Origin of the daiquiri

Hey! Cuba is in the Caribbean. Right?

The most plausible version I have heard is that the daiquiri was
invented
by Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer in Oriente Province
(eastern
Cuba) at a bar in Santiago de Cuba (whose name escapes me) in 1898 or
so. He
was presumably associated with the iron mines in the mountains near
the
ore-shipping port of Daiquiri, 20 miles east of Santiago--a property
of
Standard Oil, built in 1889 by John D. Rockefeller et al., who also
owned
the mines.

The iron mines were on the Caribbean side of the island, the nickel
mines
were on the opposite, or Atlantic side--centered as I recall around
Nicaro.

The early description of the daiquiri called for the juice of a lime,
a
mounded teaspoonful of sugar, one part Bacardi Carta Blanca--a light
rum
distilled in Santiago de Cuba--and two parts mineral water (you drank
any
other kind at your peril), shaken with cracked ice (which could be
perilous)
and poured without straining into a martini glass.

Light rum was the contribution of Facundo Bacardi, a Catalan, and it
made
his fortune through making possible the entry of the daiquiri and
other rum
drinks into the repertoire of cocktails that civilized persons might
drink,
compared with the fiery White-Mulelike sugar cane juice distillates
previously available. I don't take that early recipe to be very rigid,
for
this is a generic tropical drink--much like the margarita from a
similar
climate.

Pjk
--multiplaza.nl.nu--