Sunday, 17 October 2010

Cocktails and Dreams

I was at a party the other night and was served what was probably the worst Mojito I have ever had. In fact it was so bad my friends and I had 2 more just to make sure. This led to a heated discussion about what should be in a Mojito and subsequently on to what should be in which cocktails and their morphology.

For the record a Mojito should be made from brown sugar, mint, light rum, lime and soda. It should not have the crème de menthe that ours was served with…..

As far as other cocktails what comes from where?

Everyone knows that a Singapore Sling comes from the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore but you may not know that the Singapore Sling you drink around the world now is probably not from the original recipe.

A Manhattan, possibly the world’s oldest cocktail also comes in different forms. It is reputed to have been first made at the Manhattan Club in 1874 to honor the new Major of New York. There is even a festival each year in New York to celebrate it.

The Pina Colada – the epitome of a long cocktail – is credited as first created in 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan Puerto Rico however a travel magazine has a reference to a Pina Colada going back to 1922 but in a different form.

My personal favorite is a Sazerac – a whiskey and pastis based cocktail that is reputedly the first cocktail invented in the USA and is said to predate the Civil War and was first made in New Orleans and in 2008 was appointed as New Orleans official cocktail.

Now I fancy a trip around the world, or maybe the Caribbean visiting the home of these and other famous cocktails – anyone want to join me?



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