This is according to the dining section of this week’s New York Times. Some excerpts from the article:
“You’d be hard pressed to find a barman who takes his work seriously who works in a joint with a blender,” said Duggan McDonnell, an owner of the bar Cantina in San Francisco. “I worked in one restaurant that did blender drinks and I’m telling you — the noise, the whirring, you’re going through blades in the middle of service, and craziness abounds.”
…So it’s something of a shock that a couple of bars are lugging the machine back up the stairs again, dusting it off and even giving it a place of honor.
…We loved them in the ’30s and ’40s, when the Waring blender washed ashore in Havana and was adopted by Constante Ribalagua, head barman at the Floridita. According to legend, Ribalagua made more than 10 million daiquiris. There is dispute about his precise technique, but for many drinks he seems to have used the blender almost as a cocktail shaker, pulsing the ingredients just long enough to chill them, but not so long as to turn the drink to slush.
He was known for filtering out even the tiniest shards of ice with a fine mesh sieve, [FD: Doesn't this sound like something those obsessive compulsive types over at Teardrop would do?] and for the grapefruit-and-maraschino-liqueur daiquiri he served Hemingway. But Ribalagua had five versions of that cocktail, all worth a second look, particularly the Daiquiri No. 2, with its hint of oranges.
This is an interesting article, and includes several recipes, one called a “Spiced Colada” that is full of bitters, and a “Daiquiri #2“, which I will try tomorrow when the temperature goes above 80 degrees. They also have the recipe for one that has to be on the list of top best cocktail names, the “Missonary’s Downfall.”
