Those of you who know the bartenders of this blog will know we all share two things in common: An unending passion for cocktails, and a somewhat unhealthy love for Rum. To that end, for my first outing on the Corpse & Cocktail, I decided I would pay homage to the glorious spirit by going back to the original drinks it made.
Now we all know Pirates drank Grog right?
Wrong. In reality, it was the conscripted sailors of the royal navy who quaffed Grog. The reason for this was that they would spend longer at sea than your average pirate or privateer. This meant that they wouldn’t have access to fresh fruit, vegetables and sugars which would in turn lead to scurvy. Navy Grog was simply watered down rum, and if you were lucky you might get a lime to go with your Grog, to fend off the scurvy.
People often speak of Grog, but in the days of Pirates, Bumbo (or Bombo / Bumboo) was the better drink. Bumbo was a better version of Grog because, lets face it, pirates plundered all the good stuff from villages and merchant ships. Also, to give pirates a little bit of credit, they were better at living off the land than the conscripted sailors, who rarely got shore leave.
Bumbo is a simple drink, with its key components being rum, water, sugar and nutmeg. Bumbo, however, gets better depending on the resources at hand. It can obviously incorporate limes but for the most part were not included. Fruit juices can also be added. Think tropical fruits in the Caribbean. In essence, if you think about it, pirates may very well have been the first people to drink “girly drinks”. Jack Sparrow does wear guy-liner, so it may not be that far from the truth.
If you stick to the traditional recipe, however, a mug of Bumbo would basically be a spicy rum cocktail. Cinnamon was often added, along with the nutmeg, to make the drink taste better. It seems almost Christmas-punch-like: we have the strong, the weak, the sweet, the spice…add some sour and you’re there. In my research, I couldn’t quite find a proportional recipe from the time, so it was more likely to be to each person’s taste.
Jody’s Bumbo Recipe - this is a basic one, but have fun and experiment with it.
-50ml Amber Rum (use something from the Caribbean please, we strive for authenticity - I used Pyrat)
-25ml Chilled Water – I shook some water in an ice filled shaker to get it chilled enough.
-1 Sugar Cube (brown or cane sugar)
-Sprinkle of Cinnamon
-Sprinkle of grated Nutmeg
-Friends of mine tried a dash of Masters Of Malt Christmas bitters and they found this rounded the flavour off well.
1. Grab a mug or Old Fashioned glass.
2. Combine all ingredients
3. Muddle/crush sugar cube and stir.
4. Consume.
It’s as easy as that.
Bumbo doesn’t take ice so it is served only slightly cooled. But if you want you can add ice, the modern preference being for drinks to contain ice. Additional things that would have been added to Bumbo include coconut water, any tropical fruit juice, or of course… more rum! A bartender…er…I mean pirate can never have too much rum.
Interestingly enough, Bumbo was commonly used during election campaigns in colonial British America. In fact it was used to the extent that treating voters to gifts and other freebies during election campaigns was referred to as "swilling the planters with Bumbo". George Washington himself was particularly noted for using this technique:
A 24 year old George Washington first ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, he attributed his defeat to his failure to provide enough alcohol for the voters. When he tried again two years later, Washington secured his appointment to office partly on the rum, punch, hard cider and beer his election agents handed out. A little under half a gallon was issued for every vote he received. His papers state that he used 160 gallons of rum to treat 391 voters to Bumbo during campaigning for the Virginia House of Burgesses in July 1758.
Just goes to show that Politicians really are just like pirates!
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