Hotel Nacional
From The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
was the house drink at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Havana’s grandest luxury resort when it opened in 1930. In his 1936 book The Barman’s Mentor, veteran Prohibition-era Havana bartender Eddie Woelke claimed authorship of what he simply called the “Nacional.” His recipe was 1/2 jigger each white rum and pineapple juice plus 2 dashes each lime juice and apricot brandy, shaken with ice and strained into a coupe. In 1939, mixographer Charles Baker referred to the same drink in his While the drink, a pleasant and refreshing one, is not seen often in modern bars, it is sometimes found in tiki bars and bars with a tropical cast. *Recipe: Shake with ice 45 ml white rum, 45 ml pineapple juice (fresh or canned), 7 ml fresh lime juice, and 7 ml apricot brandy. Strain into cocktail glass and add cherry. See also Baker, Charles Henry, Jr. Baker, Charles. The Gentleman’s Companion. 1939; repr. New York: Crown. Woelke, Eddie, and Stafford Brothers. The Barman’s Mentor*. New York: Stafford Brothers, 1936. By: Jeff Berry
This definition is from The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich (Editor-in-Chief) and Noah Rothbaum (Associate Editor).