Vintage Eve 9/2013: The Old Days and Trader Vic’s Cocktails

There has been a heyday of late in reviving cocktails from our parents’ day, some with the newfound skill of bartenders (some now calling themselves mixologists) muddling fruits or concocting their own syrups. The possibilities are now endless. For me, my toe went further into the icy cocktail waters when I found an old book at a rummage sale, Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink, with this note from the publisher:

This book was originally published in 1946. Some of the brand names that Trader Vic’s refers to no longer exist. We suggest you substitute your own favorite brands.

Undaunted I purchased the book and started making some of the recipes, choosing ones where I had most, if not all, of the ingredients already in my bar. Below are the easiest I made. I hope you can find something memorable here to make for yourself.

Tall Ones

Planter’s Punch – Cuban

3 ounces Cuban rum

1 ounce lime juice

1 tsp. sugar

Orange juice

Shake rum, lime and sugar with cracked ice; and pour over cracked ice in 12-ounce glass and fill rest of glass with orange juice; stir and serve.

Rum Float

1 tsp. sugar

5 sprigs fresh mint

3 ounces light rum (Ton Merito or Brugal)

Half fill a 12-ounce glass with shaved ice; add sugar, mint, and rum; muddle to thoroughly mix mint with rum; add shaved ice and stir up and down to frost glass and thoroughly mix. Decorate with a sprig of mint, a slice of lemon, and serve with straws.

Cocktails and Short Hoists

Plantation

½ ounce orange juice

½ once lemon juice

1 ounce Jamaican rum (Red Heart or Myer’s)

Shake well with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Rum Martini

Dash of orange bitters

One ounce French vermouth (dry)

1 ½ ounces Puerto Rican rum (Ron Merito, Boca Chica or Brugal)

Stir Ingredients in mixing glass with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass and serve with stuffed olive (washed to remove salt) or cocktail onion on toothpick. Twist lemon peel over drink but do not drop.

Tahitian Honey Bee

1 tsp. honey

½ ounce lemon juice

1 ½ ounce Puerto Rican rum (Ron Merito, Boca Chica or Brugal)

Mix honey and lemon juice in shaker, add rum, and shake with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass and serve with twist of lemon peel.

Gimlet

1 ounce Rose’s lime juice

1 scant tsp. sugar

1 ¼ ounce gin

Shake with ice, strain, and pour into chilled Daiquiri glass.

Note on the photo: This is an old West Bend penguin hot and cold serving bowl/ice bucket in an art deco style. (Photo is borrowed.) It belonged to my mother in law. Recently I pulled it out of our cabinet, washed it, and, served to hold ice during a large party.  Six hours later the ice was still solid. It made me wonder about the cocktails this was used for, and how many, if any, Trader Vic’s styled drinks my husband’s parents may have enjoyed at home.