Yo Ho Ho

If Prohibitionists Andrew Volstead and William Jennings Bryan were alive today, there's a distinct possibility they'd be toasting each other with daiquiris instead of pink lemonade.

Rum has become so fashionable, in fact respectable, that ordinary Bowery boozers don't go near it. Walk into any upholstered oasis these days and say Planter's Punch or Carioca or Ronrico on the rocks. What happens? All topers within ear's reach survey you from head to foot, realizing that a man of discernment and experience has arrived in their midst.

If there is a woman present, she too will bring her eyes into the best possible focus, breathe heavily and dream of gently swaying tropic breezes, of male magnificentos on coral beaches, of cockfights and cocoanut palms.

Any young man today who has learned to wet his lips with something other than water or weak tea knows that rum has a peculiarly persuasive effect. Whiskey makes a girl stop arguing. Beer soothes her. Gin disarms her. But rum cajoles.

With the very first sip of Cuba Libre, benign daydreams seem to overtake her. Good things (such as yourself) begin to look even better. If your skin be slightly sallow from too much night-clubbing, there's nothing to fear. With the mellow rum in her tummy, it will suddenly acquire a rich coppery glow in her eyes. Your voice will seem richer, your features more classic, your wit more original.

No one has described the effect better than William James when he philosophized about alcohol: "It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core."

In a word--and no other word--rum's romantic. But it wasn't always like this; nothing like it, in fact.

Demon Rum was once looked upon as the foulest kind of giddy water. Temperance leaders loved to see line drawings of themselves, ax in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other. The very word rum was so derisive that it was used to describe any form of liquid evil. Drunks were called rum soaks, rum hounds or rum pots even though the sodden crew had to be content with liniment, needle beer and hair oil.

During prohibition, rum runners carried anything from cognac to curacao, and only infrequently were honored with a cargo of pure Bacardi on board. Most of the bootleggers who operated rum row couldn't tell the difference between a swig of Demarara rum and the bottom of a molasses barrel.

What has happened, then, to transform the amber distillation of cane sugar from belly wash to bottled-in-bond?

It all began in 1492 when Columbus discovered Puerto Rico, planted sugar cane and appointed Ponce de Leon as governor of the island. Not long afterward someone revealed that the dark molasses which was a by-product of cane juice and the magnificent mountain water of Puerto Rico were the elements of a new fragrant brandy.

One can understand how the lonely Spanish governor, not knowing how many years were left and tasting for the first time the great bowl of bombo felt his blood tingle, his desire rise and, like any mature man, dreamt the most inevitable dream in the world, the dream of a fountain of youth.

Rum began to flow from all the islands in the West Indies growing sugar cane. In the 1600's, pirates like Sir Henry Morgan carried the liquid crop of sweetness to Europe where it was loved as a drink and became so valuable that it took the place of money. It became the currency in the rapidly growing slave trade between the new world and Africa. When the British tried to monopolize the rum and molasses trade by forcing Americans to buy only from British possessions and not from French or Spanish, the bitter resentment was a prime cause of the American revolution.

In colonial America, hardy settlers adopted rum as one of the mainstays of their life. Laws required that every town should have its tavern. New England manufactured rum and the mighty river grew until the average American in pre-revolutionary days drank four gallons of rum a year. Today his less hardy descendant drinks a mere one and a quarter gallons of hard liquor.

Englishmen called the drink "rum" from a Devonshire word meaning a great tumult. But ordinary colonists preferred to call it simply kill-devil.

To many frontiersmen it was both food and drink. Colonel William Byrd, writing from the Virginia boundary line in 1782, tells how "They fry'd half a dozen rashers of very fat bacon in a pint of rum, but which being disht up together serv'd the company at once for meat and drink."

Compared with modern day rum, the colonial rookus juice was a vile beverage. But it was snake medicine for ills of both the spirit and the flesh. John Josselyn described the good remedial mixture. "For falling off of the hair occasioned by the coolness of the climate and to make it curly, take of the strong water called Rhum and wash or bathe your head therewith. It is an admirable remedie."

George Washington, who loved oysters and dancing and women, also understood the value of rum. He was never without a hogshead of rum, a hogshead of molasses, some limes, tamarinds and other staples of a well run private bar. In his public life, Washington was just as mindful of the value of rum. Running for the Virginia House of Burgesses, Washington was unable to campaign, but showed his magnanimity and salesmanship by dispensing seventy-five gallons of rum among the voters of his district just before election time.

Almost any young man who has passed freshman history knows that when Paul Revere set out on his ride he was not so determined to "spread the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm" as the famous poem would have us believe. His real mission was to warn Hancock and Adams to get out before the British arrested them. In the course of his journey, however, he visited Isaac Hall, proprietor of a rum distillery. Hall gave Revere some healthy swigs of Medford rum. Only then did Revere's vocal cords become galvanized and did he dash through the countryside broadcasting his famous alarm.

During the Revolutionary War, American soldiers, like their cousins in the British navy, were given a daily allowance of rum. For a society that tolerated bundling, the daily swig of rum was the mildest kind of indulgence.

When Americans learned to make liquor from corn and rye, rum took a back seat. Although whiskey making was started as early as 1790 in Bourbon County, Kentucky, rum remained the king of the wild frontier for at least fifty years more. Eventually, wherever there was a settlement of thirty or forty families, a community still would be set up. Farmers merely brought their rye grain to the public still, and liquor was made for them. It was this practice which forced rum to take a back seat from which it is only now moving up.

After repeal, rum was presented in such rattle-belly concoctions as the Zombie and the Eye Opener, a weird medley of rum, egg yolks, absinthe and curacao. During World War II, whiskey shortage forced up rum sales, but the quality of the rum was spotty and undependable.

Since the war, however, rum has joined the elite company of the finest brandies, Scotches and American whiskies. Three-fourths of the rum we drink today comes from Puerto Rico where an oligarchy of oldtime distillers take more pride in their rum formulas than a Kentucky colonel takes in his bed of mint leaves. Warehouses in which the rum is kept for aging are patrolled day and night by armed government guards. The lock to each warehouse contains two keyholes, one for the owner and one for the government guard, so that neither can tamper with the golden distillate.

A government pilot house, part of the University of Puerto Rico, carries on a research program to raise rum standards. Instead of merely rolling rum over the back of the tongue, white robed scientists use test tubes and spectroscopes to judge each minute stage in its distillation.

Not a drop of rum now leaves the island unless it is bottled and sealed under government supervision. Most Puerto Rican rums are aged an average of six years. A few years ago, any sophisticated bar fly could argue that Cuban rum was immeasurably better than the Puerto Rican variety. Today this is not the case at all.

All this self-imposed discipline of the Puerto Rican distillers has had a terrific effect on rum sales. Rum is not a cheap liquor when you consider that most of the rum enters the country duty free. But in the last eight years, rum drinking in the U.S. rose almost a million gallons annually, a gain of 43% compared with a mere 4% gain in the consumption of all distilled spirits. The daiquiri is now the fourth most popular cocktail served at bars.

Because Puerto Rican sights have been set so high and because Puerto Rican rum enters the U.S. duty free, other famous distilleries have moved to the island. Bacardi, for instance, which was originally manufactured only in Cuba, now turns out a magnificent rum in Puerto Rico. Even Meyers, producers of the famous Jamaica rum and the owners of Government House Rum from the Virgin Islands, have moved into Puerto Rico.

There are three main types of rum. First there is the light dry rum, excellent as a straight drink or in cocktails. None of the sweetness of the sugar cane byproducts remain in this rum, even though it has a fragrance from the cane. Then there is the golden type of rum, darker in color and somewhat heavier in body, well suited for tall drinks. Finally there is the dark heavy Jamaica rum used for Planter's Punch and for flavoring other rum drinks as well as food. Demarara, a dark rum of 150 proof, is used only by the spoonful to be mixed with demi-tasse or as a topping for the lunatic drink known as the Zombie. Rum from Batavia, sold as Arrack, is practically unknown in this country.

Light dry rum can be used in almost any standard drink calling for whiskey. You can make a rum manhattan or rum old fashioned or rum and soda by simply substituting light rum for the usual whiskey. Even rum and tonic has caught on as a delightful summer drink.

For the boys who are conscious of the fact that July is the seventh month of the year and normally bears a strong resemblance to Hades, Playboy presents the following bar-tested cold summer rum drinks.

First we offer the Torridora cocktail designed especially for young ladies with a deeply tanned complexion, who don't wear stockings and who love to lounge at flagstone patios sipping a creamy coffee-colored potion.

[recipe_title]Torridora Cocktail[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1-1/2 oz. jigger light rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 oz. coffee liqueur[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 oz. sweet cream[/drinkRecipe]

Pour the rum, coffee liqueur and cream into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake very well. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

Recently, the United Kingdom Bartenders Guild conducted a cocktail contest among its members. First prize, $10,000, went to the orginator of a drink called Frosty Dawn. The drink requires Falernum, a rum liqueur with an almond flavor. Falernum is commonly used in the Carribean, but is somewhat scarce in this country.

[recipe_title]Frosty Dawn Cocktail[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1-1/2 oz. light rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 oz. Falernum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 oz. orange juice[/drinkRecipe]

Shake all ingredients with crushed ice. (concluded on page 48)Yo Ho Ho (continued from page 14)Pour into a cocktail glass.

For fellows who own a blender, the Frozen Daiquiri is without doubt the coolest drink in the world.

[recipe_title]Frozen Daiquiri[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1-1/2 oz. light rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Juice of 1/2 lime[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 teaspoon sugar[/drinkRecipe]

Put the above ingredients in a blender. Add as much crushed ice as liquid ingredients. Mix for about 2 minutes or until the ice is like snow. Serve in a champagne glass with a small straw.

The conventional daiquiri is made by simply mixing the above ingredients in a regular cocktail shaker instead of the blender.

All people who like cocktails presented as an abbreviated form of fruit salad will love the Rum Sour.

[recipe_title]Rum Sour[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1-1/2 oz. golden rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Juice of 1/2 lemon[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar (to taste)[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Half slice of orange[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Maraschino cherry[/drinkRecipe]

Pour the rum and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Add the sugar. Shake well. Place the half slice of orange and maraschino cherry in a Delmonico glass or orange juice glass. Pour the cocktail into the glass.

In keeping with the tendency these days to serve fine liquors in their own natural state, as undoctored as possible, rum on the rocks has had tremendous success lately.

[recipe_title]Rum on the Rocks[/recipe_title]

Fill an old fashioned glass with crushed ice or ice cubes. Pour over the ice 1-1/2 oz. of light rum or golden rum. Stir very well. Twist a piece of lemon peel or lime peel over the drink and serve.

Rum and coke is the combination that makes Cuba Libre. It may be served in an 8 oz., 10 oz., or 12 oz. glass, depending on how much you wish to dilute the rum.

[recipe_title]Cuba Libre[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1-1/2 oz. golden rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Cola drink[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1/2 lime[/drinkRecipe]

Squeeze the juice of the half lime and drop the lime shell into the glass. Add the rum. Fill the glass with large pieces of coarsely chopped ice or ice cubes. Add cola drink to fill the glass. Stir well before serving

As a change from Tom collins or whiskey collins try this magnificent cooler.

[recipe_title]Rum Collins[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]2 oz. light or golden rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Juice of 1/2 large lemon[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 teaspoon sugar[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Iced soda water[/drinkRecipe]

Into a cocktail shaker put the rum, lemon juice and sugar. Add three-quarters of a highball glass of coarsely chopped ice. Shake well. Pour all ingredients, including the ice, into the glass. Fill remaining space in glass with soda water. Stir well and serve.

The classical summer drink for generations in swank men's clubs and cosmopolitan hotels has been this tall iced affair requiring dark Jamaica rum:

[recipe_title]Planter's Punch[/recipe_title]

[drinkRecipe]1 lime or 1/2 large lemon[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]1 teaspoon sugar[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]2 dashes of Angostura bitters or orange bitters[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]2 oz. dark Jamaica rum[/drinkRecipe]

[drinkRecipe]Iced soda water[/drinkRecipe]

Squeeze the lime or lemon juice into a cocktail shaker. Add the sugar, bitters and rum. Add enough coarsely chopped ice to fill three-quarters of a large highball glass. Shake very well. Pour unstrained into the glass. Fill glass with soda water. Stir well until glass is frosted. Place a lemon or lime on top drink.