Malecon Cocktail - LeNell It All

by LeNell Smothers, Posted Mar 24th 2010 @ 5:00PM

Photo: Boutique

The Malecón is the famed avenue stretching for more than four miles along the seawall in Havana, Cuba's capital. Our hometown of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, also has a Malecón that goes for a little over three miles along the sea. Malecón is Spanish for a dike, embankment, levy or jetty. Both La Paz and Havana's Malecóns inspire poetry, art and song... and cocktails.

Bartender Erik Lorincz of the Connaught Hotel experienced the laughter and community along the Malecón in Cuba during his visit and came back to his home in London to submit a recipe for a cocktail competition called the Bacardi Legacy. Even though Bacardi is no longer produced in Cuba, Erik tried to capture what he felt along Havana's Malecón in his drink... simplicity, joy, life's sweetness balanced by a touch of bitterness. His recipe was chosen as one of the top three winners.

Find the recipe for the Malecón Cocktail after the jump.

I list Lorincz's recipe just as he makes it with close enough conversion to ounces as reasonable. If you can't find the brands of port and sherry he uses, shoot for at least an oloroso sherry and a port with some age. Caster sugar is another term for superfine sugar.

Malecón Cocktail

50ml (1 3/4 oz) Bacardi white rum
15ml (1/2 oz) Smith Woodhouse 10-year port
10ml (1/3 oz) Don José Oloroso sherry
30ml (1 oz) lime juice
2 bar spoons caster sugar
3 drops Peychaud's Bitters

Crosby Gaige's Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion (1941) has a cocktail sharing the same name. He also used Bacardi, but equally with Swedish Punsch and dry gin with a dash of apricot brandy.

Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things -- most recently, the proprietress of Casa Cóctel with partner Demián Camacho Santa Ana. She's owned her own whiskey label, called Red Hook Rye, and has been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.

Filed Under: Drink Recipes, Drinks, Features
Tags: bacardi, bacardi cocktail, lenell smothers, malecon cocktail, MaleconCocktail