Liquor Ads From the August 25, 1954 Edition of the New York Times

I was doing some research for the passing of the Communist Control Act (for my HistorySisco Tumblr page) by looking through the August 25, 1954 issue of the New York Times and came across a few liquor ads. Now if you're followed my blog in the past, you'll know that I like to post old ads that I come across and the three that I will highlight today are of brands that I have never heard of. Here are the three ads that I found:

The first ad is interesting to me. Its for a Jamaican Rum brand called Dagger and it advertises the cocktail which is made with Dagger called Cloke & Dagger. I like how the Collins glass has eyes and daggers floating around.

Dagger Jamaica Rum was produced by J. Wray & Nephew Limited and came in four varieties: One Dagger (5-years), Two Dagger (6-years), the Dagger Punch (8-years) and Three Dagger (10-years) rums. The article Jamaica's Changing Rum Market by Richard Browne from the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper dated June 13, 2014 states that the rums went out in the 1950s.

The rum was found on the menu in such places as Mocambo Miami Beach from 1947 and as part of a Altman Plum Pudding Served With Hoemshel Hard Sauce And Flambeed In Three Dagger Rum from the Waldorf Astoria Christmas Tasting hosted by the Wine and Food Society of New York, Inc on December 8, 1947.

An ad from Life Magazine December 28, 1936 has the following description of the Dagger Rum brand:

YO HO!!!...make way for a robust drink-Jamaican Rum. Once the boast of buccaneers, now the toast of bon vivants. And the proudest name in rum is Dagger Rum, famed for 111 years for its aromatic fragrance, its softness and its flavour. 

Dagger Jamaican Rum is made by the oldest and largest Rum house in the British West Indies. It is popular wherever a truly fine rum is appreciated...as a liqueur, as a mixer, as an indispensable touch in holiday puddings, pies and desserts.

The post Dagger Rums: a former J.Wray & Nephew Rum Line by Bahama Bob has more information on the Dagger Jamaican Rum line.

The second ad is for Old Taylor 86 proof straight bourbon named after famed distiller Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. Colonel Taylor was one of the biggest supporters of the federal Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, which required distillers to state truthfully what was inside the bottle.

Old Taylor was one of the distilleries that were granted a permit to distill medicinal whiskey during Prohibition and is still being Old Taylor is still being produced. The bourbon brand has been owned by such distillers as National Distillers, Jim Beam/Beam Suntory and as of 2009 the Sazerac Company.

The Whiskey ID website has some interesting photos of the Old Taylor bottles throughout the years that you can see here. As of 2015, the original Old Taylor distillery was being renovated and is due to open at some point this year. The article Old Taylor Distillery's owners resurrecting its castle, gardens by Janet Patton of the Lexington Herald Leader dated June 14, 2014 describes the efforts of renovating the old distillery.

The third ad is for Ron Carioca. Carioca is a Puerto Rican Rum that came in White rum (86 proof), Gold Rum (86 proof) and Tropical Heavy Bodied Rums in 90 proof and 151 proof and was produced by La Compania Ron Carioa Destileria, Inc. What I find interesting is that the ad calls for Carioca and Tonic. I can't say that I ever made a rum and tonic, let alone drank a rum and tonic. Guess I'm going to have to pick up some tonic for a future post.

Apparently there was a lawsuit in the United States Court of Claims from 1958 where the Compania Ron Carioa Destileria, Inc. sued the United States in the entitled COMPANIA RON CARIOCA DESTILERIA, Inc. v. UNITED STATES 168 F.Supp. 546 (1958) for taxes paid to the United States deputy collector of internal revenue at San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1946 for spirits that had not been shipped yet. I'll leave it up to you to read up on the case. But at that point, the company was still Puerto Rican owned. This is where I get lost.

If you do a search for Ron Carioca, one of the first links you come across is from the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) that states that Ron Carioca is produced by United Distillers Canada Inc. and is made in Canada. The website DrinksOntario lists Diageo Canada Inc as being the producer of Ron Carioca. So my question is this: is the Ron Carioca brand made in Canada and Puerto Rico?

I'll keep trying to find out. Til I find out some more information, I leave you with this ad from 1960 for Ron Carioca and a recipe for a Carioca Voodoo.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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Vin Mariani: The Foundation for Coca-Cola

In my recent post on the creation of Coca-Cola from my HistorySisco Tumblr page, which occurred on May 8, 1886, I was introduced to a concoction known as Vin Mariani. How does this drink fit in with Coca-Cola? Well, let me tell you how.

In the 1860's, chemist Angelo Mariani came up with a tonic that combined Bordeaux wine and coca leaves, naming it Vin Mariani. The post The history behind the wine from the Vin Mariani vineyard website describes what happened next:

Vin Mariani (French: Mariani's wine) was a tonic created circa 1863 by Angelo Mariani, a chemist who became intrigued with coca and its economic potential after reading Paolo Mantegazza’s paper on coca's effects. In 1863 Mariani started marketing a wine called Vin Mariani which was made from Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves. The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the coca from the coca leaves, altering the drink’s effect. It originally contained 6 mg of coca per fluid ounce of wine, but Vin Mariani which was to be exported contained 7.2 mg per ounce in order to compete with the higher coca content of similar drinks in the United States.

When coca is administered on its own it yields two key active compounds, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester. When combined with alcohol, as in Vin Mariani, the mixture forms a powerful psychoactive: cocaethylene (which is both more euphorigenic and has higher cardiovascular toxicity than coca by itself). 

 Pope Leo XIII purportedly carried a hipflask of Vin Mariani with him, and awarded a Vatican gold medal to Angelo Mariani. Vin Mariani was very popular in its day, even among royalty such as Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland. Pope Leo XIII and later Pope Saint Pius X were both Vin Mariani drinkers. Pope Leo awarded a Vatican gold medal to the wine, and also appeared on a poster endorsing it.

Following Mariani's success with his tonic, in comes John Pemberton of Atlanta, Georgia.

Pemberton was Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate army during the American Civil War. He found that after he was injured in battle, he developed an addition to the morphine that was administered to ease battlefield injuries. Pemberton sought to find another way to ease the pain without having the morphine addiction.

Similar to the popular Vin Mariani, Pemberton created his own concoction with the name of  “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca.” The post John Stith Pemberton from the American Civil War Story website describes what made Pemberton's medicinal wine different from Mariani's:

At this time there was a hugely popular French medicinal drink called Vin Mariani. This drink was essentially a wine infused with the coca leaf (the source of cocaine). Pemberton eventually launched his own version of this medicinal wine, but his wine was infused with the kola nut (for caffeine) and damiana (reputedly a powerful aphrodisiac) in addition to the coca leaves. He called his drink, “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca.”

John Pemberton’s new drink became so popular in Atlanta that it was soon sold in almost all the drug stores in the city. This “French Wine Coca” was said to be an,“invigorator of the brain,” and Pemberton recommended it to aid in overcoming morphine addictions.

When asked to describe his popular drink, Pemberton said, “It is composed of an extract from the leaf of Peruvian Coca, the purest wine, and the Kola nut. It is the most excellent of all tonics, assisting digestion, imparting energy to the organs of respiration, and strengthening the muscular and nervous systems.”

Prohibition of alcohol in Atlanta went into effect in 1886, causing Pemberton to change his tonic. He eliminated the wine. In its place he added to the coca and kola a sugar syrup as the base. The final piece of the puzzle was the addition of carbonated water and voila: Coca-Cola was born.

You can still get the Vin Mariani tonic through the Vin Mariani Winery, which is based in Peru. You can visit their website here: Vin Mariani Winery.

So next time you hear someone order a Kalimotxo, or you order one yourself think back to Vin Mariani and Pemberton's French Wine Coca. What's a Kalimotxo? Very simple, its equal parts red wine and coca-cola. You really had to ask? ;)

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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