The El Presidente cocktail is a Cuban alcoholic drink made of rum, orange curaçao, vermouth, and grenadine. The original recipe calls for blanc vermouth. Some believe it is the only bona fide classic cocktail that is supposed to use harder to find blanc vermouth ( Chambéry vermouth) and is frequently mismade with dry vermouth. While variations are made using other orange liqueurs than curaçao, the drink is traditionally meant to be red in color, so blue curaçao should not be used. The red comes from red curaçao, or when paler colors are used, from the

grenadine Grenadine is a commonly used nonalcoholic bar syrup characterized by its deep red color. It is a popular cocktail ingredient renowned for its flavor as well as its ability to give a reddish or pink tint to mixed drinks. Grenadine is traditiona ...

History

The El Presidente earned its acclaim 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.

during the 1920s through the 1940s during the American Prohibition. It quickly became the preferred drink of the Cuban upper class. There are two rival stories of who the cocktail is named after. One is

Mario García Menocal Aurelio Mario Gabriel Francisco García Menocal y Deop (December 17, 1866 – September 7, 1941) was the 3rd President of Cuba, serving from 1913 to 1921. His term as president saw Cuba's participation in World War I. Youth Born in Jagüey Gra ...

, president from 1913 to 1921. The other is Gerardo Machado, who was a general and also president from 1925 to 1933. There are also multiple claims as to the invention of the cocktail. One story is that it was American bartender ''Eddie Woelke'', who named it after Gen. Menochal after moving to Havana. Another claim is that it was invented as early as 1915 in Cuba, 5 years before Woelke set foot on the Malecón in 1920. This premise if true is even further debated, as either being invented at the ''Vista Alegre'' (a Havana establishment frequented by Americans), or by President Menocal himself.

Similar cocktails

President Machado gave

Pan American Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

(Pan Am) exclusive rights to fly the Florida–Havana route. This may be the reason that Pan Am served a variation of ''El Presidente'', known as the ''clipper cocktail'', on their larger planes. It consisted of only gold rum, vermouth, and grenadine.

Sources

* Curtis, Wayne (May. 1, 2006)
El Presidente
''Lost Magazine''. * Eric Felten, ''How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well'', pp. 105–108,

Agate Publishing Agate Publishing is an independent small press book publisher based in Evanston, Illinois. The company, incorporated in 2002 with its first book published in 2003, was founded by current president Doug Seibold. At its inception, Agate was synonymo ...

, 2009 {{ISBN, 1572846127.

References

Cocktails with rum Cuban cocktails Cocktails with triple sec or curaçao Cocktails with vermouth Cocktails with grenadine