Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Old Cuban!

A little bit bubbly, a little bit mojito, what's not to like?

This drink absolutely tastes as good as it looks.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. I wanted to finish up the old year and ring in the new with a champagne cocktail for you. Here’s a great little number from Tonic in NYC, a drink that reads like a midcentury classic but was created in 2001 by the Libation Goddess, Ms. Audrey Saunders. Time to make an Old Cuban. Here’s the recipe:

Old Cuban

2 oz chilled prosecco or champagne

1 ½ oz Bacardi Anejo 4 Year Rum

6 whole mint leaves

1 oz demerara syrup

¾ oz fresh lime juice

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Muddle the mint leaves with the syrup and lime juice in the shaker. Add rum, bitters, and ice, and shake until well chilled. Double-strain into a coupe glass. Top with prosecco and garnish with mint. 

Audrey Saunders is my absolute hero bartender. I can’t think of a modern mixologist who’s a better fit for Wonkette in so many ways. After her divorce, she discovered bartending as a new career and fell in love with the life. She trained herself in the fundamentals anywhere and everywhere she could. She took a class on bar management from Dale Degroff, the legendary creator of the Cosmopolitan. After class, she asked Dale if she could work for him for free so she could learn the trade. She cut limes for drinks at charity events, fell asleep over books from Dale’s library, and did everything she could to master the business. 

Ms. Saunders rediscovered so much of what we consider “ordinary” behind a good bar. She brought gin back into modern bars. She rediscovered rye whiskey Manhattans, Luxardo cherries, Campari … this list goes on and on. Just about everything that I consider to be the key elements of a “good” bar come from this woman. 

Why do I think her cocktails are such a good fit for this lovely website? Well, Ms. Saunders speaks her mind freely on women in the business and what makes for quality cocktails. But more to the point, she’s an amazing mentor. She’s helped dozens of young bartenders find their voices and bring their vision to the world. Her impact on the industry doesn’t come just from her, but from everyone she’s helped up the ladder. Yr Editrix has had that impact on more than a few writers, I think — including your humble bartender. Writing about cocktails once a week, every week, has dramatically improved my writing skills and mastery of mixology. Even when times were bad and I was between gigs, I could come back to this work and tell myself that I was “A Bartender.” Consider this one my love letter to Wonkette: I am eternally grateful for the chance to write for you every week, good times and bad, and give us all something to look forward to every Friday. Pour a glass for me, neighbors, and for each other. Here’s to many, many Fridays to come in 2024. 

Let’s talk ingredients:

Ingredient shot. This drink disappeared mysteriously as my wife and I packed for New Orleans.

Chilled prosecco: I generally use prosecco for champagne-based drinks. (Yes, I know, “in the Champagne region of France,” blah blah, go close the barn door while the horse watches and laughs.) The sweetness of the bubbly vanishes under the balanced mojito half of this drink. I think a Brut might do nicely here for a dry cocktail. If you use a sweeter variety of sparkler, like a demi sec champagne, you’ll want to alter the amount of syrup to keep the drink from becoming a sugar bomb. Taste as you go, especially if you are in unfamiliar territory.

Bacardi Anejo 4 Year: It’s pretty clear to me that this drink is meant to use Cuban rum, or the closest thing to it. The Bacardi family started rum production in Cuba in 1862 and fled to Puerto Rico in 1960. Without breaking a few laws, Bacardi is the closest thing to Cuban rum we’ll find in the states. Base-line Bacardi is boring but comfortable; hunting around for a 4-year aged Bacardi will bring more pleasant results. Use Brugal Anejo or Mount Gay Black Barrel in a pinch. 

[Rebecca here, with a book rec: The fabulous Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba, Wonkette commission link. So smart, so incredibly reported, and hilariously while talking about the Bacardi emigres — originally patriots in the finest sense of the word who lost their minds after having their like fifth and sixth houses expropriated — gives I believe it was one footnote to the Cuban terrorist they bankrolled to hijack airplanes who ended up living it up with Gloria Estefan at Miami’s Cuban days parade. As I recall, the expropriated Bacardi factory is what now makes Havana Club.]

6 whole mint leaves: If you can’t grab a muddler, go ahead and shake this an extra 15 seconds or so. The ice cubes in your tin will do a good job of extracting the mint oil. The menthol of the mint is a charming finish in the drink, cooling without making the drink “minty.” 

Demerara syrup: Ms. Saunders uses simple syrup, but I love demerara syrup in rum too much to pass up the opportunity. This syrup is 1:1 Sugar in the Raw and water, heated until the sugar dissolves. I always have some in the fridge. 

Lime juice: Always use fresh. Plastic limes provide plastic juice. 

Angostura bitters: It’s extremely pleasant when Ango gets used to flavor a drink instead of binding the ingredients together. The little note of bitterness and spice at the front of the glass is very welcome here. 

In summary and conclusion, drink well, drink often, and tip your bartender — donate to Wonkette at the button below!  

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You can find me on Threads and Insta at samurai_grog!

As you read this, I’m drinking my way down Bourbon Street for the New Year, don’t expect cocktail questions to be answered until 2024!

OPEN THREAD!