Spirit Forward

El Presidente

5 min.Light rum

Chill a cocktail glass.
1
Add the light rum, blanc vermouth, grenadine, orange curaçao and Angostura Bitters to a mixing glass.
2
Fill the mixing glass with cubed ice.
3
Stir until very cold and well diluted.
4
Strain into the chilled cocktail glass.
5
Express a strip of orange peel over the surface of the drink and drop it in.
6
Add a maraschino cherry to the glass and serve.
7

Cuba
Origin
El Presidente emerged in Havana, Cuba by the 1910s, first documented in John B. Escalante’s 1915 Manual del Cantinero and clearly specified again in the 1924 Manual del Cantinero by León Pujol and Oscar Muñiz. These early Cuban manuals define it as a stirred rum-and-Chambéry blanc vermouth cocktail, lightly sweetened with grenadine or curaçao and garnished with orange peel and a cherry. It became a symbol of Cuba’s pre-Prohibition cocktail culture and was widely enjoyed during the island’s 1920s golden age of bars and hotels.
History
Often described as “Cuba’s Manhattan,” El Presidente swaps whiskey and sweet vermouth for light Cuban rum and Chambéry blanc vermouth. Many historians credit Constante Ribalaigua Vert of Havana’s El Floridita as the likely creator, with a 1937 La Florida booklet reportedly listing it among his drinks. The cocktail is most plausibly named for Cuban President Mario García Menocal (1913–1921), not the later President Gerardo Machado, despite enduring popular confusion. By 1928, writer Basil Woon called El Presidente “the aristocrat of cocktails,” reflecting its association with the Cuban upper class and American tourists escaping Prohibition.
Trivia
Salted nuts, Manchego or other firm cheeses, Jamón serrano or other cured ham
Pairings
Manual del Cantinero
Source