the Bacardi Cocktail is listed as requiring a

"drink of Bacardi Rum". A jigger, as specified in 1916, is 50ml, and a "drink"

is basically the same.

So what do contemporary sources from the U.S. and Cuba say about the Bacardi

Cocktail/ Daiquiri conundrum?

THE OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK, By Albert Stevens Crockett, 1935

"Out of compliment to Mr. Taylor, who was last resident manager of the Old

Waldorf-Astoria, is placed at the head of this list the distinctive cocktail

which at his hotel is also called a Daiquiri, or a Bacardi."

PORTS OF THE SUN: A GUIDE TO THE CARIBBEAN, BERMUDA, NASSAU, HAVANA AND

PANAMA, by Eleanor Early, 1937

by Eleanor Early

(HAVANA): "Hardly anyone knows how to mix a proper Bacardi cocktail, so I

asked Senor Rafael Valiente, who is host at the famous bar, and he told me

that you should take the juice of half a lime, half a teaspoon of granulated

sugar, one and a half ounces of white Bacardi, mix thoroughly, and shake well

with ice."

There are many other references to the Bacardi Cocktail being the same as a

Daiquiri. The biggest obstacle to the resolution of the Bacardi Cocktail/

Daiquiri Conundrum is that the Bacardi Rum Company now lists the Bacardi

Cocktail as containing Grenadine Syrup; however, this was not always the case.

In 1930, the Bacardi Company was producing a cocktail recipe booklet entitled

"BACARDI Algunos De Sus Muchos Usos" ("Bacardi and Its Many Uses"), which was

still being produced in 1937, at least.

BACARDI Algunos De Sus Muchos Usos, 1930

Bacardi Coctel (Daiquiri Bacardi)

El jugo de medio limon.

Media cucharada de azucar blanca

Una copita de Bacardi Carta Blanca.

Agitese con hielo picado y sirvase en vasos de coctel. Puede ser servido

colado o sin colar.

IMPORTANTE: No altere el orden de los ingredientes.

If you do not speak Spanish, then the 1937 English Language edition contains a

almost-verbatim translation of the 1930 recipe, the words that are missing are

"(Daiquiri Bacardi)":

Bacardi and Its Many Uses, 1937

Bacardi Cocktail

Correct recipe:

The juice of half a lime.

Half teaspoonful granulated sugar.

1 1/2 oz. of BACARDI White.

Mix thoroughly, then shake well in cracked ice. May be served strained or

unstrained. Important: Do not alter order ingredients [sic].

In the Bacardi Cocktail legal dispute of 1936, where the Bacardi Company

brought before the courts unscrupulous bar owners who dared to use rums other

than Bacardi in their Bacardi Cocktails, there is much mention of Grenadine

Syrup in the drinks recipe. The point of the Bacardi court action was not to

deduce the exact recipe to be used by all, but to make specific the rum to be

used in the Bacardi Cocktail recipe; the inclusion of Grenadine Syrup was not

an issue the Bacardi company were interested in. To highlight this point, I

will show you an advert which the Bacardi Company ran in 1941:

CATERER AND LIQUOR RETAILER, September 1941

YES...BACARDI COCKTAILS MUST BE MADE WITH BACARDI

Ruling of the N. Y. Supreme Court, April 28, 1936

The Recipe in Rhyme!

A LITTLE SOUR, (Juice of half a lime)

A LITTLE SWEET, (1/2 teaspoonful of sugar)

THE TROPIC SUN, (A jigger of BACARDI, White or Silver Label)

WITHOUT THE HEAT! (Ice and shake well)

It is the opinion of this author that the Bacardi Cocktail was a Bacardi

Daiquiri, to begin with at least. The addition of Grenadine Syrup to the

Bacardi Cocktail seems to be an entirely American peculiarity, and may have

started with the confusion over the "Rum and Grenadine" recipe of 1913 and the

Bacardi Cocktails of Tom Bullock (1917).

There are two reasons for a drink being called a "Bacardi Cocktail 1) It is a

Cocktail made with Bacardi, and 2) It is a branded Cocktail of the Bacardi

company. Tom Bullock's "Country Club Style" Bacardi Cocktail is admittedly an

improvement over the "Rum and Grenadine only, Bacardi Cocktail" he lists, but

it was not a cocktail of the Bacardi Company, just a cocktail made with

Bacardi.

I wonder what would have happened if Rhys Thomas (the inventor of the "Rum and

Grenadine" in 1913) had chosen a more original name for his rum cocktail,

would we still be having this Bacardi Cocktail/ Daiquiri conundrum, or would

they still be the same drink? Either way, the Bacardi Cocktail of today

contains Grenadine Syrup, and the Daiquiri does not.

Cheers!

George

[Splificator]

A quick note--Rhys Thomas was an opera singer (you there, Sam?), and very unlikely to have invented the drink he "introduced."

Agree though that the grenadine was an American innovation--it was the hip ingredient of the late 1900s and early 1910s, and went into everything (e.g., the Jack Rose, the September Morn--a grenadine Daiquiri with egg white--and a whole host of other even more forgotten drinks). What is it about pomegranates? Every hundred years...

Edited to correct unidoimatic capitalization.

Edited February 1, 2007 by Splificator (log)

[ThinkingBartender]

A quick note--Rhys Thomas was an opera singer (you there, Sam?), and very unlikely to have invented the drink he "introduced."

Quite true. Maybe the NYC Bacardi Cocktail was a variant on the Jack Rose. Swap the main spirit, change the name.

Agree though that the grenadine was an American innovation--it was the hip ingredient of the late 1900s and early 1910s, and went into everything (e.g., the Jack Rose, the September Morn--a grenadine Daiquiri with egg white--and a whole host of other even more forgotten drinks). What is it about pomegranates? Every hundred years...

Put side by side, the Cuban and US Bacardi Cocktails I mean, the Red one would definitely outsell the other IMHO.

I would say that a bright red colour was the main attraction of Grenadine, which might explain why no one really noticed that they removed the actual pomegranate from the syrup.

Its a good thing that the internet came along when it did

Cheers!

George

[jazzyjeff]

Hi George,

In the first printing of the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), it has a little slip attached with a recipe for the Bacardi Cocktail. The recipe is;

1/4 lemon or lime juice

1/4 Grenadine

1/2 Bacardi Rum

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

I do however agree with you and think grenadine is a later addition.

This is what Jack Townsend and Tom Moore McBride have to say on the subject in their "Bartenders Book" (1951).

"During the Prohibition debacle, grenadine wormed its insidious way into the Bacardi, much to the disgust of astute practitioners of the compounding art. It was another attempt to disguise bum liquor with a lot of sweet'nin' and color. Unfortunately, the grenadine practice is still common, and the Bacardi Company's efforts to educate the public away from it have fallen upon deadened palates. According to the expert testimony of the late Eddie Woelke, when grenadine is added, the Bacardi becomes a Santiago"

Hope this is useful

Jeff

[ThinkingBartender]

This is what Jack Townsend and Tom Moore McBride have to say on the subject in their "Bartenders Book" (1951).

"During the Prohibition debacle, grenadine wormed its insidious way into the Bacardi, much to the disgust of astute practitioners of the compounding art. It was another attempt to disguise bum liquor with a lot of sweet'nin' and color. Unfortunately, the grenadine practice is still common, and the Bacardi Company's efforts to educate the public away from it have fallen upon deadened palates. According to the expert testimony of the late Eddie Woelke, when grenadine is added, the Bacardi becomes a Santiago"

←

Thanks Jeff, that is a fabulous quote. It basically sums up everything I was saying and more.

Cheers!

George

[thirtyoneknots]

Unfortunately, the flavor of Bacardi still needs disguising at least as much today as it ever did :-\