Rum Historian by Marco Pierini
History of Cuban Rum
17. Ice In A Hot Country
“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that remote afternoon when his father had taken him to know the ice. ... So much had he insisted that José Arcadio Buendía had paid the thirty reales and led them to the center of the tent where there was a giant with a hairy torso and shaved head, with a copper ring on the nose and a heavy iron chain around the ankle, guarding a pirate chest. When uncovered by the giant, the chest let out a glacial breath. Inside there was only a huge transparent block with infinite internal needles which were shattered into colored stars the clarity of twilight. Bewildered, knowing that the children expected an immediate explanation, José Arcadio Buendía dared to murmur:
-"It is the largest diamond in the world.
-No -corrected the gypsy -It is Ice”
This is the wonderful incipit of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Marquez, and it gives the idea of the wonder felt by an inhabitant of warm climates, in this case a village in Colombia, the first time he meets ice.
Today we are so used to having ice available at all times, in abundance and at a small cost, that it is difficult to understand what a luxury it was to have ice in the past. For centuries the pleasure of drinking a cool drink in a warm climate was reserved for the rich and powerful few because ice came from afar, had to be transported carefully and laboriously, and then had to be stored carefully so that it did not melt immediately. Younger readers will be amazed, but the presence of a refrigerator in every home is a recent fact. In my country, Italy, and I think all over Europe, more or less since the 1960s. And I am old enough to remember when, as a child, my uncle used to take me to buy an ice sheet, which we then put into the “icebox” of the house and which served the whole family for days. Anyway, the history of using ice to cool drinks is ancient and complex. It deserves a serious study that goes beyond my strength and also beyond my current research. So, I’ll just try to sort out the information I have found on Wikipedia and other general web sites.
Before mechanical refrigeration systems were introduced, ancient peoples, including the Greeks and Romans, cooled their food with ice transported from the mountains. Wealthy families made use of snow cellars, pits that were dug into the ground and insulated with wood and straw, to store the ice. In this manner, packed snow and ice could be preserved for months. Stored ice was the principal means of refrigeration until the beginning of the 20th century, and it is still used in some areas.
According to Wikipedia, in modern times commercial export of natural ice began in 1805, from Boston to the south of the US, the Caribbean and Cuba. Later, with the arrival of steamships, ice could be transported even further. But the date offered by Wikipedia does not convince me because in the course of my studies on Cuba I found an interesting source dating a few years earlier. Here it is.
Francisco de Arango y Parreño, the great intellectual and leader of the Cuban Sugar Barons, in the year 1801 wrote for the Real Consulado (more or less, Royal Council) an “Informe sobre la introducción del hielo” (Report on the introduction of ice). In this short work, Arango y Parreño wrote: “If it is true, as very reliable people say, that the town of Charleston receives from New York most of the ice it consumes, it is clear that there is no problem from the same place or closer ones to transport to Havana the ice we need, and it is only necessary in such a case that, as is done everywhere, some wells are built here where the ice can be properly kept and preserved.”
On 15 October 1801, the Governor replied “having been informed by the Tribunal del Protomedicato (the Medical Authority) that cold drinks cannot harm public health if used with moderation and at proportionate hours, as well as being useful for medicinal use for diseases originating from rarefaction and blood collimation [I have no idea what those are], which are so common in hot climates - it was agreed that the Royal Council would make just one test of this experiment, driving the ice from the most immediate place where it existed, whether national or neutral, so that, according to its result, the most suitable providence could henceforth be taken.”
The decision in Cuba in 1801 was therefore an experiment of which I do not know the sequel, while a Frederic Tudor was maybe the first to capitalize on this new commodity by harvesting ice in New England and shipping it to the southern states as well as the Caribbean islands. At the beginning, Tudor lost thousands of dollars, but eventually turned a profit as he constructed icehouses in Charleston, Virginia and in the Cuban port town of Havana. These icehouses, as well as bet-ter insulated ships, helped to reduce ice wastage and Tudor expanded his ice market to other towns with icehouses, such as New Orleans and Savannah. Tu-dor’s success inspired others to get involved in the ice trade and the ice industry grew. So, by the early 1830s, in the US ice became a mass-market, cheap, com-modity. In New York City, ice consumption increased from 12,000 tons in 1843 to 100,000 tons in 1856. But remember that it was still natural ice, collected in winter and then stored and transported.
The history of artificially produced ice began sometime later. According to the web search results, the first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by a William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748. Cullen let ethyl ether boil into a partial vacuum; he did not, however, use the result to any practical purpose. It seems that the first machines for making ice commercially appeared in the mid-1800s and in the second half of the century spread to all major cities. Some also appeared in bars. On this we have a reliable testimony. Samuel Hazard made his trip to Cuba in the middle of the 1860s and in his fascinating I, published in 1870, which I have repeatedly quoted, wrote:
“Life, it would be supposed, would be almost insupportable in a climate like that of Cuba without plenty of ice; and fortunately, in Havana and the principal towns of the island there is no lack of it, costing from two to three cents per pound according to the supply; but it was only in 1806 that ice was introduced into the island. At the Louvre café they have a most ingenious way of making it, which must be much more economical than buying it and wasting, as is done with us. The decanters are filled with water, which by some process is then frozen in the bottle, forming a solid lozenge-shaped lump of ice, the which, when you ask for ice-water, is brought to you partially melted. You use what is wanted, and it is then taken away, refilled, and refrozen.”
As we know (See the article SUGAR, RACE AND GROWTH In the December 2022 issue) Cuban economy and society in the 1800s were extremely advanced, but this small bar machine described by Hazard was a rarity. In fact, to make ice you needed big and expensive equipment, so for decades, Cuban bars bought ice from companies specialized in its production.
As I have already said several times, often the best historical sources are those that are such unwittingly. Here’s another famous example: “You know how it is there early in the morning in Havana with the bums still asleep against the walls of the buildings; before even the ice wagon comes by with ice for the bars?”
No, sadly I don’t know, I never knew and I’ll never know, because that Havana doesn’t exist anymore. But beyond the nostalgia for a disappeared world, this wonderful incipit with which Ernest Hemingway begins his “To have and have not”, published in 1937, (which, truth be told, after this beginning, I did not like very much) tells us that still in the 1930s, the bars in Havana did not have ice machines, but they bought the ice they consumed from specialized firms.
The arrival of ice had a huge impact on rum consumption, especially of Cuban rum. It was lighter, with few congeners, more drinkable and versatile, and perfect for cocktails. This new kind of rum, which was born and flourished alongside the large-scale spread of ice, mixed well with almost everything.
I am not an expert in cocktails, but between 1800 and 1900, between the War of In-dependence and the American military occupation, the great, classic Cuban cocktails were born: Daiquiri, Mojito and Cuba Libre. There are many stories about the origin of these famous, long-lasting Cuban cocktails, and all, it seems to me, have to do with the presence of American technicians and soldiers on the island in the years around 1900, between the beginning of the Second War of Independence and the first years of the new republic. This is not surprising, because Americans’ pas-sion for cocktails is ancient, dating back to the colonial era (see my article BEFORE JERRY THOMAS in the April 2016 issue). Then came Jerry Thomas. For his pioneering work in the popularization of cocktails he is considered the father of the art of mixing American cocktails; in addition to writing the first recipe book on cocktails in 1862, the creativity and spectacularity of his work defined the image of the barman as a creative professional. With him, mixology became fashionable, and it has remained so until today.
At this point I have to make a confession: I don’t like cocktails very much. From time to time, I like to drink a good Daiquiri, especially in the warm summer days of my country, on the beach, preferably after (and not before) a good seafood meal. And, more rarely, a T- Punch as an aperitif. But nothing more than that.
Not only do I not drink cocktails, I do not feel their charm, neither of the product itself, nor of the many stories around them. Moreover, in so much modern mixology I see an excess of research, with cocktails that seem to me to be meant to amaze, rather than to please; to be seen, rather than drunk. As if the bartender should be appreciated for his art in itself, for his imagination, creativity etc. rather than for the quality of the cocktail produced. And often, I’m sorry, but I have to say it, I’ve seen famous bartenders make very complicated (and, of course, very expensive) cocktails, using low quality, cheap, rum as alcoholic base. In short, the cocktail world is not my cup of tea. And since I like to do research and write about what interests me, I won’t write much about cocktails in my articles. But never fear, the world is full of good books dedicated to cocktails. Among the many, specifically referring to Cuba, I would recommend the book by Jared Brown and Anistasia Miller “Spirit of the Cane. The Story of Cuban Rum” 2017, and “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails” by Wayne Curtis of which I have read the 2006 edition.
In conclusion, Cuban rum owes an important part of its success to ice. Later, with the help of Prohibition in the US and tourism, Ron Lígero and cocktails were among the fundamental components in the construction of the myth of Havana and of all Cuba, seen by many Americans (and not only) as a true Pleasure Island. We will get back to that.In addition, Cuban light rum also represented a model and similar rums began to be produced in many other Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America (but not in Brazil), creating what many call Spanish Style Rum, which today includes some of the most successful premium rums in the world.
Marco Pierini
