My search for an historic holiday cocktail turned up endless variations of egg nog, mulled wine, and spiced/spiked coffee. The Boston-based cocktail virgin slut blog posted many tempting ideas. Yet the folder of family recipes yielded the best — if not the most seasonal — recipe to make during a hectic week.
Written in what looks like my grandfather, Henry’s, handwriting on a calendar page from 1932, the “Bacardi Cocktail” calls for just four ingredients, all of which I had on hand. I pulled my jigger, a family relic from the long-gone Wm. P. Poythress & Co. Pharmacists in Richmond, Virginia (I know it’s old by the phone number MAD.98) and went to work. Tart, refreshing, bracing: a festive prelude to the second night of Hanukkah.
Family Bacardi Cocktail (1932)
Serves 1
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 jigger (4 tablespoons) rum
1 jigger (4 tablespoons) lemon juice [about 1 lemon]
1/4 to 1/2 cup ginger ale
Place the sugar in the bottom of a glass. Add the rum and lemon juice. Stir. Add ginger ale to taste, then ice cubes. Garnish with a lemon slice.
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