el_presidente_cocktail

El Presidente

Cocktail recipe

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4 Ingredients

• 1 ½ oz Rum 1 ½ oz Rum 4.5 cl Rum 45 ml Rum 1 ½ oz Rum 1.5 oz Rum
• Tablespoon Grenadine Tablespoon Grenadine Tablespoon Grenadine Tablespoon Grenadine Tablespoon Grenadine Tablespoon Grenadine
• ¼ oz Orange Curacao ¼ oz Orange Curacao 0.75 cl Orange Curacao 7.5 ml Orange Curacao ¼ oz Orange Curacao 0.25 oz Orange Curacao
• ¾ oz Dry Vermouth ¾ oz Dry Vermouth 2.25 cl Dry Vermouth 22.5 ml Dry Vermouth ¾ oz Dry Vermouth 0.75 oz Dry Vermouth

• Original
• cl
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Learn how to make the perfect El Presidente (aka the Cuban President) by using the original 1920's recipe and the original ingredients. Chances are you've . ">El Presidente - Classic Cuban Cocktail with Blanc Vermouth, Rum, Curaçao & Grenadine https://www.youtube.com/embed/lWOHvGlYQcU

This week on How to Drink I'm making an El Presidente! This is a classic pre-prohibition cocktail that seems to have first been published in print in about 1919.">How to Drink: El Presidente https://www.youtube.com/embed/pY9kE3vKgu4

A Classic Cocktail prepared by a world-class bartender.">El Presidente

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• 1 ½ oz Rum Rum ( )
• Tablespoon Grenadine Grenadine ( )
• ¼ oz Orange Curacao Orange Curacao ( )
• ¾ oz Dry Vermouth Dry Vermouth ( )

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• 1 ½ oz Rum Rum
• Tablespoon Grenadine Grenadine
• ¼ oz Orange Curacao Orange Curacao
• ¾ oz Dry Vermouth Dry Vermouth

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  El Presidente Recipe

  

  • 3 mins
  • Prep: 3 mins,
  • Cook: 0 mins
  • Yield: 1 Cocktail

  El Presidente is a simple variation of the Daiquiri and is perfect when you find yourself stuck in a routine.

  In this recipe, the Daiquiri's simple syrup is replaced with pineapple juice and grenadine. The result is a semi-sweet tropical cocktail.

  If you like, skip the cocktail glass and serve it tall and on the rocks. You may also want to save the grenadine for a drizzle after straining. This would transform the drink into something similar to a Tequila Sunrise. This is a fun combination to play with, so do it!

  El Presidente

  Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces rum -- white rum
  • 1/2 ounce orange curacao
  • 3/4 ounce vermouth -- French vermouth
  • 1 dash grenadine

  Instructions:

  Stir ingredients well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. It should pour a delightfully clear, deep orange color. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

  The Wondrich Take:

  A Cuban creation, the El Presidente was the house cocktail at Club El Chico in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where America was introduced to the rhumba in 1925. Regulars considered the El Presidente "elixir for jaded gullets," and who are we to disagree? Here's how bartender George Stadelman used to make them.

  RumDood.com

  Rum, Cocktails, & Mixology

  El Presidente

  The El Presidente is a Cuban-born cocktail from the Dark Days of American tippling – Prohibition. The history of the cocktail is somewhat hazy, with several different bartenders credited with creating it in honor one or more Cuban presidents in various different bars.

  The drink has often been lamented as a lost treasure from the heyday of Cuban mixology, when thirsty Americans – unable to quench their thirst for great cocktails at home – would sail from Florida to Havana. While most people think of daiquiris and mojitos when they think of Cuba, there are quite a few great drinks that were poured for travelers – many of which have been almost completely forgotten.

  Early this year I went on something of an El Presidente kick, making them just about every night for a few weeks. The original recipe calls for a ratio of 2:1:1 rum to dry vermouth to curacao, with a half teaspoon of grenadine. The problem is that while the drink is definitely palatable, it just wasn’t great at that particular ratio.

  After trying so many, I came to the conclusion that the problem was the curacao, which was utterly dominating the drink. The drink was too orange-heavy, and the rum, vermouth, and grenadine were bit players at best, completely lost at worst. So I made a modification to how I made mine, and suddenly the drink went from “interesting lost cocktail” to “nightly home menu option.”

  El Presidente (modified)

  .75 oz Dry Vermouth

  .5 tsp Grenadine

  Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange or lemon twist.

  I found out in a chat with Wayne Curtis (whose …and a Bottle of Rum introduced me to the cocktail in the first place) shortly after settling on this version of the recipe that he had drawn similar conclusions and also makes his El Presidentes with less curacao. I also find the aged rum adds character too the drink and keeps it from becoming overly sweet. If it’s still a little too sweet, consider adding a dash or two of bitters.

  Tweaking classic or forgotten cocktail recipes has really grown to be one of my favorite past-times. What twists or modifications to other classics do you really enjoy?

  Post navigation

  I’m off to the bat-bar, old chum! I think I will try some variations on the grenadine.

  Its good to see people giving forgotten or almost forgotten cocktail recipes a new lease of life. I especially like to see people play with the ratios of mix.

  Dood…this is an amazing drink. The aged rum really makes it. My first attempt was with MGXO…fell in love.

  I am going to try with some others(Cruzan SB and Pampero)….

  It will be a good night watching the Backyard Brawl.

  The Pampero is great in this. Oddly, I haven’t tried with Cruzan Single Barrel. I think I know what I’m drinking tonight!

  OK….although Pitt lost the brawl – I enjoyed my el Presidentes.

  1 – Mount Gay XO

  Funny…that would probably he how I would rate them neat…

  dude this is an awesome site…lovin it…i have always loved drinking rum and just recentley have started purchasing of the finest rums that i can find. i have been reading your site for information on differant rums of the world and cocktails that i may mix them in. so far to date i have purchased 1 case of GRAN RESERVA ZAYA 12 year old a product of trinidad…also i have now purchased 2 cases of DIPLOMATICO RESERVA EXCLUSIVA …i love this rhum…next on my list is a case of ELDORADO 15 YEAR OLD SPECIAL RESERVE DEMARERA RUM….wondering if i should go for that or the 21 year old…however i have already ordered the 15 year old, wondering what your views on the two might be….also if you could recomend other fine rums of the world that i could look into i would really appreciate your help….also i live out on beautiful shuswap lake in British Columbia Canada so i do find myself limited through our government liquor stores on what i can and cannot bring in….any ideas around this?….cheers and have yourself an awesome day

  Not so much a tweak as an omision. While looking through recipes to use Fernet Brance I came across the Corspe Reviver #3 in Charles Schumann’s American Bar. I have Fernet and brandy but no creme de menthe so I just left it out. I left it out and replaced it with bitters.

  dash of aromatic bitters

  garnish with an orange twist

  Quite the aperitif.

  I just thought it over and realized that historic curaçao was much sweeter than current products; so while achieving a better balance, you increase the distance to the original recipe with reducing the curaçao…

  You make a very good point. I know that at Death & Co. and at several of the bars in LA they are making their El Presidentes with reduced curacao but added simple syrup, which is probably a more accurate recreation of the original drink. I’ve had that style of ElPres and it’s very, very good.

  A recent conversation with Marcos Tello has me thinking that another post about the El Presidente may be in order.

  I like sound of your recipe and will have to mix one up. The recipe I have been using is a bit different and comes from The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks:

  1.5 aged rum (I use Flor de Cana 7 year)

  0.5 french vermouth

  A dash of grenadine or curacao

  Garnished with an orange peel and/or a cocktail cherry.

  The result is a pleasant, dry, refreshing drink. I would say it’s worth a try.

  Ive found that a blanc vermouth brings this drink together a little better than a dry. Here’s my recipe. Cheers.

  1.5 oz. white rum

  1.5 oz. blanc vermouth

  1 barspoon each curaçao & grenadine

  Totally agree on the blanc vermouth. I like to use .75 oz Dolin Blanc with Clement VSOP as the rhum.

  Cold Glass

  You can make these cocktails. Start right now.

  A return to Havana — the El Presidente Cocktail

  

  Modern cocktail guides have done El Presidente a terrible disservice. They typically describe a sweet, fruity rum cocktail—a cloying, undrinkable embellishment of the original. They do not describe the classic El Presidente.

  El Presidente gained prominence among Prohibition-era travelers to Cuba, notably at Havana’s revered La Florida bar. The version served there was both simple and sophisticated, but the drink’s reputation declined during the second half of the 20th century as bartenders dumbed the drink down into a fruity sugar bomb, completely burying the serene, dry original.

  The original presentation of El Presidente is a world apart from the familiar rum sour or tiki stylings of the Daiquiri, Old Cuban or Mai Tai. Rather than combine rum with lime, lemon or other tropical fruit juices, La Florida’s El Presidente followed the pattern established by the Martini and Manhattan, using rum, a large dollop of vermouth, and a dash of curaçao instead of bitters to enrich the mix.

  El Presidente cocktail

  That dash, and its accompanying sweetness, makes the difference between a classic and dreck. The basic aromatic mix of rum and dry vermouth is sweetened with grenadine or curaçao; modern recipes typically use plenty of both; early listings recommend very small portions of just one sweetener. The 1935 La Florida Cocktail Book lists equal parts of rum and vermouth, and just a half-teaspoon of curaçao. David Embury, in his 1958 Fine Art of Mixing Drinks , prefers just one dash of grenadine. (He presaged the drink’s evolution away from its classic form in suggesting a variant with an additional one or two dashes of curaçao. El Presidente seems to have gone downhill from there.)

  I prefer the curaçao; grenadine just doesn’t make it for me in this drink.

  • 2 oz aged Cuban or Puerto Rican Rum (Bacardi 8)
  • 1 oz dry vermouth (Dolin Blanc)
  • ½ tsp orange curaçao (Clement Creole Shrubb Liqueur, Grand Marnier)

  Stir all ingredients until cold; strain into a well-chilled cocktail glass. Express and garnish with orange, or with an orange and cherry “flag.”

  Rum: Here in the U.S. we can’t buy legal Cuban rum, so Puerto Rican seems our next best bet. Bacardi 8 seems an excellent match for El Presidente. Unaged rums are not interesting blenders in this drink, nor demeraras; Jamaicans and rhums agricole are very bad choices with vermouth. (If you live in a part of the world where such things are available, I’d love to hear recommendations on Cuban rums that are a good match for El Presidente. Just in case I happen across some.)

  Vermouth: Dolin Blanc is the other secret to a superior El Presidente. Not exactly a “dry” dry vermouth, its slight sweetness elevates the drink from a flavor competition to a very compatible blend. (That bit of extra sweetness makes it particularly important to be disciplined with the curaçao, but it is this vermouth that makes the drink work.)

  Curaçao: Clement Creole Liqueur just became available in my market, so I was eager to try it in El Presidente. It works extremely well. Both Clement and Grand Marnier are fine choices for this recipe.

  And who is “El Presidente?” The assumption is that it was one of Cuba’s pre-Batista presidents (as opposed to some president of the Chamber of Commerce), and most bets are on Michado or Menocal. Or maybe it’s transferrable from one to the next? The La Florida Cocktail Book also includes a minty “President Menocal Special,” which suggests that El Presidente may predate Menocal. I doubt we’ll ever know the answer.

  “A return to Havana — The El Presidente Cocktail” at cold-glass.com : All text and photos © 2011 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

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  Doug Ford

  I am a journalist and photographer. Once upon a time I had a corporate job; now I don't, which is a pretty happy situation, all in all. People tell me I'm writing a book.

  16 thoughts on “ A return to Havana — the El Presidente Cocktail ”

  I’m typically not a rum drinker, but El Presidente has appeal in name, as well as the combination of flavors offered up from the recipe. I’m curious if you have tried substituting bitters for the curaçao. Could be interesting. I’m going to add El Presidente to my list of cocktails to try. Simple and sophisticated sounds good to me.

  Interesting you should ask—I wondered the same thing, as I caught on to Martini/Manhattan as a model for El Presidente. Naturally, I did a couple experiments, and it turns out that a dash or two of orange bitters, either in place of, or in addition to, the curaçao, makes a pleasantly complex addition to the mix. Since bitters seem to appear nowhere in the drink’s history, I think you’d need to call it by some other name, but it does make a nice change of pace for El Presidente—and it gives you an option for pulling back the sweetness intrinsic to curaçao or grenadine.

  CocktailDB does show an El Presidente variation along these lines:

  It doesn’t specifically spec orange bitters, but that’s your best bet.

  So now it’s time for more experiments.

  Generally make mine 2:1:1 or 4:1:1 both with a dash of grenadine. The equal parts of curacao and dry vermouth balance each other and the grenadine gives it a pleasing pink color (to some that is). I think my bias is based on how it is made here in Boston (also Paul Clarke used this ratio in an old Cocktail Chronicles post).

  Hi, Frederick— I’m guessing that my use of words like “dreck” and “undrinkable” probably isn’t going over well with Boston drinkers. It’s a good reminder (to me) that what’s sweet to one person is sour to another. (My sister reminds me of this every time I make her a whiskey sour.) I have to call ’em as I sees ’em, but my tastes change with the seasons to some extent; I’ll try El Presidente “Boston style” when cold weather rolls around, perhaps I’ll see it differently.

  The grenadine is an interesting ingredient in El Presidente. I can imagine bartenders swapping out curaçao for grenadine on a whim, depending on their tastes, and their customers. Using both seems like gilding the lily. It appears I just never gained a taste for grenadine. I despise the “cooked” style, though I’m still contemplating how to exploit that molassesy burned flavor into… something, as an intellectual challenge. The uncooked “cold” style is more palatable, but not a flavor I search out.

  And I guess that’s the story of how 2:1:hint with curaçao became my favorite El Presidente.

  Thank you for spelling out which Rums you’ve tried and what you recommend. FWIW our ‘go to’ white rum is Flor De Cana, if we want something that is not so ‘rummy’ we go to Myer’s Platinum. I’ve found that, as a generalization, Bacardi rums have too little flavor. I’m also pleased to see you spelling out your thinking on grenadines – so far we lean towards cold process grenadine – but our preliminary conclusion is no grenadine for this drink.

  I agree that the Bacardis are sort of light-flavored, but I think that’s sort of the style for Puerto Rican rums. I think that might play to this drinks advantage, in the sense that you need a rum that vermouth can be friendly with. I’ll have to try the Flor de Cana…

  Mmm, I’m getting all nostalgic for my Havana holiday so I’m going to try and create on eof these delicious cocktails… Thanks for an interesting read! Amie

  I just posted an article on my Havana trip if you would like to take a look…

  Didn’t have Dolin Blanc the first time I made this, so I used Dolin Dry. BIG MISTAKE. The result was undrinkable and I poured it down the drain.

  Went out and picked up a bottle of Dolin Blanc, then gave it another go. Delicious! I used Flor de Caña 7yr rum, which is one of my favorites, otherwise used your recipe exactly.

  If one uses a Central American rum, maybe it should be called the Francisco Morazán? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Morazan

  Love this blog, keep up the great work!

  I had not learned of Morazán before, so I’m a bit better educated in my Central American history. Thanks for that.

  I’ve heard that El Presidente is pretty good with Flor de Cana, I look forward to giving it a try.

  I’ve been experimenting with aged cocktails and though El Presidente would make a good candidate for aging. The results were fantastic! I describe my process here: http://armyofrobots.tumblr.com/post/64687600165/the-elder-statesman

  I’m delighted that El Presidente barrel ages well. Aging is something I look forward to trying one day; I had always thought I’d start with a whiskey drink—Manhattan or Boulevardier, I guessed—but I may follow your lead and try El Presidente instead.

  Thanks for letting us know about your experiement.

  What about Barbados Rum?

  I’ve never made El Presidente with Barbados, but I think it would be worthwhile giving it a try. The drink seems to be originally a Cuban invention, which is probably why most people will suggest a Cuban or Cuban-style rum, in the theory that it would hew close to the original flavor profile of the drink, or at least as close as we can in these days. But I say, if you want to try it with a Bajan rum, give it a shot. And I will, too. Thanks!

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  Spirited Babble

  El Presidente: A Dash of Cocktail History

  

  The Story of The El Presidente Cocktail

  The El Presidente is a classic Cuban cocktail. The exact origin is unknown, but according to Esquire magazine, El Presidente was created by Eddie Woelke, an American bartender at the Jockey Club in Havana, Cuba. He named the drink in honour of Presidente Gerardo Machado who ruled Cuba throughout most of the prohibition years. For sure El Presidente was invented to please Americans who traveled to Cuba during prohibition to drink legally in an exotic place. Ships would leave American ports bound for Havana and as soon as they entered international waters, a team of stewards would circulate carrying cocktails for the passengers. Other cocktails popularized during this period were the Daiquiri and Cuba Libre. Old Havana is famous for its splendid historic architecture and old cars but it is also an historic place for its prohibition-era drinks. At the time, Havana was the Las Vegas of North America. After prohibition, the El Presidente cocktail travelled through Florida, and headed north where it was well liked by bar patrons. In the 50’s the cocktail faded away as people discovered Vodka and today it has vanished from cocktail lists in most establishments. If you order an El Presidente you will likely receive a blank stare (just hope that they have a good bartender guide behind the bar). Thankfully, due to the current cocktail revival, more bars and restaurants are offering classics such as the El Presidente and Cuba’s cocktails will be known around the world again. Add the El Presidente to your home cocktail list and make sure this cocktail lives on!

  

  3 Comments On: El Presidente: A Dash of Cocktail History

  Hello there, I found your web site by the use of Google whilst looking for a related matter, your web site came up, it looks good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks. http:// restaurant99.com http://przychodniaprywatna.waw.pl/firmy-cateringowe-warszawa/

  My recipe comes from the ‘Drink Guide’ by Conde Nast Publications, 1973. I think that your El Presidente #2 is the oldest. The No 1 sounds good, though.

  I wrote a blogpost on El Presidente Cocktail on May 15, 2012 based on the recipe(s) listed in the 75th Anniversary Edition of Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide. The recipes in the book are different from the above cocktail and I’ve always wondered which one is the first. Here are the two recipes:

  El Presidente #1

  1.5 oz (45ml) of Light Rum

  .75oz (22ml) of Fresh Lime Juice

  1 Tsp of Pineapple Juice

  1 Tsp of Grenadine

  Shake with Ice and Strain into chilled Cocktail glass

  El Presidente #2

  1.5 oz (45ml) of Light Rum

  .75oz (22ml) of Dry Vermouth

  1 Dash of Angostura Bitters

  Stir with Ice and Strain into chilled Cocktail glass

  Here is the link to my blogpost:

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  How the El Presidente Cocktail Came to Be

  

  Trying to plan that first trip to Cuba? You’re not alone. Cuba was among the five most-searched-for and booked destinations on Cyber Monday, and has seen a 150 percent increase in the number of American travelers in the past year alone.

  Once you've booked your trip, the real research begins. And if you’re like me, priority number one is to figure out what to drink on vacation.

  Havana is home to hall-of-famers like the daiquiri (white rum, sugar, lime juice) and its even more citrusy spin-off, the Hemingway Daiquiri (which adds maraschino liqueur and grapefruit juice). But with white rum, French vermouth, orange curaçao and grenadine, the El Presidente, a lesser-known Havana classic from the early 20th century, departs from the rum/sweet/citrus formula to offer a boozier, smoother, stirred rum drink that proves Cuba’s cocktail tradition isn’t a one-trick pony.

  Although the El Presidente originated as Cuba’s tip of the fedora to the whiskey-based libations Americans craved during Prohibition, the drink, with all the makings of a classic, became more than just a stand-in. "In the world of cocktails from Havana, there are very few stirred cocktails that have stood the test of time," says Nick Detrich, who recently visited Cuba and is the co-owner and bar director at Cane & Table in New Orleans. "It’s a very elegant cocktail that appeals to rum drinkers, people who prefer more vermouth-forward drinks, as well as those who enjoy a lighter and marginally lower-proof cocktail."

  Havana: All the Presidents’ Potables

  The history of the El Presidente goes like this: The drink was first invented in Havana during the 1910s for Cuban President Mario García Menocal, who ruled from 1913 to 1921. The cocktail was then refined and popularized by American bartender Eddie Woelke, who arrived in Havana in 1919 to run the bar at the swanky Sevilla Biltmore Hotel. According to drink historians Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown's book, Cuban Cocktails (2012), the libation’s fresh cachet caught the attention of Cuba’s new president, Gerardo Machado, who took over in 1925. Naturally, he demanded his own version, and the Presidente Machado, which simply added a few dashes of curaçao, was born.

  The El Presidente and Presidente Machado shared power briefly before coalescing into a classic in the early 1930s, when masterful Cuban cantinero (a seriously trained bartender) Constante Ribalaigua Vert embraced and gussied up the El Presidente at legendary Havana bar El Floridita. He garnished the drink with both cherries and an orange peel, and he used red—not the now-popular orange—curaçao to mimic the color of grenadine. Today, most bartenders revert to orange curaçao and (red) grenadine, but the dual garnish is still a common choice.

  After Prohibition, the American bartending industry needed to regain its footing due to the 13-year dry spell. Those who went back to the books to relearn the classics found El Presidente recipes that listed the vermouth style as either "French" or "Chambéry," named for a town in southeastern France. Surveying their inventory, barkeeps reached for the dry French stuff used in martinis. But—whoops!—wrong move. As a result, the drink went the way of most pre-Prohibition classics in America: forgotten but for a few scraggly old books that survived long enough only to make the rounds at flea markets and tag sales.

  It was cocktail historian David Wondrich who rescued the El Presidente from decades of obscurity by taking another look at how vermouth plays in this once-loved drink. In 2012, he discovered that the semisweet blanc-style vermouth from Chambéry—and not, in fact, the dry vermouth—was almost certainly intended for the El Presidente. Without it, the cocktail had been a lame duck.

  Today’s Takes

  With blanc vermouth back in the mix, the El Presidente is finally emerging from exile. "We often describe it as a 'rum Manhattan,'" Konrad Kantor, owner of El Libre, a tiny Cuban café in New Orleans’s French Quarter that uses blanc vermouth in its version, says. "It's absolutely the best stirred rum cocktail I've ever tasted."

  Today, Dolin makes most of the Chambéry blanc vermouth you’ll find in bars and liquor stores; the producer also makes a very popular dry vermouth from Chambéry that’s also clear in color—hence a continued confusion. But even though the use of blanc vermouth is considered ideal for the classic El Presidente, some bartenders have expertly rejiggered the recipe to allow the dry variety to work as well.

  Like just about every other classic cocktail, the El Presidente has managed to avoid the constraints of a single, definitive recipe. That said, there are a few reasonable parameters that help maintain the drink’s character. Deviation from any of the following would constitute a coup d'état: the use of rum and vermouth, stirring rather than shaking and, of course, serving the drink up.

  A good example of a classic version—from the 1924 book, Manual del Cantinero, by León Pujol and Oscar Muñiz—calls for half portions of Bacardí rum and Chambéry, referencing the French blanc vermouth. It also requires "poquito" grenadine or curaçao, and is garnished with a cherry and an orange peel.

  Modern drink makers vary in their approach to the El Presidente. Some choose to pay homage to the cocktail’s origins by making only slight changes; others retire to the cocktail lab to conduct experiments until they find just the right personal twist.

  Kantor is in the former camp, as is Julio Cabrera, a Cuba native who trained as a cantinero. Now, as managing partner at The Regent Cocktail Club in Miami Beach, Cabrera spins the El Presidente as a more rum-forward drink by cutting the vermouth blanc in half; he adds half an ounce of orange curaçao and a barspoon of house-made grenadine, discards the orange peel after expressing it over the drink, then drops in a cherry.

  While Cabrera adjusts for his heavier pour of aged rum by selecting the sweeter-style Bacardí 8, Kantor’s version at El Libre employs a very dry rum (like Flor de Caña 4-Year Extra Seco) and an equal amount of vermouth blanc. He, too, uses a barspoon of house-made grenadine but has a lighter hand than Cabrera with the orange curaçao (only a quarter ounce). Then, he garnishes the drink with an orange peel rather than a cherry. Despite their subtle differences, each of these El Presidente expressions represents an honest interpretation of the classic.

  On the more experimental end of the spectrum is a version with dry vermouth. Although recently outed as the wrong ingredient for the El Presidente, John Lermayer bucks the retro trend. At his Miami Beach bar, Sweet Liberty, which was named Best New American Cocktail Bar at July’s Spirited Awards (the nightcap to the cocktail industry’s annual Tales of the Cocktail), Lermayer combines two ounces of aged white rum (preferably Caña Brava) with one ounce of dry vermouth. In a nod to tradition, he adds half an ounce of curaçao and a barspoon of grenadine. But his garnish of choice is a Filthy cherry on a stick: pre-bottled maraschinos with an extra coating of sugar and rich syrup.

  With this approach, the drink skews more martini than Manhattan. There are, of course, other philosophies about how to use a dry vermouth to achieve a worthy version of this drink. Although Detrich sticks to the classic blanc vermouth at Cane & Table, he recommends balancing dry vermouth (like Atxa, a Spanish version) with a sweeter rum (like Plantation Pineapple).

  "In this variation, if the sugars are still balanced between the two ingredients, then the result will always be pleasant," he says. "Some modern interpretations drop the vermouth down by half and double the curaçao, while also omitting the grenadine. But with too many changes, it's hard to call it an El Presidente."

  During In Good Spirits month, we're going behind the bar to find out what separates aperitifs from digestifs, which It cocktails the world's top bartenders crave and how to turn your home into the hottest speakeasy in town.

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  Aged El Presidente

  This delicious rum-based cocktail develops a smooth, deep flavor after being aged in an oak barrel for a month. Slideshow: Delicious Rum Drinks

  Ingredients

  • One 1-liter oak barrel (see Note)
  • 18 1/2 ounces gold rum, such as Flor de Caña
  • 9 ounces dry vermouth
  • 3 ounces Grand Marnier
  • 2 ounces grenadine, such as Small Hand Foods from caskstore.com
  • Ice
  • Orange twists, for serving

  How to Make It

  If the barrel is new and dry inside, fill it with water and let stand until watertight, about 24 hours. Drain.

  Using a funnel, fill the barrel with all of the liquid ingredients. Let age, tasting a sample once a week, until the cocktail has taken on a rounded but not overly oaky flavor, about 1 month.

  Strain the cocktail through a coffee filter–lined funnel into a glass container and store indefinitely.

  To serve, pour 3 ounces into an ice-filled cocktail shaker and stir until chilled. Strain the drink into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist.

  El Presidente!

  Contributed by Like Your Liquor on May 22, 2014

  Three readers love this post.

  This month’s featured cocktail by Natalie at BeautifulBooze.com is the El Presidente. I think I get the short end of the deal: she gets to make and drink these lovely cocktails, and I write about them! Sorry, I was distracted looking at her fabulous pictures. Anyway – it’s a Cuban drink, originally created by an American bartender in Havana and named for the president of Cuba. This was during American Prohibition (perhaps why he was tending bar in Cuba!) and it was popular for the next ten or fifteen years, and as with many cocktails, is now considered “vintage” or “lost”. But fear not! We are bringing back vintage cocktails, one glass at a time! There does seem to be some variation on the recipe (I’ve seen it called a spin-off of a daiquiri, so they used pineapple juice), but our version is courtesy of the folks at Imbibe magazine.

  For the rum, Natalie used Striped Pig Distillery’s rum, which is made with premium molasses from Savannah, GA. I’ve not had the pleasure of trying Striped Pig spirits (yet), but they sound fantastic!

  

  1½ oz. rich white rum

  1½ oz. Dolin Vermouth Blanc (Martini & Rossi or Cinzano Bianco are fine substitutes)

  1 barspoon orange Curaçao or Grand Marnier (Natalie used Grand Marnier)

  ½ barspoon real grenadine

  Thinly cut orange peel

  Garnish: maraschino cherry (optional)

  Fill your shaker or pint glass 3/4 with cracked ice; pour in the first 4 ingredients. Stir this one, don’t shake it – and strain into a glass (a coupe would do nicely, or whatever you have). You can twist the orange peel over the drink if you’ve got it, to give it a shot of orange essence, and garnish with a cherry (these are the best! Luxardo Gourmet Maraschino Cherries – 400g Jar)

  

  I'm a reformed corporate cube dweller, turned spirits writer, distiller and bartender.

  El Presidente #3

  

  • Display recipe in:

  

  How to make:

  SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

  Orange zest twist

  A sweeter version of El Presidente #2

  Adapted from Victor Bergeron's 'Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide' (1972 revised edition). Vic writes of this drink, "This is the real recipe".

  Buy ingredients

  

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  SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

  

  Next Cocktail

  STIR all ingredients with ice and strain into chilled glass.

  

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