DOTW: Old Cuban
I’ll spare you the history and variations of this particular Audrey Saunders creation for two reasons: (1) We’re doing our best to get ready for next week’s pilgrimage to Tales of the Cocktail and (2) it’s already been covered extensively by everyone from the lowbrow to the highbrow, plus a handful of cocktail bloggers in between.
But here’s the reason it’s on our radar: Last night, we met up for dinner and drinks with out-of-town guests, Morgan — one-third of the Drink Dogma troika — and his lovely wife Stacey. Our first stop was Nopa, one of our favorite cocktail-savvy restaurants, both because of their fabulous bar program and their delicious (and locavore-friendly) food.
Stacey and I both ordered an Old Cuban to start, but — because I was too busy being social — I didn’t get a chance to take a picture, nor to see how they were putting together this effervescent refresher. Which is a damned shame because now I haven’t the faintest idea how they get this drink to be a rather flamboyant, Shrek-like shade of green.
Even using silver rum (an unorthodox variation, given the Bacardi 8 in the original recipe) I couldn’t achieve anything more than a Mojito-colored khaki. Obviously I need to go back to Nopa and do some more investigation.
Whatever color it is, the Old Cuban makes for a refreshing way to start a warm summer evening at the bar. And if you can talk Morgan and Stacey into joining you, I can guarantee you’ll have a fabulous time.
Old Cuban Cocktail
1-1/2 oz aged rum (Bacardi 8 or Flor de Caña 7)
1 ounce simple syrup (or less, to taste)
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
6 mint leaves
Champagne
Muddle the mint leaves with the simple syrup in a mixing glass. Add the lime juice, rum, bitters, and ice. Shake well. Double-strain (through a Hawthorne strainer and a smaller sieve) into a chilled cocktail glass or flute. Top with bubbly, and garnish with a spring of mint or half a sugared vanilla bean.
Comment by jean/NOTCOT
Anita ~
i’m so excited to hear you’re off to tales of the cocktail! Can’t wait to see your posts from the trip, sounds like so much fun. I’ve been getting more and more obsessed with all thinks mixology as i work on Liqurious ~ it’s all so gorgeous!
=)
~ jean
Posted on 07.13.08 at 9:08PM
Comment by NW
As for our Old Cuban at Nopa, we actually have altered the original recipe quite a bit. We have found that a more striped down version with a more floral light rum, less sugar and no bitters at all to be more successful with our crowd. The color comes from truely destroying the mint along with sugar. The slight bitterness achived by ‘overmuddling’ is quite nice with a more gentle rum.
Say hi next time, I had no idea who you were.
Posted on 07.14.08 at 7:54PM
Comment by Anita
Hi Neyah! Wow, I’m impressed that you get that lurid color by muddling! I had guessed it was some sort of fabulous tincture. I muddled my shoulders off and didn’t get anything like that, even with the silver FdeC. Obviously I need to observe closely. 😀
I wasn’t trying to be secretive, but I never want to impose on a stranger. Now that we’re acquainted, I will definitely say hi next time we’re by. 😉
Posted on 07.14.08 at 8:01PM
Pingback by Road Trip: Tales of the Cocktail! : Drink Dogma
[…] Morgan will also be joining me, but he won’t arrive until later this week. Apparently, his job finally found out that he never actually goes to the office; he just travels to exotic drinking destinations across the globe and collects a paycheck every two weeks. So, he won’t be making it until closer to the weekend. […]
Posted on 07.15.08 at 4:00AM
Pingback by San Francisco Treats : Drink Dogma
[…] So obviously I’m not quite as on-the-ball as our San Franciscan friends, Anita and Cameron, from Married with Dinner fame, but you have to cut me some slack. Granted, they had a report from our evening in the Golden City up on their site the very next morning. At that point, I was still nursing the after-effects of the previous evening. Not to tear down the “fourth wall†of the blog world or anything, but for a lot of bloggers, a significant amount of time is spent not only doing research and writing the posts, but also with setting up and taking exorbitant amounts of photos in hopes of getting a decent, usable picture for the blog. Don’t get me wrong, some people have no qualms about throwing some hideous photo of their latest creation up on their site, but I like to think a lot of people in our cocktail blogging community spend serious time and money, not just on their booze, but on their photos as well. […]
Posted on 08.05.08 at 12:31PM