The unimpeachable El Presidente

Earlier this month I wrote up a short piece for an online magazine called Lost, which consists of articles and essays about things that have been, well, lost. I wrote about a rum cocktail that's almost never seen these days, yet should be. It's called El Presidente, and it was once among the noblemen of Prohibition-era drinks.

The drink was born in Havana, Cuba, and that's where I tasted my first, during a trip to Cuba to research my book a couple of years ago. it was a revelation, and should be the first cocktail one serves to any friend who grouses that they don't like rum because it's "too sweet." Vermouth, it turns out, goes fabulously with rum. I'm starting to see more folks mixing vermouth and rum, and that's a trend worth getting behind.

Anyway, you can read more about the history of the drink by clicking on the link to the story below. Along the way, I mention a dreadful mai tai I had at Polynesia, the former Trader Vic's at the former Havana Hilton. So I wanted to post the photo I took of the place – a tiki palace evidently undisturbed since it opened about fifty years ago. Smithsonian curators, take note.