Air Mail

classic cocktail

Apr 13

People have benefitted from long distance deliveries for centuries. What we might think of as “air mail” can be traced back 3000 years to the Egyptians, who were the first on record to use pigeons as message carriers between cities. Fast forward to about one hundred years ago, when the introduction of the airplane led to what we typically think of as air mail. An airplane was first used “officially” in 1911 to send letters across India, and then the US. The first official air mail route, from New York to Washington, D.C., occurred here in 1918. It seems inevitable (from my point of view) that a cocktail called the “Air Mail” appeared soon after, printed inside a promotional pamphlet titled Bacardi and Its Many Uses, 1930. The drink gained greater popularity over the next decade or so, appearing notably in a rather unusual cocktail book by W.C. Whitfield titled Here’s How, 1941, which was bound between wooden covers. I have a vintage copy of it thanks to a generous friend who thought I might have better use of it.

I’m celebrating this amazing mail call, which after all came to me from Belgium, with an Air Mail cocktail. Along with the rum, the drink includes lime juice and sugar, in the form of honey syrup. At this point the drink is simply a honey daiquiri, which should already have your attention. Top any drink off with champagne and you’ve technically given it the “royal” treatment, so we have a “daiquiri royale”. Audrey Saunders, the New York cocktail luminary from the nineties, created a modern classic along these lines using aged rum and adding mint, which is called the “Old Cuban” and remains one of my favorite cocktails ever. The original Air Mail is a lighter version, served more like a highball, and as the name implies, it delivers the goods. Here’s to receiving something nice – cheers!