Caribbean Rum Punch

Punch, with or without alcohol, is generally something that is for multiple servings which can be prepared in a pitcher. Lots of Caribbean flavors here. 

 

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings):

 

4 ounces light rum

4 ounces dark rum

2 ounces coconut rum

8 ounces pineapple juice

8 ounces orange juice

4 ounces mango nectar/juice

4 ounces Sprite or club soda

2 ounces fresh lime juice

2 ounces grenadine 

1 cup ice 

4 or 5 tall glasses (8 to 12 ounce glasses)

Add all the ingredients to a pitcher, except the club soda or Sprite, stir well, then add the soda/Sprite, stir again. You can certainly mix the punch in a pitcher without the ice, then distribute the ice to individual serving glasses and pour the punch into the ice-filled glasses.

WORD HISTORY:

Fletch (Fletcher)-A variant pronunciation, and thus spelling, of the verb form of "fledge"^ that developed in the 1600s, but under the heavy influence of the noun "fletcher," which is also related to "fledge," and a word borrowed as "fleccher" in the early 1300s from French "flechier," meaning "arrow maker" (French "fleche" means "arrow" ), as an arrow is a shaft or rod with "feathers on the end" (the connection with "fledge"). French got the word by absorbing the form from a close cousin of English, Germanic Frankish (flegja??). I don't know about England, and the rest of the English speaking world, but "fletch" and "fletcher" are not common words in American English, although "Fletcher" is sometimes heard as both a family name and as a given name: from the mid 1980s until the mid 1990s, British actress Angela Lansbury played the character "Jessica Fletcher" on the popular CBS television series "Murder, She Wrote."^^ "Fletcher Christian" was part of the crew of the ship "HMS Bounty," the subject of books and three major films. I also knew a man here in Cleveland with the given name "Fletcher." 

 

^ For the history of "fledge," it is included at the bottom of this article: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/06/shirley-temple-mocktail.html

 

^^ Lansbury was born in England, and her father was English and her mother was from Northern Ireland. In the television series, "Fletcher" is Jessica's married name from her deceased husband Frank. 

The Pussyfoot Rum Cocktail

While the recipe below is what I use, I first learned of this drink from a book I've owned for many years: "Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide" (revised), Trader Vic (Victor Bergeron), Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY 1972 

The word "pussyfoot" naturally developed from the notion of how a cat walks; thus, "tread softly, cautiously, stealthily." It also then developed the figurative meaning, "to speak indirectly about a difficult subject, to speak cautiously," and as such, it is similar to the expression, "to beat around the bush." I don't hear it much today, but a former boss used it a lot, and that was over ... ah, 50 weeks ago? Over 50 months ago? Okay, over 50 years ago. I'm not sure why this drink was given this name. I'm not one to like tart or outright sour drinks or foods, so if you're like me, you can sweeten this a bit with some sugar, or cut the amount of lime juice. When blended, the cream will provide a fluffy kind of topping to the cocktail.

Ingredients:

2 to 3 ounces white (light-colored) rum
2 ounces heavy cream
3 ounces pineapple juice
2 ounces fresh lime juice
2 ounces cherry juice 
1/3 cup ice (or add crushed ice after blending)
maraschino cherry and partial pineapple slice or lime slice for garnish 

Add all but garnish to blender, blend for about 30 seconds. Pour into a tall glass


With lots of crushed ice ....

 Also with crushed ice ....

With crushed ice and topped with a maraschino cherry ...

Blended with ice, slice of lime garnish ...

WORD HISTORY:
Look-The ultimate origin of this common word is unknown. It "could" be a West Germanic invention, as forms are not present throughout the Germanic languages, but rather only in the West Germanic languages, where the word has only "prospered" in English. Likewise, there are no "certain" relatives outside of Germanic, although Celtic has some possible connections. This makes sense, as the West Germanic dialects were in frequent contact with Celtic, including Gaulish and Brittonic (the Celtic dialects of Britain), and for instance, Welsh "llygad" means "eye." West Germanic had "lok(i)jan," meaning "to see, to look upon." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "locian" (long 'o'), meaning, "to look, to gaze," and the extended meaning, "to take or pay heed (to someone or something)," and to this day we say, "look after someone or something;" that is, "give care or help to, to watch over." "Locian" then became "lokien," then "loken," before the modern form. Relatives in the West Germanic languages: German has "lugen" (once spelled "luogen"), it is still around, but of limited usage; Low German once had "loken," Dutch has "loeken," like the German form, it is still around, but not commonly used, West Frisian has "lôkje/lokje" (?). The noun form in English meaning "the act of looking" goes back to late Old English, and the noun form meaning, "the appearance of a person," as in, "He has that look about him," goes back to the late 1300s, with the plural "looks" also used for "a person's appearance," dating to the mid 1500s.    

Mojito Cocktail

This drink was invented in Cuba, although exactly where and when in Cuba is disputed, but "possibly" as long ago as the second half of the 1500s. A couple of these and I was speaking Spanish to my neighbors, who are Spanish and English speakers from Puerto Rico. The problem is, I don't speak Spanish, and what's worse, they seemed to understand me! Hm, if I drink Stoli vodka, maybe I'll be able to speak Russian so I can tell Vladimir Putin, "You're a no good pile of horse dung."  

Ingredients:

2 ounces white rum
juice of 4 lime wedges
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, to your preferred taste
10 mint leaves
club soda to fill
ice

I used a tall glass, but you can certainly use a smaller glass and adjust the amount of the ingredients. If you prefer not to have the ice cubes in the glass, you can use a shaker and strain the cocktail into a glass. Rinse and dry the lime before cutting into wedges. Squeeze the juice from the lime wedges and then mix in the sugar. Rub the mint leaves a bit in your hand to help them release their essence and add them to the lime/sugar mixture. Add the rum, stir briefly and add the ice then fill the remaining glass space with club soda. Mix in the squeezed lime wedges. You can garnish with lime and/or a sprig of mint. 

WORD HISTORY:
Poncho-This word for a "type of cloak that slips over the head" goes back to Araucanian^ "pontho," which meant, "cloth/cloak made of wool." This was borrowed by Spanish as "poncho," which was then borrowed by English in the early 1700s. By the mid 1800s, American English added the meaning, "waterproof garment slipped over the head." 

^  "Araucanian" is an Amerindian language family of South America, primarily in Chile.  

Piña Colada

Back in the late 1970s, singer and songwriter Rupert Holmes released a song with the lyrics, "If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain..." Well, the name of the song upon its original release had nothing to do with "piña coladas," because its was called, "Escape." We in the public knew the song because of its reference to piña coladas, and so the record company and Holmes amended the song title to, "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)." The song and the drink were VERY popular!

The "Piña Colada," which literally means, "strained pineapple" (see Word History, below) was invented in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. As with many a popular invention, there is not total agreement as to this drink's naming, or more precisely, when the drink was given its enduring name. This is a very tough drink to make, as it will require you to be able to pour liquid, add ice cubes and then.... to push a button on a blender to make the blender operate, and then... to push another button to make the blender stop. There are college degrees issued for being able to do these difficult maneuvers, but unfortunately, I flunked out. I kept pushing the wrong buttons and it took me most of a semester to find out the buttons that operate the lights in the room are not the buttons that operate the blender. They have to make things complicated. Damn! And I wondered why the lights kept going off and on. 

Ingredients (per drink):

2 ounces light (white) rum
2 ounces pineapple juice
2 ounces coconut cream
pineapple chunks
maraschino cherries
1 cup ice cubes

Put the rum, the pineapple juice, the coconut cream and the ice cubes into a blender. Blend until smooth. Garnish with pineapple chunks or slices and a maraschino cherry or two. You can adjust the ingredient amounts to suit your own taste. Hey! The lights just went out. Well, habits are hard to break. Cheers!
 
I've seen all kinds of glasses used over the years for Piña Coladas (short, tall, squat, narrow), so use what you have or what you think makes a nice presentation, if you are serving guests.

WORD HISTORY:
Colander-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, and part of even its later history is a little shaky. It goes back to the Latin noun "colum," a type of "woven wicker basket or fishing net used for fishing." This brought about the additional meaning, "sieve," and produced the verb "colare," "to strain or to put liquid through a sieve." This produced Latin "colatorium." This passed into Latin-based languages of the western Mediterranean in various forms, but while English borrowed a number of words from Latin-based French, this does not seem to be one of them. It was borrowed by English in the 1300s, "perhaps" from Spanish or Catalan "colador," but with an "n" inserted because of either misunderstanding or easier pronunciation in those times? It had several spellings in English originally, all with an "n" ("coloner," "cullender," for example).       

Puerto Rican Eggnog: Coquito

This coconut flavored "eggnog" is a drink for the Christmas holiday season among Puerto Ricans. While it is often described as "eggnog," not everybody includes egg yolks in their recipe. There are some other variations among recipes, too, as, for instance, some people make it with coconut milk, some use cream of coconut (as I've done), and some use both.* Light colored rum, also called "white rum," or "clear rum," is the preferred type of rum for this drink. Rum production is one of the main industries in Puerto Rico, which is a United States territory, and a great deal of Puerto Rican rum is sold on the mainland of the U.S.    

The canned cream of coconut might vary slightly in the number of ounces, depending upon brand name. Some people make larger batches of "coquito," just prior to the holiday season, putting it into bottles, and leaving it to "cure" for a couple of weeks before drinking it. 

Ingredients:

2/3 to 1 cup light (in color) rum
1 can (15 ounces) cream of coconut
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
(optional) 2 egg yolks 

Add all ingredients into a bowel and whisk it well, or better yet, put the ingredients into a blender and blend until very well mixed. Refrigerate for a couple of hours, at least, but it is better if left in the frig for 6 to 8 hours. Serve in glasses topped with or without some whipped cream and a little sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

* Cream of coconut has a higher fat content than coconut milk and much of the liquid is extracted (as for coconut milk); thus, it is much thicker, and it is usually sweetened a bit.  

WORD HISTORY:
Cask-This word, related to "quash" (a word borrowed by English), has a difficult history, but it seems to go back to Indo European "kuet/kwet," which had the idea, "to shake." This gave Latin "quassare," which meant, "to shatter, to break into pieces, to split up," which passed to Latin-based Spanish as "cascar," with the same basic meaning. This produced the noun "casco," which initially meant, "shard or piece of pottery." This then came to mean "helmet," "perhaps" from the idea of pottery having formed a vase or jar, which resembles a helmet, because the word also meant, "jar, bottle, vat." Helmets were also used to cook food, or to hold food or drink. This was borrowed into French as "casque," with the same meanings. English borrowed the word in the mid 1400s, with the meaning, "container for liquids, often alcoholic types of liquids."

North German Rum Drink: Hoppelpoppel

The name of this North German and Frisian drink is the same as a famous dish from Berlin, but the two have absolutely nothing in common, as the Berlin dish is typically potatoes fried with bacon or ham, onions and eggs (the name is also written as two words by some, "Hoppel Poppel"). Rum became a fairly popular alcoholic beverage in Germany, as rum was brought into north German ports from the Caribbean. This is an easy drink to make, but it does require you to heat the mixture, and to be attentive, as it has raw egg. It is actually like making custard, but it shouldn't be allowed to thicken too much. You can enjoy this while it is still warm or you can put the glasses into the freezer for a little while before filling them. The whipped cream will help to cool the prepared mixture enough so as not to break the chilled glasses, but to be safe, let the mixture sit for a couple of minutes before dispensing it to the glasses. Don't blame me if you find yourself making this over and over.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

5 egg yolks
3 cups milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending upon how sweet you want it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup Puerto Rican or other Caribbean rum
8 ounces heavy cream, whipped

Get a bowl that will fit over a pan of hot water. The bowl should not touch the hot water. Heat some water in the pan so that it barely simmers. Put the bowl over the pan and add the eggs and sugar; mix well and continue to stir until the egg mix begins to tighten up. Gradually whisk in the milk (whisk constantly to prevent the eggs from actually coming out like scrambled eggs, and don't be afraid to lift the bowel off of the pan, if need be), the vanilla and the nutmeg. Continue to gently whisk as the mixture heats and thickens. Take care not to let the mixture boil, and also, take care not to let it thicken to pudding status (custard), but you can add a little more milk to thin it out, if needed. When the mixture has heated and thickened somewhat, remove it from the heat and gradually fold in all but a couple of tablespoons of the whipped cream. Fill the glasses and top each drink with a little of the remaining whipped cream.   

WORD HISTORY:
Duck (#2)-This is not the word for the bird, but rather a word meaning "sailcloth, sackcloth." It goes back to Indo European "dwok," which meant, "cloth, fabric." This gave West Germanic "dokaz" (see the other Germanic languages below), with the same meaning. I could not find a form in Old English, which seems odd, in that the other West  Germanic languages had forms, but it is possible that the West Germanic form didn't spread to Anglo-Saxon before it left the Continent and became established in Briton as English. It's always possible, too, that an Old English form went unrecorded and that it then died out. Anyway, Dutch had "doec" (now spelled, "doek"), and this was borrowed by English circa 1600. The other Germanic languages have: German "Tuch" (cloth, fabric, towel, neckerchief), Low German Saxon "Dook" (cloth, fabric, woven material), Dutch "doek" (cloth, rag, canvas, sail), some Frisian dialect has "douk" (cloth) and West Frisian has "doek," but that "might be" from Dutch, although Frisian once had "dok." It "seems" the North Germanic languages, initially represented by Old Norse, borrowed a form of the word from Low German or German, as "dukr," meaning, "cloth, curtain, veil, sail," which was passed down to Icelandic as "dúkur," meaning, "fabric, cloth," and to Swedish as "duker," but it "seems" Swedish later borrowed from Low German a form rendered as "duk" (cloth, then tablecloth). and perhaps the same is true of Danish "dug" (canvas, cloth, later tablecloth and cloth material for a banner), as well as Norwegian "duk" (cloth, canvas, later tablecloth and cloth used in religious ceremony).   

German Egg Grog: Eiergrog

The German North Sea coast is the ancestral homeland of the Germanic tribes that sailed to Briton 1500 years ago and founded England. To this day the English and the Germans of the area share more than their DNA and the common Germanic source of their languages,* as they also share a good deal of weather, as well as food and beverage similarities. Like their English cousins, these northern Germans like tea, although I'm sure this isn't some shared genetic trait, but rather more a fact of shared cool, damp weather conditions in many parts of both northern Germany and parts of England, as well as the fact that tea drinking has become quite a tradition among these North Sea cousins. The Germans in this area of the north use rock candy (called "Kluntje" in the region) to sweeten their tea. Another shared drink is grog, borrowed by the Germans from the English. The drink is served hot, and it is another tie to weather conditions, as it can take the chill out of a polar bear (German: Eisbär, literally, "ice bear," but they also use "Polarbär"). So the English and the northern Germans share tea and grog, both a type of "drink," which is "Drank" in both Low German and Frisian, and "Getränk" in standard German. This grog has egg yolk and is called "Eiergrog" (the first part is pronounced as if, "eye-ah") in German; that is, "Eggs Grog." **

Ingredients (4 servings):

3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
8 ounces rum (light or dark)
8 ounces hot water (you can adjust the amount of rum and water)

If you have a stainless steel bowl that will fit over a pan of hot water, that is ideal for this. Heat the water in the pan. Meanwhile, heat some more water to be added to the mixture. Mix the egg yolks and sugar and set the bowl over the hot water. Stirring constantly, gradually add the rum, then the hot water. Don't let the eggs curdle, and pull the bowl off of the hot water if need be to prevent curdling. Keep stirring (whisking is best) until you get some froth to the rum mixture. Serve the grog in glasses and stir again to keep the froth. If desired, dust each glass of grog with a bit of nutmeg or mace.  

* The Germans of the area often grow up bilingual, speaking Low German and standard German, and some even grow up multilingual, speaking Frisian, or even Danish.

** English long had "ei/ey/eai" (dialectal variances all pronounced essentially like "eye") as its word for "egg," with "egg" being a close relative of the former word, but brought to northern England long ago by the Danes, who spoke Old Norse, a Germanic cousin of English from the North Germanic branch of Germanic. "Egg" eventually won the battle, but not until the 16th Century. If my memory is right, some linguists have speculated that the "eye" pronunciation of the long time English word may have aided "egg" as a replacement, because of the same pronunciation for the "eye," the organ of sight.  

WORD HISTORY:
Grog-This word goes back to the nickname for Edward Vernon, an English admiral of the mid 1700s, who often commanded ships in the West Indies, famous for its rum. He was called "Old Grog" for his grogram coat. Grogram was a fabric of strong, but coarse material. The admiral gave orders that the rum for his men was to be watered down, thus providing the basis for the drink of rum with water added. The drink also often had lemon added as a preventive measure for scurvy on ships. I've read somewhere, but I cannot now recall where, that the admiral's "water down the rum" order was met by the talk of mutiny. George Washington's brother served under Vernon, and it is for this reason the Washington estate came to be called Mount Vernon (the admiral died well before the American Revolution). "Groggy" came from the idea of being under the influence of too much grog, although later the term broadened in meaning to any condition of not being clear in mind, regardless of alcohol intake.  

Spiked North German Coffee: Pharisäer

As the story goes, this drink started circa 1870 as a way for some Lutheran parishioners on one of the North Frisian islands to fool their devout, anti-alcohol pastor. North Frisia, "Nordfriesland," in standard German, is located on the eastern edge of the North Sea, just below the border with Denmark.* The region is battered by the winds and the waves from the North Sea, making alcoholic beverages a part of life for the people there, as they try to take the chill off of the often windy, damp weather. The pastor fervently tried to reform his alcohol drinking flock, holding regular religious meetings in a pub, where only coffee would be served to attendees. To get around the "coffee only" meetings, the men of this North Frisian island added rum to their coffee, then topped the cup with whipped cream to hold down the smell of the rum from the pastor's nose. At some point, the pastor got a whiff of the rum and shouted, "Ihr Pharisäer!" ("You Pharisees!") This biblical reference gave the name to the drink, "Pharisäer." (Pronounced as if, "far-ee-zay-ah")

Ingredients (per cup):

6 oz. strong hot coffee
3/4 oz. rum
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
whipped cream

Pour the coffee into a cup, add the sugar and stir, then add the rum. Top with a thick layer of whipped cream. (The amount of sugar can be adjusted as you like.)

* The boundaries of what has been called "North Frisia" have changed somewhat into modern times, although the basic area is the same. North Frisian, a dialect of a general Frisian language, another West Germanic language, has a long history in the region, but Low German Saxon has also been present in the general area going well back in history, and it gradually lessened the number of North Frisian speakers, although a number of North Frisians speak both North Frisian and Low German. In modern times, standard German, based upon High German dialect (technically, "middle high"), has been taught in schools and is spoken and understood by everyone, so many North Frisians are, therefore, tri-lingual, and some few even speak a fourth language, Danish, or Danish dialect. The overall Frisian language is often mentioned as the closest living language to English, with Low German also being very close, but this is not all that surprising, as Frisian, more especially the North and East Frisian dialects, and Low German Saxon, occupy the area of the ancestral homeland of English, the land of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes (see note below). The Angles seem to have totally picked up and sailed to Britain, along with a large contingent, but not all, Saxons and Jutes, and also many Frisians, where these Germanic people founded England, and where their dialects melded into English. (NOTE: The Jutes have long been seen as a distinct Germanic tribe, but some historians have thought them to be a part of a broader "Saxon" Germanic tribe, or at least affiliated with a Saxon-led confederation of Germanic tribes.)

WORD HISTORY:
North-This word, for one of the directions of the compass, "likely" goes back to Indo European "ner/nert," which meant "left." This then gave Old Germanic "nurtha," meaning "north," with the idea being that when facing the rising sun to the east, north is the direction to the left. This gave Old English "norþ," with essentially the "þ" symbol being the modern equivalent of "(e)th," and indeed, as English and the other Germanic languages adopted the Latin alphabet, the spelling became "north." The other Germanic languages have: German "Nord," Low German Saxon "Noord," West Frisian "noard," Dutch "noord," Danish and Norwegian "nord," Swedish "norr," and Icelandic "norður" (equivalent to "northur"). A special note, Old French borrowed the word from English as "north" (modern French "nord"), and Italian (nord), Rumanian (nord), Spanish (norte) and Portuguese (norte) all borrowed their forms from French, making English the common source.