Friday and What is Up?

     Friday a day that I will spend working on the book for a better part of the day anyway.   I think about if I wasn't in Key West enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful tropical islands and fun people, what would I be doing today.

     If I was back in North Carolina again, I'd be headed out on to the lake and joining up with several of my friends rafting up in one of the coves or swinging from the rope and dropping into the water.     I know I'd have a jug of some type of "Rum Juice" with me and just enjoying the weather, the water and my friends.    Or, maybe I'd be heading to work, and standing in the hot sun at a race track staring at the lines on the computer trying to figure why the car won't turn left.

     I talk to other friends that tell me all they are doing, and they seem to all be having fun with their time off,   That is what makes me think out loud.    I guess you really don't have to be in an exotic place to have a really fun time.    I have enjoyed my days off in California on the rivers and lakes and at the Ocean.    North Carolina also provided many fun and memorable days on Lake Norman and at the Coast.    I guess for me the really central and necessary ingredient for me to have fun and memorable days is the water.

    Take your days to a new height of fun and find what really makes you smile and just go do it for the weekend, it will really make Monday a lot easier.   You don't have to travel a million miles to have fun, sometimes you just need to walk out the door and look around.   ;o)

Beautiful Beaches: Great Guana Cay

     When it comes to great beaches and beautiful water it is hard to beat the view from Nipper's  on Great Guana Cay in the Abacos area of the Bahamas.    The interaction of the water with the sand and the sea oats covered sand dunes makes for a picture that you just can't seem to get out of your mind.    The really funny thing about this place is that Nipper's is a great beach bar that is famous for their Sunday pig roasts and Barefoot Man concerts and a fabulous punch.   Today that is not the thing that stands out in my mind.   I'm thinking about the breezes, the ocean and the sand.

     Lying out to sea from the sand dunes is the third largest barrier reef in the world.   This just adds to the mystique that makes this part of the Bahamas such a wonderful place to be and have fun.     It seems like a desert island as you sit on the dunes and look out over the sea oats, beach, and the water toward infinity.     The ocean and her palate of colors give this view a look as though it was a watercolor painting rather that a real place.

     No matter how you look at the beaches of Great Guana Cay, the view is spectacular and it leaves you with a feeling of serenity and peacefulness that doesn't evaporate when you leave the beach.   ;o)

42nd Anniversary of Black Tot Day

Day of Mourning

R.I.P.

31st July 1970

Last day of “the Tot” in the Royal Navy

Tot Issue

A standard naval tot of rum consisted of an eighth of a pint of rum (which was over 50% ABV, and was traditionally named “overproof”). Generally spirits are about 40% in comparison.

Once a rating reached the age of twenty he was entitled to draw his tot. Senior Rates were entitled to drink this neat, however Junior Rates had “2 in 1″ which meant that it was mixed with two parts water to one part rum. The reason for this was so that the rum could not be stored and saved for *another day. The rum was a blend from different countries in the Caribbean, most notably British Guyana, British Virgin Islands and Trinidad.

* When fridges were introduced on to the Mess Decks, “Jack” found he could get neaters if he put the tot in the freezer compartment. Never tried it so cannot say if the separation of water and Rum worked!

The official reason for stopping the tradition of supplying a tot to ratings was that the Royal Navy had much sophisticated equipment and weaponry on board and needed sober sailors to operate it. 

read more at http://royalnavymemories.co.uk/day-of-mourning/

    

     No matter what the reason, the daily ration of rum was gone and there still was the issue of the remaining rum in the soleras located in Deptford, Gosport, and Devonport.   In December, 1970 the soleras were emptied into wicker covered ceramic flagons and stored in bonded warehouses, since then it has only been used for state affairs and royal weddings.   A part of the "Last Consignment" has been bottled and made available on line at $1000.00 per bottle.   Black Tot as it is so named is bottled at 108.6 proof, a strength that is very close to the original navy strength rums served to the sailors of the British Royal Navy.

     42 years ago the rum was removed from the ships, but the interest in the navy strength rums remains to this day.  It is out there in brands like Pusser's, and Smith and Cross brands that are available in many of the better liquor stores.

     Yesterday was an annual day of mourning for the ones that hold the idea of a daily tot of rum near and dear, but like so many other traditions of the past it had to come to an end in the modern era of the British Royal Navy.    So it is another wonderful day to celebrate an era of sailors and tradition.   ;o)

Barbancourt and Pango at the Rum Bar Key West Thursday

     There will be a Rhum Barbancourt tasting, Thursday at the Rum Bar in Key West from 1pm til 5pm featuring Rhum Barbancourt cocktails developed in the Rum Lab especially for the tasting.    There are five different cocktails featuring the Rhum  Barbancourt Three Star  and Rhum Barbancourt Pango.    Pango with it's unique Pineapple and Mango flavor adds real excitement to the cocktails.    All of these ultra premium cocktails will be sold at "well pricing" during the event.    Just $5.00 puts one of these unique premium cocktails on your palate.

     There will be representatives from Rhum Barbancourt will be on hand to fill you in on the entire Rhum Barbancourt line and some of the history of the products.   This is going to be a fun event and a chance to sample these fine quality rhums at a price you won't be able to find after the event ends.

Haitian Sweet Tart

• 1 oz Barbancourt 3 Star Rhum
• 1 oz. Pango
• 1 oz. Coconut Rum
• 1/2 oz. Falernum
• Splash Sour Mix
• Splash Barrett's Ginger Beer

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled. Serve in a Cocktail Glass, and garnish with an orange and a cherry.


This is only one of the five really flavorful cocktails that are available from 1pm til 5pm Thursday at the Rum Bar, 1117 Duval Street in Key West.    It is one of those events that you just don not want to miss.  I'll be there making all the Rhum Barbancourt cocktails for you, so stop by and say hey and have an ultra premium Rhum Barbancourt cocktail.  ;o)

The Emergance of the Rum Cocktail and the Balance

      Rum, the by product of the West Indies sugar cane plantations, has grown in popularity since the early days of the "Triangle Trade".    Rum is made all around the world today and has become one of the most popular spirits today.   The development of uses for rum and ways that you can actually enjoy the experience of drinking these spirits is the history of rum.    Originally rum was bottled at a very high proof, and only aged for a very short period of time.  Thus making it very rough and hard to "swallow".   Some of the earliest rum cocktails were rum mixed with coconut water and fresh lime juice.    This is a very simple cocktail that is still served today through out the world and especially in the tropics.   This simple cocktail dampens the bite of the rum without killing the rum's taste.    Americans had their own "cocktail" during the colonial days.  Rum was added to a "Toddy", sugar and spices mixed in hot water, and a bit of added rum was a popular drink of the era.  

     In America during the colonial days, rum was produced as part of the "triangle trade" and was sent to Africa where it was traded for slaves, whom were traded for molasses, which was traded for rum, and the process continued for many years until the embargo by the French and the British in the post American Revolution years cut the molasses off to America.    Rum production came to a halt, but the American Whiskey stepped in and filled the gap caused by the loss of the molasses.

     Post prohibition, the drinking of "adult beverages" became very popular in America and the advent of the festive Polynesian style "Tiki Bars" was the next real gain in rum consumption in the states.     A lot of the credit for this boom has to go to Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic Bergeron both California based promoters that took the Tiki Bar to new heights.   With the Tiki Bars came more and more rum cocktails and the battle over who really invented them.   I feel that the two of them created these battles just to bring more interest to their bars and cocktails.   No matter how it really happened, it worked, and for the decadesof the 50's up until the 80's Tiki bars flourished.

     Today the rum cocktails are heading back to many of the classic forms.   The early recipes followed the idea of something strong, something weak, something sour, and something sweet.   I guess that today they all pretty much follow that concept.   A concept that allows the balance in a cocktail that gives it the great flavor that makes you want another.    This is the basis of the basic daiquiri, planter's punch, and many of the other Caribbean classic cocktails.    The tiki cocktail makes seemed to follow the same concept, but with many other ingredients.    The balance of sweet and sour, strong and weak, is still the goal for a great cocktail.

     The "balance" is what we have found in the Rum Lab for cocktails that were really good.   The "not so good ones" or "so so ones" have really lacked this balance.    You can mix anything you want to in a cocktail , but don't tip the scales to throw off the balance of the cocktail or it will flop on the palate.
Even in the earliest rum cocktails, the rum was the strong, the water was the weak, the coconut water was the sweet, and the lime was the sour, remember to keep the basics in mind as you create your newest cocktail, and it could be the next Mai Tai or Pina Colada that goes on for decades and decades as a popular cocktail.   ;o)

Sunday Morning and Thinking About St.Johns

Looking back toward St. Thomas from the mountain, just an awesome view.

Rum Subsidies Polarizing the Caribbean Rum World

     It seems that the gap is getting larger in the Caribbean vs the US territories rum subsidies dilemma.

OP-ED: Rum Parting the Ways Between U.S. and the Caribbean

• 
 
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Thursday, July 26, 2012 - 17:19BY SIR RONALD SANDERS

Sir Ronald Sanders

The rum industry in the non-U.S. countries in the Caribbean is now under serious threat.At risk are the jobs of 15,000 workers directly employed in the industry and another 60,000 jobs that benefit from it.  Apart from employment, non-U.S. Caribbean countries face the loss, annually, of US$700 million in foreign exchange and over US$250 million in tax revenues at a time they can ill afford it.

There is evidence that Barbados is already being adversely affected and the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago are under immediate threat.

As I pointed out in a commentary in May this year, the problem has not arisen out of direct action by the U.S. government. It has originated in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (USVI) both of which have been long-time rum producers in competition with other Caribbean manufacturers. Now, these two US affiliates are taking advantage of U.S. government refunds to them of excise taxes on rum to subsidize rum production and marketing for huge multinational companies. The vast increase in rum exports to the U.S. mainland, at a subsidized cost, will squeeze-out other Caribbean rums; and subsidized marketing will make it virtually impossible to compete.

read more at http://www.huntingtonnews.net/39733 .

     This is a serious situation that can effect the rum world for a long time to come is it isn't resolved.   I would guess that their isn't any easy answers, but we do live in a global economy and what we do does effect the rest of the world.  

Summertime Chill Cocktails

     As the temperatures rise in the summer, it is time for the cocktails to start getting really cold.   It is the time of year to bring out the blender and make some of those fabulous frozen cocktails.    Of course the Pina Colada is what always come up, but there are many many others that fit the bill equally as well.

     For the Starbuck's coffee freaks, I've created a new frozen cocktail that reminds me of a frozen con leche.

Bahama Bob's Frozen Con Leche

• 1 1/2 oz. Brinley Gold Shipwreck Coffee Rum
• 1 oz. Creme de Cocoa (Dark)
• 1 oz. Amaretto
• 3 oz. Half and Half

Place all ingredients into a blender with ice, blend until it is like a soft serve ice cream.     Put into a pint glass and top with cinnamon or nutmeg, and garnish with a mint sprig.
This one tastes like a mocha chocolate milkshake with a kick.

     The Tiki lover can take to the blender as well with this tiki style frozen cocktail whose roots are deep in the 50's thru 70's tiki era.

Bahama Bob's Frozen Tiki

• 1 oz Ron Centenario 7 Year Old Rum
• 1/2 oz. Overproof Rum (Plantation or Lemon Hart)
• 1/2 oz. Brinley Gold Shipwreck Lime Rum
• 1/2 oz. Triple Sec
• 1/2 oz. Pineapple Juice
• 1/2 oz. Grapefruit Juice
• 1/2 oz. Cream of Coconut

Place all ingredients in a blender with ice and blend until smooth.   Pour into a pint glass and garnish with an orange wheel and a sprig of mint with a cherry on top.

     Let your creative mind go and put tings into the blender you have never tried before, you might surprise yourself with the result.  The blender is a wonderful bar tool, used properly your backyard tiki bar will be the hit of the summer frozen cocktail season.  ;o)

•  

Cancun beyond the Hotel Zone

     Cancun, Mexico is known for it's lavish hotels and crazy and fun nightclubs, but beyond the glitter and glitz is a different Cancun that is a lot of fun.   The Mayan Riviera is an amazing part of Mexico that is the center of the Mayan World.   With ruins at Chichen Itza in the interior to Tulum on the coastline, there is no end to the places to experience the Mayan world.   The Mayan calender ends in December this year, so it might be a great time to visit before the "Mayan world" comes to an end.

   In addition to the natural wonders, there are a lot of fun places just outside of the Hotel Zone to experience new types of adventures such as horse back riding, zip lining, and even off road Segway adventures.    This is an area that you are only challenged by your own fears as to what you are going to try next.  The Mayan Riviera and Cancun provide the adventurer place to have fun day or night virtually 365 days a year in the tropical atmosphere.    Put your big boy or girl pants on and get out and enjoy the Mayan Riviera whenever you get the chance.   I'll be there in December to experience the end of the "Mayan World", hope to see you there.   ;o)

On the Subject of the Bushwacker

Flip Flops Pool Bar and Grille at Sapphire Beach Village Menu

     The Bushwacker is a somewhat lethal cocktail with a cloudy history about it's origin.    This is an interesting dilemma, because the Sandshaker in Pensacola, Florida even says that the original owner had had a cocktail called a "Bushwacker" at Sapphire Beach Village in St. Thomas and went home  to try it out on his customers at the Sandshaker, it was an immediate success.  After much experimentation, he came up with his own recipe for the Sandshaker Bushwacker.    No matter where it came from it is a great and powerful frozen cocktail that tastes like a chocolate milkshake and wallops like "Ali".

Bahama Bob's Bushwacker

• 1/2 oz.  El Dorado Dark Rum
• 1/2 oz. Brugal Especial White Rum
• 1/2 oz. Rum Cream
• 1 oz. Brinley Gold Shipwreck Coffee Rum
• 1/2 oz. Amaretto
• 1/2 oz. Marie Brizzard's Chocolat Royale
• 1/2 oz. Cream of Coconut (Coco Lopez etc)
• 1 oz. Half and Half

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  Swirl pint glass with chocolate syrup and pour blended mix into the glass.   Top with fresh ground nutmeg, an orange wheel, and a cherry.   A Lemon Hart 151 or Plantation Overproof float is optional.

     I tend to stay with rum as the basis of my cocktails, and with the efforts of rum producers to make spirits that can replace vodka these days I tend toward the rum.   It makes for a nicer cocktail that is less apt to cause stomach problems later from the mixing of liquors.     The history is of little importance if you are enjoying the "Bushwacker" that is putting a smile on your face.   ;o)

Drinking and the Opinions of Others?

I find it very interesting all of the quips and quotes form different people and their feelings about the use of alcohol.     Many of the well known personalities from many different ages seem to have very differing opinions about the enjoyment of the fine spirits.

Hemingway for instance, a man that brings up the vision of bar room brawls, record breaking daiquiri consumption, has many interesting quotes of drinking.
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk.  That will teach you to keep your mouth shut", probably one of his most famous,but "Write drunk; edit sober." strikes close to home with me.   Oscar Wilde has been quoted as saying "Work is the curse of the drinking class".    Lets not forget Mark Twin, who's famous remark "too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right".    George Bernard Shaw is quoted "alcohol is a very necessary article.  It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning."        So much for the authors, let us look at some others.

     Dean Martin and the rest of the rat pack also were "loaded" with many interesting quotes as well.  Dean Martin said" If you drink don't drive, don't even putt", and at another occasion said" I once shook Pat Boone's hand and my whole right side sobered up".   Frank Sinatra's philosophy on the subject says  "I feel sorry for people who don't drink.  When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day".  He also believes "Basically, I'm for anything that gets you through the night - be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniels."     Humphrey Bogart felt "The problem with the world is that everyone is one drink behind".   One old guy George Burns believed that "It only takes me one drink to get drunk.  The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth."  

     Probably the most quoted man on the subject of drinking was W. C. Fields, his quotes are still repeated nearly a century later, and still just as relevant.   His funny lines on the subject include, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house unless they have a well-stocked bar." comes to my mind.   He also talks of " A woman drove me to drink and I never had the courtesy to thank her."   I think my favorite is "Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll have another drink."  His humor alone with that of so many others of the teens through the forties years used drink as a very crucial part of the show.

     Even many politicians and others have been quoted on the subject of liquor, Winston Churchill  was quoted as saying "I may be drunk Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly".     There are few areas or people that haven't had some opinion of the use of alcohol, but the quotes are always great entertainment.   ;o) 

Antigua: The Gem of the Caribbean

"All the signs pointed towards Antigua. The  island had warm, steady winds, a complex coastline of safe harbors, and a protective, nearly unbroken wall of coral reef. It would make a perfect place to hide a fleet. And so in 1784 the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed to Antigua and established Great Britain's most important Caribbean base. Little did he know that over 200 years later the same unique characteristics that attracted the Royal Navy would transform Antigua and Barbuda in one of the Caribbean's premier tourist destinations."

    This is an island that has had an attraction for me for many years, It has so many different faces as you travel around its ever changing vistas.    It is "country as a turnip green", while as urban as any metropolitan area in the world.   It has one of the most beautiful beach lines on one side while the other is a torrent of cliffs and huge breaking waves that smash against the cliffs.     In between, there is a wonderful and serene countryside that is as peaceful as any meadow in the high country of the Sierra - Nevada Mountains.

     On her south side is the safe harbour of Admiral Nelson known as the Dockyards.  Today it is one of Antigua's National Parks, providing a chance to see and understand the importance of this vital naval base in the Central Caribbean.

     "English Harbour, Antigua's graceful and evocative historic district, is focused on the fifteen square miles of Nelson's Dockyard National Park. Developed as a base for the British Navy in the great age of sail, the harbour served as the headquarters of the fleet of the Leeward Islands during the turbulent years of the late 18th century. Although the dockyard was greatly expanded at that time by Horatio Nelson, it was gradually abandoned in the nineteenth century and was closed in 1889. Today Nelson's Dockyard has been completely restored, and it is now the only Georgian dockyard in the world."

     The diversity of the Island is something that has always attracted me to go thee and I was not disappointed in any way after spending a day with a scooter traveling around this gem in the Caribbean.  ;o)

Just Another Beautiful Sunday in Paradise

Summer Cocktail with Caliche Rum

       Caliche Rum is made through the use of multiple distillations and carbon-active filtration to produce the cleanest possible rum.   A portion of the rum is aged in American white oak barrels and some in a solera system, then blended for the desired characteristics.    The rum has a very nice and smooth flavor with notes of vanilla, caramel, and oak.  The rum is more viscous that other white rums produced by Distileria Seralles.

     I recently received Caliche at the Rum Bar in Key West, it is a great upgrade for any cocktail that uses white rum .    The smooth aged flavors brings any fine cocktail to life, try it in a Mojito, it blends well with the mint and lime flavors to yield a perfect ultra-premium cocktail.

Caliche Sunset

·         1 ½ oz. Caliche Rum

·         ¼ oz. Agave Nectar

·         ½ oz. Orange Juice

·         Top Off with Barrett’s Ginger Beer

·         1/2 oz. Pomegranate Liqueur Float

      Pour the Rum, Agave Nectar and the Orange Juice into a shaker and shake until chilled.   Strain into a Collin's glass filled with ice.  Top up with Barrett’s Ginger Beer, and float with Pomegranate Liqueur.   Garnish with an Orange Wheel.

      This will work well for you on an evening on the patio or an afternoon by the pool, perfect sparkling refreshing summer cocktail.   ;o)

Brugal Especial Extra Dry: Aims at the Vodka Market

     Brugal Especial Extra Dry, the first Ultra Premium White  is being offered in the U.S. Market by Edrington Group.     Brugal is targeting the mixologists and bartenders in its efforts to draw people away from vodka and over to the drier alternatives for their cocktails.     " We want to break the rule that rum has to be sweet, and create a level of smoothness that is typically unexpected in an ultra premium vodka" says Juan Campos, Brugal Brand Development Manager.     The new addition joins the Brugal Anejo, Brugal Extra Viejo, and the newly debuted Brugal 1888 to make a complete group to cover a wide variety of tastes.

     The new Especial is aged in bourbon casks for a minimum of 2 years then the rum is triple charcoal filtered to remove all of the color and impurities.    The process yields an incredibly smooth rum that mixes very well in an upgrade mojito, daiquiri, or even a "bloody rummy".     My first impressions are that it will be a step up in any white rum cocktail, but it also does very well as a replacement for vodka in several of the traditional vodka cocktails.

Especial Cosmo

• 2 oz. Brugal Extra Dry Rum
• 1/2 oz. Cointreau
• 1/4 oz. Lime Juice
• 1/2 oz. Cranberry Juice

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled, strain into a chilled Martini Glass and garnish with a wedge of lime.

    
 Introduced at a gala cocktail party in Miami in May, this Brugal Especial offers a great opportunity to create cross over cocktails derived from vodka recipes.   Pick up a bottle and put to work in you cocktail "Rum Lab" and see what you can develop with it, I'm sure you'll be really surprised how many vodka drinkers you can switch to rum with this fine new Brugal Especial Extra Dry.  ;o)

Today is National Daiquiri Day



Jennings Cox

    Today is National Daiquiri Day, the day to celebrate the famous cocktail named for a beach near Santiago, Cuba.  Believed to have been first created by an American Jennings Cox, a mining engineer,  who was in Cuba during the time of the Spanish - American War.   Originally served in a tall glass to his guests at cocktail parties, this cocktail spread far and wide with it's introduction to the Army - Navy Club in Washington  D.C. and a 1937 article about the Daiquiri in the Miami Herald.

     The creation of the frozen Daiquiri is speculated to be that  of Emilio Gonzáles, at the Plaza Hotel in Havana, Cuba.    Constantino Ribalaigua of Havana’s El Floridita bar through his relationship with Ernest Hemingway who had moved to Havana in 1932, took the Daiquiri to the next level who after adapting this drink to Hemingway's taste.   

         There are many versions of the daiquiri out there, many are from "slushy" machines, but if the follow the original idea of "something strong, something weak, something sour, and something sweet", it is going to be along the line of what a daiquiri is suppose to be.   Probably the most famous of the daiquiri's is the "Hemingway Daiquiri "otherwise known as the "Papa Doble".   Created in Havana by Constantino Ribalaigua, "the king of the daiquiri", at the El Floridita in the early 30's.  Cuba was a bastion for thirsty Americans during prohibition era years.  Drawn by the famous bars like the Jockey Club, Sloppy Joe's, but for the lovers of the daiquiri, there was the "La Cuna del Daiquiri", the cradle of the daiquiri, El Floridita .

      Today is the day that we celebrate the work of all of these people by enjoying a real daiquiri at home or at your favorite watering hole.    There are many varieties of the daiquiri including one that I have created for you at the Rum Lab.

Bahama Bob's Daiquiri

• 2 oz. Diplomatico Blanco Rum
• 1/2 oz. J.D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
• Juice of 1 Lime
• 1/2 oz. of Agave Nectar

Place all of the ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled.  Strain into a "Martini Glass" and garnish with a lime and a sprig of mint.

   No matter how you like your daiquiri, today is the day to celebrate them.  Stop by the Rum Bar Key West and enjoy any number of them on this "National Daiquiri Day".   ;o)