El Presidente
According to cuban legend, El Presidente was a recipe of Major-General Mario García Menocal, who during his tenure as president of Cuba (1913 - 1921) once entered La Floridita and requested that this drink be prepared for him. Other sources say the drink was invented by a cuban bartender and named in honour of the serving president of the time. Either way, the consensus is on a 1910’s/1920’s origin in Havana.
Researching this drink was interesting. Everywhere I looked, I was unable to find an agreed-upon recipe. I checked both english- and spanish-language sources, and I noticed one detail. Most recipes in english use dry vermouth as an ingredient, whereas recipes in spanish unanimously require sweet vermouth. I suspect that the source of confusion is in the details. many of the recipes that call for sweet vermouth specify that it must be white. This implies the italian bianco variety, which is white and sweet. Maybe this detail became distorted as the recipe traveled, and since dry vermouth is white in colour, the recipe changed.
I’m listing the recipe as using sweet vermouth because, well, I don’t have any dry vermouth at home, and having tried the sweet version, I doubt that using dry vermouth would work any better.
Recipe:
1 1/2 oz. white cuban Rum
1 oz. bianco italian Vermouth
1/2 oz. orange Curaçao
a few drops of Grenadine
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Notes:
Given all the different versions of this drink available, there are many variations. I used Cointreau due to lack of Curaçao, and I think this might have made the drink worse. Possibly the sweeter notes of the Curaçao work better in the drink. Still, I’m not willing to experiment too much with this drink, I don’t think there would be enough improvement to justify it.
Rating:
- Not my thing.
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