El Presidente Cocktail

El Presidente Cocktail Story

One of the few stirred-rum cocktails to emerge from the golden years of American tourism in Havana, Cuba, the El Presidente is a cocktail that requires fierce attention to measurements and ingredients if one wants to avoid stirring up an unpalatable booze bucket. A quality Cuban rum is key in doing this cocktail justice. Historical recipes call for varying amounts of both Curaçao and grenadine, however the El Presidente should be above all rich and velvety, not fruity or sweet. Grenadine, a pomegranate syrup featured in many other rum cocktails from the same era, is largely a background player in this drink. The presidente of the recipe is either Mario García Menoca or Gerardo Machado, rulers of Cuba from the mid-1910s and 1930s, respectively. The cocktail saw its heyday throughout the reign of Machado in the 1920s, a time when out-of-work American bartenders were forced to make careers for themselves abroad while Prohibition ran its course. Though it may be a relic of its time, the El Presidente remains a fascinating window to the mixing potential of rum beyond the usual suspects of citrus and sugar.