1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II Beeing an Exotic Drinking Book

THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK

until nearly done. Time these to suit the end of the wine-pouring process. Throw them into the bowl, and serve the whole thing very hot. . . . Some stout hearts add a tumbler full of good cognac brandy to the whole-and we, after testing the business, heartily agree with them; since sherry of itself isn't potent enough to make any Saxon defend his native land, much less a 20th Century wassailer, with all we have been through during the one and a half decades that Saxons never even considered as drinkable fluid! TEN WEST INDIAN PLANTER'S PUNCHES, SWizzLEs, and like CEREMONIES of a PLEASANT NATURE Any set rules for these tropical institutions would last about as long as a set rule for a mint julep to please Louisville and Baltimore. There are as many Planter's Punches as there are-or were-planters; as many Swizzles as swizzlers. After stays in Nassau, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Cura~ao, Venezuela, and both ends of the Canal Zone, we have found most of this drink family extremely good, especially those made of special aged Jamaica rum we've imbibed in the Myrtlebank Gardens, Kingston. Those listed here have, for one reason or another, stood out in our memo– ries. . . . If there is any one thing which is hard and fast everywhere it is this: Get decent well-aged rum, and brandy or cognac, for all punches and West Indian drinks. Just because they are a bit disguised with tropical fruit juice is no sign that thirty seconds swizzling, shak– ing, or stirring will make up for eight years the raw spirit should have lain in wood casks. The charm of all these exotics is their mellowness, their smoothness and the gentleness with which they come, see and conquer. ' One other thing: Don't try to use canned fruit juices of any kind and expect notability. In other words, fresh fruit lacking, call it a rum– canned-grapefruit-juice-ade, not a Planter's Punch. Extreme chilliness is the brand of excellence, over and above these thoughts, and for this reason the soundest mixers chill glasses, or in-

• 109 •