A Refreshing Cooler: The Barbados Buck

Bucks are one of those drink categories that stretch far back into history. A simple combination of a spirit, citrus, and ginger beer, they require little to no effort to make and are completely delicious year-round. Beat the heat with one in the summer, and its bright, gingery flavors will quench your thirst. Use a dark spirit, and the spicy ginger beer and richness of the barrel-aged spirit can reinvigorate a palate weary from a winter of endless Manhattans. As Charles Baker explains, the buck also can act as a fine bracer. I will take his word for it. Considering the strength of the cocktails he enjoyed, he certainly had a powerful need for a good bracer.

While it is unfortunate that the term "buck" no longer immediately translates for many modern drinkers, bucks also go by another more recognizable name: the mule, as in that most famous of mules, the Moscow Mule. The vehicle of vodka's conquest of American taste buds on the 1950s, the Moscow Mule is just a vodka buck in a fancy copper mug. The variations on the buck are endless: gin buck, Kentucky buck, Shanghai buck, gin-gin mule--the list goes on. Hey, add lime juice to a Dark 'n' Stormy and you've got yourself a rum buck. No matter which spirit you decide on, the most important part of the equation is the ginger beer. Not just any will do. The easiest place to start--skip the ginger ale. To maximize the flavors and really experience the glory of this drink, you need a ginger beer with some serious ginger kick.  Whether you chose Reed's, Fentimans, Blenheim, or Bundaberg, this is one place where bigger and bolder is definitely better. Or you can always take matters into your own hands, and make some ginger beer at home.

When I first ran across the Barbados Buck in Jigger, Beaker and Glass, I think I did a little jig. It was like finding a forgotten five-dollar bill in your jeans, a happy surprise. It just doesn't get more straightforward. Granted, as with all Baker concoctions, his buck is enormous and therefore, I halved the proportions.

Barbados Buck

3/4 ounce aged, dark rum
3/4 ounce light rum
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/8 ounce simple syrup
7-8 ounces ginger beer

Build over a lump of ice in an eight to ten ounce glass. Top with ginger beer. Stir gently to incorporate. (I added a lime wedge garnish.)

Notes on Ingredients: I used Cruzan light rum, Mt. Gay rum and Reed's Extra ginger beer and honey syrup.

This drink was refreshing and tasty as expected, and disappeared much too quickly. I blame this on the amount of ginger beer. Once you added the rum, syrup, and juice, even with a "large lump" of ice as prescribed, filling the glass with ginger beer required adding at least five ounces of soda. Thus, the drink tasted mostly of ginger beer with a hint of lime and rum. Either using a smaller glass, or adding more rum, lime juice and syrup, or just decreasing the ginger beer would easily solve this problem. But maybe that extra ginger beer helps this drink function as a bracer, instead of a more potent beverage. So, I conclude, to each his own. And as with most things, the way you construct this drink will depend entirely on what you are looking for. Substituting pimento dram for the syrup or even adding a few dashes of aromatic bitters, as a brilliant red float, would also add some interesting notes.

On a less serious note, Charles Baker tell us that he was introduced to this refreshing cooler after "lying naked on a sugarwhite beach, discussing Gilbert and Sullivan" with two gents he knew from back in the day. I know I raised an eyebrow. But let's give Charlie the benefit of the doubt and say that it was a different time--though just how different, we shall never really know.

July Fourth: Pimm's Cup

In Seattle, it is said that summer begins on July 5. And without fail, every year that I have lived here the Fourth of July, day of barbecues and picnics, sunburns and fireworks, has been wet and cold . . . and sometimes foggy. This year was no exception. But, just because it was cold and dreary outside, didn't mean we had to miss out on the festivities--just the heat and the sunshine and the barbecue. So regardless of what was happening on the other side of the window, homemade baked beans, grilled veggie burgers, homemade pickles and a big fresh mixed green salad still dominated our holiday menu. And even as we huddled under our blankets and watched movies, we were still drinking highballs.

We began the night with the quintessential highball, the Pimm's Cup. For me this drink usually signifies the beginning of spring, but as we didn't have much of a spring, it is heralding in the summer. It goes down easy and is refreshingly herbal. Pimm's is such an interesting spirit, and we are lucky to still have it around. I am sure that this drink is one of the reasons why.  Pimm's No. 1 actually is a product of a forgotten time--the time of the bottled cocktail. Both Pimm's and Rock and Rye began as medicinal remedies that were prebatched. Jerry Thomas includes recipes for shrubs in his Bartender's Guide from 1862. These concoctions were prepared, bottled and meant to be enjoyed later. Harry Craddock devotes an entire section of the Savoy Cocktail Book to prepared cocktails for bottling, though they number only four.

To me at least, Pimm's No. 1 has always stood out simply because it is still here. Originally invented in 1823, Pimm's is a mixture of gin, quinine and a secret blend of herbs. Over the years several other Pimm's products were produced, each based on a different base liquor. Unfortunately, many of them do not exist at all, and others are extremely rare. In some parts of the country the still-produced brandy-based Pimm's No. 3 is imported under the label Pimm's Winter Cup. As far as I know, Seattle isn't one of those places. But good old Pimm's No. 1 is still available in my liquor store, and this pleases me to no end.

Pimm's Cup (modified)

2 thin slices of cucumber
2 dashes Bitter Truth Celery Bitters
2 ounces Pimm's No. 1
Ginger Beer

 In a heavy-bottomed collins glass, muddle cucumber in celery bitters. Add ice and Pimm's and fill with ginger beer. Give it a quick stir, and add cucumber spear and seasonal berries (optional). Note: I usually add a bit more ginger beer after the stir to replenish the bubbles.

Now this is not the traditional recipe for a Pimm's Cup. For starters, we did not have any lemon-lime soda to really enjoy our British picnic classic. Second, usually there are no bitters or muddled cucumber, but I thought, what the hell? It sounded good and it was. I added blueberries because we had some and it added a nice contrasting flavor. If I had had any mint in the house I might've slapped some and dropped that in on top as well.