#5. Bacardi cocktail / Cuban cocktail

These two are identical. Rum, sugar, lime. DONE. They get separate listings, though the only difference between the two is that Ensslin calls for a "drink" of Bacardi and a jigger of Cuban rum. The Bacardi cocktail is the stronger drink, but considering that we're dealing with units like "dashes" and "half a lime" I think it's fair to go ahead and count these two at once.

You cannot lose with this one. This is probably the way the majority of all rum has been consumed. Some combination of sugar, lime, and sometimes water is the typical way to make Caribbean rum tasty, and it works. No frills. I read all about it in And a Bottle of Rum which is a wonderful book about the history of rum.

There's no reason at all to use Bacardi, of course. I did, but only because Ensslin told me to, and I try to obey the letter of the law and the spirit. I would have rather used the perfectly good (perfectly better, in my opinion) bottle of Cruzan I've got, but that can wait for a recipe that asks for St. Croix rum since that's what it is.

Difford's guide includes a pretty interesting story about this one. Apparently Bacardi ended up suing a bar for not using Bacardi when people asked for a Bacardi cocktail. I'm not convinced it was worth suing over, but I see their point. It does only seem fair that a person get the liquor they ask for. Maybe if Bacardi has lost their lawsuit (they didn't) bartenders would just give us whatever they wanted when we say, "Ketel 1 and tonic, please," and we'd have to watch carefully to make sure we didn't get Cosmonaut or whatever. (I just made up cosmonaut, but I see no evidence that there's already a brand of vodka called Cosmonaut. I CLAIM IT. This will be my vanity vodka brand, ala Ciroc. Only mine will be better, because each bottle will have been FLOWN INTO SPACE. That is the COSMONAUT guarantee!)

Also I'm using simple syrup instead of gum syrup because I'm pretty confident it's the same thing, or near enough. Gum syrup might be a bit sweeter, and it might last longer at room temperature. Whatever. I'm calling simple syrup close enough.

Also, let's have another one of these, yeah?