The Malecon is a cocktail named after the ''El Malecón'', the winding beachfront avenue atop the seawall in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba. The cocktail has at least three different main types: a pre-

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

version from Cuba itself, an updated American version afterwards in 1941, and a more modern version from 2007.

Malecon cocktail (1915)

From John Escalante's Cuban cocktail guide, ''Manual Del Cantinero''. The drink called for equal parts Cognac and Chambéry vermouth (likely a ''blanc'', such as Dolin) as the base, with additions of one dash of gum (sugar) syrup and one dash of Angostura bitters. Garnish with a strawberry.

Malecon cocktail (1941)

From Crosby Gaige's drink book, ''Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion''. He said the drink was meant to evoke "the leisure and luxury of Old Havana". *1.5 oz.

White Rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

*1.5 oz. Swedish Punsch *1.5 oz. Dry Gin * A dash of

apricot brandy Apricot brandy can refer to a liquor (or Eau de Vie) distilled from fermented apricot juice or a liqueur made from apricot flesh and kernels. Brands Various brands of both types of products exist, including: * Zwack Kecskeméti Barack Pálinka, f ...

El Malecón cocktail (2007)

As updated by Erik Lorincz when he bartended at the Connaught Bar, London. *50ml (1 3/4 oz)

Bacardi Bacardi Limited (; ) is one of the largest privately held, family-owned spirits companies in the world. Originally known for its Bacardi brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 an ...

Superior white rum *15ml (1/2 oz) Smith Woodhouse 10-year port *10ml (1/3 oz) Don José Reserva

Oloroso Oloroso ("scented" in Spanish) is a variety of fortified wine (sherry) made in Jerez and Montilla-Moriles and produced by oxidative aging. It is normally darker than Amontillado. Oloroso is usually dark and nutty. Unlike the fino and Amontillado ...

sherry Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...

*30ml (1 oz) lime juice *2 bar spoons / teaspoons 0ml(1/3 oz.)

caster sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refine ...

*3 drops

Peychaud's Bitters Peychaud's Bitters is a bitters distributed by the American Sazerac Company. It was originally created between 1849 and 1857 by Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a Creole apothecary from the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) who traveled ...

Lorincz said he was inspired to make the cocktail after a trip to Havana, and that the cocktail represents the feelings the Malecón evoked in him as he walked along its sea wall: simplicity, joy, and life's sweetness balanced by a touch of bitterness.

I have read that the essence of what it means to be Cuban is to accept the inevitabilities of human existence, that we are born and must die, and to make the very best of the life in between and have as good a time as possible. With this admirable attitude in mind, I wanted to create a drink that could be enjoyed at any time of day or night, and that would be at home in the most elegant London cocktail bar and equally at the Malecón in Havana with music, laughter and tobacco smoke in the air.

El Malecón was Lorincz's entry in the "Bacardi Legacy 2007" rum cocktail contest and was one of the reasons he was chosen in 2010 to head the revitalized American Bar at the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 188 ...

. The ''Savoy Cocktail Book'' included the recipe for the original version of a cocktail known as the ''Havana'' in 1937.

Similar cocktails

The original recipe for the ''Havana'' cocktail listed in books such as the 1937 ''Cafe Royal Cocktail Book'', ''The Official Mixers Manual'', as well as the ''Savoy Cocktail Book'' shares many aspects of the 1941 Malecon cocktail both in terms of the backstory of its name and its gin, punsch, and apricot brandy ingredients. The Havana contains much more apricot brandy than the 1941 Malecon however, representing half of the cocktail, and did not contain rum. Compared to the original Havana, the 1941 Malecon cocktail was made less sweet and made more indicative of Cuba by lowering the amount of apricot brandy and calling for white rum (such as

Havana Club Havana Club is a brand of rum created in Cuba in 1934. Originally produced in Cárdenas, Cuba, by family-owned José Arechabala S.A., the brand was nationalized after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. In 1993, French-owned Pernod Ricard and the go ...

Additional reading

Cuba’s Overlooked Role in Cocktail History

References

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