{"id":502,"date":"2020-01-15T12:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cocktailians.com\/2020\/01\/rum-trivia-part-2.html"},"modified":"2020-01-15T12:19:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T12:19:00","slug":"rum-trivia-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/?p=502","title":{"rendered":"Rum Trivia! Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

As seen here yesterday<\/a>, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about rum. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there.<\/p>\n

4.    What is the national spirit of Brazil and the essential ingredient in a Caipirinha cocktail?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Cacha\u00e7a<\/span>] (I also accepted aguardente<\/span>, pinga<\/span>, caninha<\/span>, and marvada<\/span>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

[Cacha\u00e7a<\/span>]<\/a> can be fiery and rough, or it can be mellow and genteel. It\u2019s often slightly sweet, with a little bit of oily funk. When a Brazilian friend visited a few years back, he brought an entire suitcase full of the stuff, and I think we must have gone through ten pounds of sugar and several bushels of limes for the caipirinhas<\/a> we threw back that week.<\/p>\n

It was labeled as \u201cBrazilian rum\u201d in the US until 2013, when US regulations changed<\/a> to include [cacha\u00e7a<\/span>] \u201cas a type of rum and as a distinctive product of Brazil.\u201d It also usually has a lower proof than the similar rhum agricole<\/em><\/a> or rum distilled from molasses.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5.    What is the nickname for July 31, 1970 in the Royal Navy, marking the last day on which daily rations of rum were issued to s<\/span><\/span>ailors?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Last_day_of_rum_issue\"
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[Black Tot Day<\/span>]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sailors have long been associated with drinking; the Royal Navy issued daily rations of hooch to its sailors for centuries. At first, each sailor was issued a gallon of beer or wine a day, but after some storage difficulties, that was changed to a ration of the much more stable and transportable hard spirits: brandy in about 1650, and rum in 1687<\/a> following the 1655 British conquest of Jamaica. Enlisted men\/junior ratings were allowed half a pint of neat rum twice daily, and boys got half that. The ship\u2019s purser dispensed the rations, and over time (and through slurred lips, no doubt), \u201cpurser\u201d became \u201cpusser\u201d…leading to the brand name Pusser\u2019s Rum<\/a>, which is a recreation of the blended high-strength rum that was once served to the Royal Navy.<\/p>\n

But what do you do with a drunken sailor? Admiral Edward Vernon<\/a>, hero of the War of Jenkins\u2019 Ear<\/a> and commander of the fleet\u2018s West Indies Squadron, was concerned with what he called \u201cthe swinish vice of drunkenness.\u201d On August 21, 1740, he ordered<\/a> that his sailors\u2019 rum be watered down:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
You are hereby required and directed … that the respective daily allowance … be every day mixed with the proportion of a quart of water to a half pint of rum, to be mixed in a scuttled butt kept for that purpose, and to be done upon the deck, and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch who is to take particular care to see that the men are not defrauded in having their full allowance of rum… and let those that are good husbanders receive extra lime juice and sugar that it be made more palatable to them.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Over time, naval officials noticed that the West Indies Squadron\u2018s sailors were healthier than other sailors, and eventually ship\u2019s surgeons discovered that the lime juice added to their rum prevented scurvy – thus the nickname \u201climeys\u201c for British sailors. (And if you\u2019re keeping track, a \u201cscuttled butt\u201d is a barrel with one end removed, and you can see how gossip would spread among the men lined up for their daily ration of rum, thus the contemporary meaning of \u201cscuttlebutt.\u201d) Admiral Vernon\u2019s nickname of \u201cOld Grog\u201d, after the water-resistant grogram<\/a> cloak he habitually wore, soon became the name of the watered-down rum with lime juice and sugar. (Adm. Vernon was also George Washington's half-brother Lawrence Washington's former naval CO; Lawrence Washington named his family estate after the admiral, and George kept the name when he inherited the property. George Washington distilled rye whiskey<\/a> there. History works in circles.)<\/span><\/p>\n

After arduous duties or in celebration of a victory, sailors could receive an extra ration of rum. This became known in naval slang as \u201csplicing the mainbrace<\/a>\u201d; in the days of sail, the mainbrace was a heavy piece of rigging vital to the ship\u2019s steering, and fixing it was a difficult and crucial task. After the mainbrace was spliced, it was customary for captains to order an extra drink for the crew. These days, only the Royal Family or the Admiralty can issue the order to \u201csplice the mainbrace<\/a>\u201d, generally after a fleet review or another special occasion.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the strength and amount of the \u201ctot\u201d of rum was varied by the Admiralty, but enlisted men always got their daily ration. Each day at six bells of the forenoon watch (11:00 am for you landlubbers), the bosun\u2019s mate would pipe \u201cUp Spirits\u201d<\/a>, and the crew would assemble for their tipple and toasts<\/a> to the monarch. Until 1970, that is, when concerns over impaired crew operating increasingly sophisticated warships led the House of Commons to abolish the rum ration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This coming July 31st will be the fiftieth anniversary of [Black<\/a> Tot<\/a> Day<\/a><\/span>]. Nine and a half years ago in Portsmouth, they re-enacted \u201cUp Spirits\u201d on the quayside<\/a>, but if you\u2019ve got money to burn, you can have a literal taste of history. The remaining stores of official Royal Navy rum sat in wicker-clad stone flagons in a bonded warehouse until 2010\u2019s release of \u201c[Black Tot<\/span>]: The Last Consignment<\/a>\u201d: a bottle will run you \u00a3650<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(The Royal Canadian Navy had its [Black Tot Day<\/span>] on March 31, 1972, and the Royal New Zealand Navy held out until February 28, 1990.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(this writeup may look familiar; much of it is an update of this post<\/a>, with linkrot fixed.)<\/span><\/p>\n

6.    Of what drink is Ernest Hemingway writing, in this passage from Islands in the Stream<\/em>?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Islands<\/p>\n

[Daiquiri<\/span>]<\/p>\n

There are many, many wonderful things that one can do with the Holy Trinity of rum, lime, and sweetener \u2013 the Canch\u00e1nchara<\/a>, the Mojito (of which more anon), the Hotel<\/a> Nacional<\/a> Special,the Ti\u2019<\/a> Punch<\/a>, the Queen\u2019s<\/a> Park<\/a> Swizzle<\/a>, the Baguio<\/a> Skin<\/a> \u2013 but perhaps most elemental of them all is the [Daiquir\u00ed<\/a><\/span>]. It\u2019s <\/span>a test of a bartender, as there\u2019s nowhere to hide…and even famously cranky food writer John Mariani puts the recipe on his business cards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was supposedly invented in 1896<\/a> by an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox<\/a> who ran out of gin at a party…but it\u2019s more likely that the drink evolved from the supplies at hand. (See the \u201cEl Draque<\/a>\u201d from Sir Francis Drake, c. 1586, which also employed the Holy Trinity.) Less disputable is the small beach village of [Daiquir\u00ed<\/span>], near Santiago de Cuba (and its Bacard\u00ed distillery) that\u2019s the source of the drink\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re shaking them up yourself, don\u2019t go overboard on the sugar. In Volume 2 of The Gentleman\u2019s Companion: Being An Exotic Drinking Book, or, Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask<\/em>, Charles H. Baker, Jr. opined<\/a> that \u201ca too-sweet [Daiquiri<\/span>] is like a lovely lady with too much perfume,\u201d and drinks writer David A. Embury agreed, writing in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks<\/em> that \u201cthis is a cocktail that is difficult to improve upon. It is dry, yet smooth. The reaction time is short. The lime and rum blend perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings us to Havana\u2019s<\/a> venerable El Floridita<\/a> bar, where \u201cRey de los Coteleros\u201d Constantino Ribalaigua Vert<\/a> presided and made the house [Daiquir\u00ed<\/span>]<\/a>, serving it \u201cfrapp\u00e9d\u201d, or over crushed ice, with a few drops of Maraschino cherry liqueur. One day Ernest Hemingway<\/a> wandered in, in search of a bathroom, tasted the house [Daiquir\u00ed<\/span>], and said, \u201cThat\u2019s good, but I prefer it without sugar and double rum.\u201d This variation was christened the Papa Doble in honor of its originator and its strength, and Hemingway claimed to hold the record of sixteen of these doubles in one sitting.<\/p>\n

Papa still sits at the leftmost end of the bar \u2013 in the form of a bronze sculpture, complete with book in front of him \u2013 at La Floridita, exactly where he placed Thomas Hudson in Islands in the Stream<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Papa\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As seen here yesterday, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about rum. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there. 4.    […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ingredients","category-seen-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}