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How drinks get their names
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE - JULY 2007
How drinks get their names
Whimsy leads the way
Drinking habits in The Bahamas have changed greatly since the 18th century when visiting British Navy sailors tossed down their rations of grog, which was raw rum mixed with water (a half pint of rum with a quart of water).
The Royal Navy?s tot was so named, some say, in honour of Admiral Edward Vernon, the officer who launched the daily tipple in 1740. According to legend, the admiral often wore a grogram cloak; grogram being a coarse fabric made of silk and wool, stiffened with gum. The tradition he began was not discontinued until 1970.
Tropical drinks in Nassau still carry colourful names and Bahamian bartenders are known for creating new ones all the time. Examples include Gully Wash, Bus Stop and Jitney Ride, offered on Paradise Island at Columbus Tavern?s Bahamian Nights celebration every Sunday.
Every major island has a libation named after it. Examples include the Andros Collins, Cat Island Buck and Guanahani Swing.
When Bacardi transferred its headquarters to The Bahamas from Cuba in 1957, its logo?a bat with outstretched wings?inspired the Rat Bat, or rum and Coke. Add a slice of lime and you?ve got a Cuba Libre.
A few Bahamian drinks are known around the world. They include \the Goombay Smash, Sea Breeze and Rum Dum.
Some drinks have a well-known history and are enshrined in cocktail menus. Others waft away as though on a tropical breeze the moment they?re created.
There?s a strong connection between music and drink names. Old-timers may still call for a Blind Blake Sling, named for Blake Alphonso Higgs, a beloved Bahamian musician.
Arguably the most popular cocktail in the entire Caribbean area, the Bahama Mama, was named after a 1950?s song attributed to Charles Lofthouse, written after he heard entertainer/singer Maureen Duvalier, the original Bahama Mama. The drink, another rum-based concoction, was an immediate and enduring hit.
Another favourite, the Yellow Bird, is also based on a song. Jamaican Alan Keith penned the drink?s namesake in 1957 and it became popular everywhere throughout the Atlantic tropics, including The Bahamas.
?Bartenders are creative people,? says Wilfred Sands, a championship-winning bartender at the Lyford Cay Club. ?When they start creating ? They?re mixologists.?
Sands himself has won acclaim for the Rum Dum, a drink he created in 1971 for one of his guests. ?The gentleman wanted a drink that was not too sweet, in a short glass,? Sands recalls.
The Rum Dum wasn?t the last drink he made popular. Sands also dreamed up the Grand Slam to go with one of the club?s tennis tournaments.
?I?ve played with plenty drinks in my time,? he laughs, adding that some of his creations are ?older than half the country.?
Bahamian bartenders have done well at regional and international competitions, but most new drinks are created on the spur of the moment, just for the fun of it.
The Goombay Smash, for example, was created to go along with a famous Bahamian festival, Goombay Summer. The pineapple drink became so popular that a non-alcoholic version, Goombay Punch, was created for kids.
Even if you?re not a drinker, you can still enjoy many of the tastes that tipplers enjoy, including a Virgin Caesar, a Shirley Temple or the colourful, ice-cold and non-alcoholic Bahama Mama and Miami Vice?the latter named after
the original TV series.
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