Queen's Park Swizzle
Ingredients
- 8 fresh Mint leaves
- 2 oz Light gold rum
- 3⁄4 oz Lime juice
- 1⁄2 oz Demerara/Muscovado/brown sugar syrup
- 2 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters
Method
Glassware:
Serve in a Collins glass
Prepare:
- Select and pre-chill a COLLINS GLASS.
- Prepare garnish of lime wedge and mint sprigs.
Method:
- Gently MUDDLE mint in base of shaker (just to bruise).
- Use a bar spoon to raise the bruised mint up and around the inside of the glass to coat with fragrant mint oils.
- Add other ingredients.
- Two-thirds fill glass with crushed ice and SWIZZLE.
- Fill glass with more crushed ice and briefly CHURN.
Garnish:
- Garnish with lime wedge and mint sprigs bouquet.
- Serve with a straw.
History:
Created at the Queen's Park Hotel, Port of Spain, Trinidad. The hotel opened on the 15th of January 1895 and it is likely that this cocktail emanated soon after. This luxury hotel was a fashionable stop for Hollywood types and well-heeled vacationers who spread the legend of its tall swizzled signature cocktail. The hotel was also famed for its Queen's Park Hotel Super Cocktail.
In this 1946, Trader Vics Book of Food and Drink, Victor Bergeron describes the Queen Park Swizzle as "the most delightful form of anesthesia given out today." A year later he also includes this swizzle in his Bartender's Guide By Trader Vic, adding, in the 1972 revised edition, "If you like to make and drink a real doozer of a rum drink that really is a rum drink, try this. It's from the Queen's Park Hotel in Trinidad."
Review:
This close relation to the Mojito is drier, more complex and tad less minty than its sibling. Some like to finish this cocktail with a hefty dose of bitters to colour the crushed ice atop the cocktail but as Martin Cate says in his 2016 book Smuggler's Cove, "even though the bitters look pretty when floated on top, the drink tastes much better when they are swizzled with the rest of the ingredients." Two dashes integrated with the other ingredients is plenty.
