Cocktail | |
---|---|
Type | Mixed drink |
Standard garnish | Mint sprig |
Standard drinkware | Collins glass or highball |
Commonly used ingredients | Mint, lime juice, rum, Angostura bitters, syrup, ice |
The Queen's Park Swizzle is a classic rum cocktail that originated in Trinidad. [1] [2]
It is a prominent member of a genre of cocktails from the West Indes that started most likely in the 19th century, but has gained recent popularity in New York. [1] Other drinks in genre include the Bermuda Swizzle and the Barbados Red Rum Swizzle. [1] These drinks are “swizzled” with a swizzle stick. [1] It is traditionally from a tree native to the Caribbean called Quararibea turbinate , locally known as the swizzle stick tree or commonly known as the South Caribbean evergreen tree. [1] [3] However, although there are wooden swizzle sticks in addition to metal and plastic ones in the present day, they are usually not from the original tree. [3]
The ingredients of rum, lime juice, sugar, and mint are similar to the Mojito. [3] One key ingredient that contrasts the drink is Angostura bitters, one of Trinidad’s most famous exports. [3] Also, the drink uses Demerara rum (rather than the light rum in the Mojito). [3] Demerara rum comes from Guyana from sugarcane grown on the banks of the Demerara River, and is comparable to Jamaican rum. [3]
House of Angostura from Trinidad has promoted it as Trinidad and Tobago’s national drink. [3]
The drink’s name comes from the hotel, Queen’s Park Hotel, in Port of Spain, Trinidad where it was first created in the 1920s. [4] [5] Port of Spain was at the time a thriving trade center and vacation destination among the wealthy. [5] The Queen's Park Savannah neighborhood was its leisure center of eating, drinking and dancing, and the Queens Park Hotel was the main attraction. [5] The hotel opened on January 15, 1895. [6]
The hotel was moderately successful through 1920, and more so after the 18th Amendment was passed, making the purchase and consumption of alcohol illegal in the United States. [4] Prohibition prompted many well-to-do Americans to leave the country on weekend trips to the Caribbean where they could legally drink. [4] Queen's Park Hotel has been said to be one of the grandest hotel bars at the time. [5]
Hotels abroad hired previously employed American bartenders who brought in clients and cocktail expertise. [4] The Queen's Park Hotel asked the bartenders to concoct a signature drink. [4] They modified a popular drink at the time, the Daiquiri, and added mint and locally made Angostura bitters. [4]
The Queen's Park Swizzle enjoyed many years of popularity. [4] Trader Vic's named it “the most delightful form of anesthesia given out today” in 1946. [3] [4] [5] [6] Bergeron wrote in the 1972 edition of the Trader Vic's Bartender’s Guide, “If you like to make and drink a real doozer of a rum drink that really is a rum drink, try this. It’s from the Queen’s Park Hotel in Trinidad.” [6] [7] The original Queen's Park Hotel closed in 1996. [3] [4]
The drink is traditionally served in a Collins or highball glass. [2] [3] [8] In the glass, mint leaves are muddled with lime juice and syrup (Demerara or simple). [2] [3] [8] Demerara rum, Angostura bitters, and then crushed ice is added. [2] [3] [8] The drink is swizzled with a swizzle stick until the drink is mixed and the glass is completely frosted. [2] [3] [8] A bar spoon can substitute the swizzle stick. [3] [9] The swizzle method allows the muddled mint to stay at the bottom. [3] Sometimes, bitters are added to the crushed ice to give the ice layer a red appearance, so that the drink will have green, gold, and red layers. [3] The drink is then garnished with a mint sprig. [2] [3] [8]
The Kona Swizzle is a variation of the Queen's Park Swizzle and contains spiced rum, coffee, and orgeat. [10] [11] [12]
A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred then strained into a cocktail glass and garnished traditionally with a maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.
Mojito is a traditional Cuban punch. The cocktail often consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water, and mint. Its combination of sweetness, citrus, and herbaceous mint flavors is intended to complement the rum, and has made the mojito a popular summer drink.
The old fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters and water, adding whiskey, and garnishing with an orange slice or zest and a cocktail cherry. It is traditionally served with ice in an old fashioned glass, which predated the cocktail.
The piña colada is a cocktail made with rum, cream of coconut or coconut milk, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with either a pineapple wedge, maraschino cherry, or both. There are two versions of the drink, both originating in Puerto Rico.
The Zombie is a Tiki cocktail made of fruit juices, liqueurs, and various rums. It first appeared in late 1934, invented by Donn Beach at his Hollywood Don the Beachcomber restaurant. It was popularized on the East coast soon afterwards at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Bitters is traditionally an alcoholic preparation flavored with botanical matter for a bitter or bittersweet flavor. Originally, numerous longstanding brands of bitters were developed as patent medicines, but now are sold as digestifs, sometimes with herbal properties, and as cocktail flavorings.
The daiquiri is a cocktail whose main ingredients are rum, citrus juice, and sugar or other sweetener.
Pink gin is a cocktail made fashionable in England in the mid-19th century, consisting of Plymouth Gin and a dash of Angostura bitters, a dark red bitters that makes the whole drink pinkish. Lemon rind is also commonly used as a garnish, with the citrus essential oils subtly complementing the flavour.
The term punch refers to a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruits or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from the Indian subcontinent to England by employees of the East India Company in the late 17th century. Punch is usually served at parties in large, wide bowls, known as punch bowls.
Falernum is either an 11% ABV syrup liqueur or a nonalcoholic syrup from the Caribbean. It is best known for its use in tropical drinks. It contains flavors of ginger, lime, and almond, and frequently cloves or allspice. It may be thought of as a spicier version of orgeat syrup.
The House of Angostura, also known as Angostura Limited, is a Trinidad and Tobago company famous for the production of Angostura bitters, invented by the company's founder. The company is also a distiller and is the major producer of rum in Trinidad and Tobago. The company also has been used as a vehicle for international expansion by its parent company, CL Financial. As a result of these acquisitions, the company owns distillers in the United States, Canada, The Bahamas and Suriname.
Angostura bitters is a concentrated bitters based on gentian, herbs, and spices, by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. It is typically used for flavouring beverages or, less often, food. The bitters were first produced in the town of Angostura, hence the name, but do not contain angostura bark. The bottle is recognisable by its distinctive oversized label. Angostura is Spanish for 'narrowing', the town of Angostura having been at the first narrowing of the Orinoco River.
A muddler is a bartender's tool, used like a pestle to mash—or muddle—fruits, herbs and spices in the bottom of a glass to release their flavor.
The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a book about cocktails by David A. Embury, first published in 1948. The book is noteworthy for its witty, highly opinionated and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails into two main types: aromatic and sour; its categorization of ingredients into three categories: the base, modifying agents, and special flavorings and coloring agents; and its 1:2:8 ratio for sour type cocktails.
Cocktail garnishes are decorative ornaments that add character or style to a mixed drink, most notably to cocktails.
A Rum Swizzle is a rum-based cocktail often called "Bermuda's national drink". The Royal Gazette has referred to it as "the legendary Sam swizzle...perfect for sharing and irresistible to locals and tourists alike". In addition to providing the "swizzle" portion of the 1933 swizzle stick product name, it has been said that this potent cocktail is "as much a part of Bermuda Island culture and cuisine as is the Bermuda onion, the vibrant hibiscus, or the graceful Bermuda Longtail."
The Martinez is a classic cocktail that is widely regarded as the direct precursor to the Martini. It serves as the basis for many modern cocktails, and several different versions of the original exist. These are generally distinguished by the accompaniment of either Maraschino or Curacao, as well as differences in gin or bitters.
A Green Swizzle is an alcohol-containing cocktail of the sour family. It was popular in Trinidad at the beginning of the 20th century but got lost during the course of the Second World War. Today's recipes usually constitute an often distinct divergence from the original.