Just a few blocks from the mouth of the Río Ozama, at Parque Colón in Santo Domingo’s Zona Colonial, youngsters play beneath the canopies of sprawling oak bushes, and oldsters chatter at small tables exterior the bordering eating places and cafés. From lunchtime by way of sundown and effectively into the night time, waitstaff replenish their tables with buckets of ice, liters of 7UP and bottles of Brugal Añejo rum, the makings of the Santo Libre.
The prevailing principle is that the Santo Libre is a play on the Cuba Libre, or Rum and Coke, due to the same identify and the distinction of merely one ingredient. Bartender Darnell Holguin, who grew up between the Bronx and Santo Domingo, nonetheless, says, “None of us ever known as it that, it was simply Brugal y 7UP or ron y 7UP.” He suspects that resorts branded the drink to grab on the recognition of the Cuba Libre. “The Santo Libre is way older than its identify,” says Holguin, who known as a number of relations earlier than our interview; all of them concurred.
The identify could be new, however the Santo Libre combines a trio of flavors which have anchored combined drinks for over 400 years: sugar, rum and lime. In January 1586, Sir Francis Drake was in Santo Domingo for a month, as a part of his plundering mission of the West Indies’ main Spanish ports. Alongside the best way, to fight the crew falling in poor health, they developed El Draque, or Drac Punch. It mixed sugarcane, which Columbus had not too long ago taken from Africa; rum, made out of that sugarcane; and lime juice, to fight scurvy. Different medicinal botanicals, whose worth the Spanish had discovered from the native Taínos, had been additionally a part of the method: Chuchuhuasi bark eased ache, and mint aided digestion. Whereas medicinal tinctures had existed lengthy earlier than, many think about El Draque the primary cocktail; it’s potential Drake took a swig proper there in Parque Colón, the place colonial Santo Domingo held festivals.
It turned out that, other than serving to with sickness, rum with lime and sugar is refreshing and scrumptious, and makes for time. Related cocktails similar to grog, the Daiquiri, the Mojito and lots of extra carry El Draque’s legacy. The common-or-garden Santo Libre could be the simplest, quickest-to-mix expression of that method to this point, and mixed with the carbonated punch of soda, it’s a crowd-pleaser.
“Historically,” says Holguin, “it’s made with Brugal or, within the outdated days, Bermudez. The potent lime taste of 7UP, greater than Sprite, performs higher with the oak notes in aged rum. It was the drink that made me fall in love with rum.”
He’s not alone in his affection for the straightforward concoction. “All summer time, within the harsh warmth, my mother stations herself at a desk exterior Cafetería el Conde, proper on the park, with a bucket of ice, a liter of 7UP and a 375-milliliter bottle of Brugal Añejo,” Holguin says. “She refills her cup and the cups of family and friends who cease by.” The drink—made with the Dominican Republic’s comparatively much less potent rum (38 % ABV in comparison with 40 % ABV within the U.S.)—and the ocean breeze maintain her cool.
An analogous scene performs out in entrance of colmados (nook grocery shops) in smaller neighborhoods all through the town. The colmados promote “jumbos” (40-ounce bottles) of Presidente beer, luggage or buckets of ice, bottles of Brugal and 7UP. Holguin says, “Somebody will say, ‘Vamos a hacer un coro’ and folks collect on the colmado’s plastic tables to relax or play dominoes.” Every particular person makes their very own drink after which passes the components to the following particular person. All people pours into little white plastic cups. “It’s just like how individuals drink rum at bodegas all through the West Indies,” Holguin describes. “The gang can simply develop from three to 10 or extra individuals.”
Although Bacardí claims that the Cuba Libre is the world’s hottest drink—I don’t understand how they observe the information, however the storm drains of Myrtle Seashore would in all probability comprise sufficient hint proof—for Dominicans all through the Dominican Republic, and as far north because the Bronx, the place Holguin’s mother nonetheless retains mini cans of 7UP available, the preferred drink is Brugal and rum, or if we should, the Santo Libre. Maybe this summer time, the remainder of the world will catch on.
