A dark day
in Britain's seafaring history, today marks the anniversary of the day that the
Royal Navy finally removed from each rating's ration their daily dose of
rum. What had started as a privilege for
sailors serving their country in the 1600s ended on 31 July 1970. Across the country, sailors buried their tots
at sea, held mock funeral processions and wore black armbands.
No, really. They even issued a commemorative postage
cover and everything.
One of my
favourite, most basic, and satisfying sundowners for a hot day is has got to be
gold rum and soda (mixed 1:3) with squeezed wedges of fresh lime. Long, refreshing and dry. It's also what Daniel Craig's Bond drinks in
Casino Royale (the bit where he wins the Aston Martin),
so it's got some street cred, right?
But for
Black Tot day I think we all really ought to be drinking rum punches. There's something quintessentially British about
the punch, in a way, harking as it does from expats and colonialists drinking
this strange, harsh spirit on stifling Caribbean beaches.
I had a
little think as to what ought to go into a rum punch. This is a highly controversial topic, trust
me. One school of thought is to simply use
concentrated tins of 'tropical punch' fruit juice. I don’t think I need to express my thoughts
on that. Others argue that you throw
everything tropical into it: pineapples, mangoes, coconut, etc. and then just
add rum. This usually produces the kind
sickly sweet combo that comes adorned with an umbrella and a jungle of fruit you
expect to find an orangutan in (see Lock Stock…).
I had a
little think back to the closest I've ever got to the Caribbean – Belize, a
country whose largest export is citrus. Thinking
further, throughout the 'Caribbean mainland', citrus fruits – oranges and limes
especially – are big business. Further
arguing in favour of the use of citrus, as opposed to pineapples etc., is the
fact that Royal Navy ratings would have drunk their rum watered down with lime
juice, apparently to ward of scurvy.
So here's my
recipe for Black Tot Day Rum Punch:
x1 Orange
x1 Limex2 Lemons
x3 Passion Fruits
Caster Sugar
Gold Rum (I chose Barbancourt Rhum from Haiti, available from The Whiskey Exchange, but really any unspiced dark gold or gold rum will do.)
By the way: Oranges? Yes, oranges. Particularly good for preventing scurvy, it turns out - Scottish naval medic James Lind conducted the world's first ever clinical trial, using oranges and lemons, not (as more commonly thought) limes, to cure scurvy .
1. Squeeze the fruits into a nice big bowl. All of them. Even the passion fruits, which you might have to more scoop than squeeze.
2. Give it a good mix, or even a whisk (with a hand whisker, dummy). You're trying to get all the pulp off the passion fruit seeds.
3. Strain that thing. Strain it good. Through a fine sieve. I actually strained it twice, to make sure. Rub the seeds around the sieve as well to try to part with as much of the passion fruit pulp as possible.
4. Add sugar and dissolve to taste: it should be still just a little tart still, as you're going to add a sweet liquor. Also add a small glass of water, again adding to taste so that the juice retains its strong, punchy flavours without being overpowering. You'll want to be able to taste the rum.
2. Give it a good mix, or even a whisk (with a hand whisker, dummy). You're trying to get all the pulp off the passion fruit seeds.
3. Strain that thing. Strain it good. Through a fine sieve. I actually strained it twice, to make sure. Rub the seeds around the sieve as well to try to part with as much of the passion fruit pulp as possible.
4. Add sugar and dissolve to taste: it should be still just a little tart still, as you're going to add a sweet liquor. Also add a small glass of water, again adding to taste so that the juice retains its strong, punchy flavours without being overpowering. You'll want to be able to taste the rum.
5. Chill. Either stick
the juice in the fridge overnight, or if you can't wait for that, add lots
of ice to the bowl and stir. If
you're doing it this way, you may want to add the water from step 2
afterwards, to make sure the juice isn't over-dilluted.
6. Add plenty of ice to a glass – don't scrimp on this, as
too little ice will just leave you with a weak, warm, diluted drink, as
the ice will melt more quickly. Mix
the juice with the rum in a 2:1 ratio – you want this to be quite
powerful.
7. Go sit on the veranda of your plantation / deck of your warship and imbibe slowly, looking out at the sunset and dreaming of better times (ie. pre 31 July 1970).
- GrubsterBoy -
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