Properly Sauced: A Holiday We Can All Agree On!

By Anthony Todd in Food on Aug 15, 2008 6:45PM

Tomorrow is National Rum Day. Normally we make fun of silly, profit-driven holidays designed by PR flacks, but in this case we’re totally on board. It may have something to do with the fact that we love drinking rum cocktails on mild summer days like this one. Here are a couple of drinks to try out on your friends this weekend!

Cuba Libre

The Cuba Libre is our favorite, simple rum-based cocktail. Invented during the Spanish-American war to celebrate Cuba’s liberation from Spain, it is not much more complicated than a rum and coke – but with the key addition of lime juice for that tropical zing.

2 oz rum (we prefer a dark rum for this drink)
Juice of 1 lime
Cola

Pour lime juice into a tall glass filled with ice. Add the rum, fill to the top with cola and serve with a lime wedge. Rather than coke, we prefer Boylan Cane Sugar cola – after all, good rum isn’t made with high fructose corn syrup!

Southside Cocktail

We love our Southside readers, so when this cocktail recipe came across our desk, we had to give it a try. Effectively a Sidecar that uses rum instead of brandy, this sweet, tart drink has a little more kick than the Cuba Libre.

1 ½ oz light Rum
1 oz lemon juice
¾ oz simple syrup or ½ tbsp superfine sugar
Fresh mint leaves
Club soda

Shake the first three ingredients with ice. Pour into a lowball glass filled with ice, top with soda, stir and garnish with mint leaves. If you use superfine sugar, be sure to stir thoroughly – in our first attempt, we forgot and the result was unbearably tart.