CP NEWS: Nightlife 101: Frozen Drinks

[ddm-news]

-Suzanne Kelly

They're tasty, they're girly, and they get you drunk. This you know. But believe it or not, the history of frozen drinks is actually just a touch more complicated. With Nightlife 101, Clubplanet's ongoing effort to make you a more educated drunk, here's the lowdown on the Big 3: the Margarita, Daiquiri, and Piña Colada.

Margarita

As is true of many historical events, there are different accounts to the creation of the salt-rimmed drink. One of the most commonly held views is that the margarita was invented in 1948 by Margarita Samas when she started blending two of her favorite spirits, Cointreau and Tequila together. At first she merely called it “the drink” until Margarita’s husband gave her glassware with her name etched into it, and that’s when the “Margarita” was born.

Awwww. How sweet. And simple enough, right? This next theory's more convoluted.

Others credit the invention of the margarita to Francisco “Pancho” Morales, who apparently poured the first one on July 4, 1942. Supposedly, he was working in Tommy’s Bar, when a woman ordered a “Magnolia.” Unfortunately, ol’ Pancho may have been doing too much drinking himself, because he couldn’t remember how to make it, so he quickly whipped up a drink of tequila, cointreau, and lime juice. The woman loved it, and asked what he called the drink and she called it the “Daisy,” which in Mexican means Margarita.

Still following? Well, stick with us, because there are a few more brief accounts that are possibly the “real” story.

Some claim that at in the 1940’s Enrique Bastante Gutierez created the drink for Rita Hayworth whose real name was Margarita. Another possibility is that it was created in the 1950’s in an L.A. restaurant to introduce Jose Cuervo tequila to the market.

So, it’s easy to see that there isn’t only one account that is “correct.” It might seem hard to remember, but just think of it this way, there are numerous ways to have the drink -on the rocks, salt, no salt, strawberry- just like how there are a variety of ways it might have been invented.

Daiquiri

The most common account? Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer who worked for the Spanish-American Iron Company near the village of Daiquiri, Cuba, invented it at the turn of the 20th century. As the story goes, Cox ran out of gin while entertaining American guests. He was wary of giving them rum by itself, so he mixed it with limejuice and sugar to make it more tasty. Naturally, the drink was named after the town. How original, right?

Hang in there. The story picks up.

Up until 1909, Cox’s invention remained a local secret, when Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, a U.S. Navy medical officer, visited Cox and tried his daiquiri. Johnson loved it so much that he introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington D.C.

Not too complicated, right? The main thing to remember is that the actual definition of a daiquiri is “an alcoholic drink made with rum, lime juice, sugar and ice,” but today there are more variations, including frozen and different flavors.

Piña Colada

Surprisingly, the inventor of this drink reigns from Europe, not the Caribbean. Ricardo Garcia, who started mixing drinks at age 4 when he slipped behind his Grandfather’s bar, is accredited with this creation. This drink, like many others, was discovered entirely on accident, in 1954. Ricardo was working at the Caribe Hilton Hotel where the guests were served a complimentary drink called the “Coco-Loco,” which is a combination of coconut juice, rum, and cream of coconut served in a fresh coconut.

At this point in time the coconut cutters union went on strike, and as a result there were no coconuts for the drinks to be served in. Being the inventive man that he was, Ricardo noticed an abundance of pineapples, and decided to cut the tops off of the pineapples and serve the drink in the pineapple instead of a plain glass.

This new way of serving it provided a hint of pineapple that spruced up the drink. To add a little more flavor to it, he added crushed ice and strained pineapple, which in Spanish is “Piña colada,” and thus the drink got its name.

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