According to Frederico D.B. Wondrich, our consulting professor of potables, the recipe for what we now know as the Margarita appears in 1937 in a hard-to-find British cocktail-recipe book, under a name which spoke more of Andalusia and Hemingway than of Mexico and shakers of salt.
What romantic Spanish figure is invoked in the Margarita's original monicker?
Bonus Points: What lesser-known drink (based on quite similar ingredients) is named after a Pulitzer-winning novel?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a copy of The Seagram's Bartending Guide, bequeathed to me by a thoughtful liquor-marketing executive after a surreal month temping for the people who brought you "The Captain Was Here."
Wow- first out of the blocks, and I'll guess Don Quixote, though he really doesn't have anything to do with Hemingway. I can't think of any other romantic Spanish figures right now.
For the bonus question, I'll say "Tequila Mockingbird," which is, at the very least, kind of funny.
Posted by: scott on August 9, 2002 11:34 AMI'm guessing the Toreador, romantic slayer of bulls and figure of Hemingwayesque rapture.
Posted by: KF on August 9, 2002 11:44 AMScott picks up the Bonus question (the drink sounds nasty -- who wants Creme de Menthe in their tequila?) but misses the mark on the main event. More I refuse to divulge at this point.
Posted by: BT on August 9, 2002 11:49 AMmiguel de unamuno?
Posted by: mlang on August 9, 2002 12:02 PMmiguel esteves cardoso?
Posted by: mlang on August 9, 2002 12:02 PMThe Don Juan?
Posted by: scott on August 9, 2002 12:28 PMThere have been both hot and cold guesses in the preceding sequence.
Posted by: BT on August 9, 2002 01:07 PMPlease to forgive a pun in a tongue that i barely know, but it's just so damn obvious:
Sainta Margarita des los esp’ritus santos!
But seriously, was it Salvador Dali? Too many margaritas will make your watches droopy, tis veridada!
You miss one episode of "Sabado Gigante," and suddenly you can't remember your romantic Spanish figures.
Does an author count as a roamtic figure?
Cervantes.
Posted by: boxjam on August 9, 2002 03:01 PMThink not so much historical personages as occupations, roles. And one of you has already come within striking distance of the answer.
Posted by: BT on August 9, 2002 03:26 PMMatador?
Posted by: scott on August 9, 2002 03:28 PMAnd Boxjam, perhaps you can catch up on what you've been missing here.
Posted by: BT on August 9, 2002 03:29 PMWindmill tilter?
Posted by: boxjam on August 9, 2002 03:32 PMEl Cid?
Posted by: bootsy on August 9, 2002 03:34 PMgeorge orwell?
or is it the 'international brigade' as a whole?
Posted by: mlang on August 9, 2002 03:44 PMMartin, you're on the wrong track, but I'd love to see the cocktail recipe for the "George Orwell" -- although now that I think about it, I'm sure some Yob of a bartender has already peddled a shooter called "Big Brother."
Posted by: BT on August 9, 2002 03:57 PMThe Lothario?
Posted by: KF on August 9, 2002 04:03 PMEl caballero?
Posted by: scott on August 9, 2002 04:37 PMBetter yet, the Picador, which is a fine drink name if I ever heard one. Especially for a beverage which is a piquant.
Even if this isn't the right answer, it ought to be.
Posted by: scott on August 9, 2002 04:46 PMi think scott's got it. but i'm going to try ordering a 'windmill tilter' next opportunity i get. that sounds like a drink that leaves its imbiber in dire straits.
Posted by: mlang on August 9, 2002 04:55 PMThe Picador it is! And fitting that the man who got the bonus question should eventually come through with the right answer. Well played, amigo.
Posted by: BT on August 9, 2002 11:27 PMi still would like to have an "Archbishop"--and why does the Friday quiz always happen on Saturday?
Posted by: art on August 11, 2002 06:59 PM