12 Mile Limit
Prohibition rum smuggling!
- Method
- Shaken
- Style
- Classic
- Glass
- Footed rocks glass
- Time
- 5 min
Ingredients
- 30mlLight Rum
No Light Rum? Gold Rum — a little oak and caramel where light rum is clean — fine anywhere the drink isn't meant to be crisp
- 15mlCognac
No Cognac? Brandy — a nice brandy does the job — whatever you love · Armagnac — rougher and more rustic than cognac, and all the better for it
- 15mlRye Whiskey
No Rye Whiskey? Bourbon — rounder and sweeter — you lose rye's pepper, so the drink reads softer
- 15mlLemon Juicefreshly squeezed
- 15mlGrenadine
- Garnish
- Lemon twist on a skewer
Make it well
Shaken, properly.
Add all the ingredients to your
Add ice and for 10-12 seconds
into the glass
Garnish with a lemon on a cocktail skewer
On the palate
On the nose it's fruity and citrusy, with oaky notes from the rum and whiskey. On tasting, we get ice cold citrus followed by the tart fruity cognac and grenadine - make it a good grenadine! It's followed by the spicy notes from the whiskey. An incredible cocktail mixing together three strong spirits.
Where it came from
The Twelve Mile Limit is another potent Prohibition period cocktail. During Prohibition, the jurisdiction of the USA reached three miles offshore, supposedly the distance a cannonball could be fired to target ships. Unsurprisingly, party ships soon began cropping up just beyond this border to distribute bottles to rum runners and smugglers. To curtail these booze cruises, the US increased its jurisdiction to 12 miles, to deter smaller ships sailing so far offshore. In an entirely predictable move, the boats simply sailed further out to sea, beyond the long arm of the law. The story goes that the 12 Mile Limit was named to taunt the lawmakers, which we would very much like to be true and cannot prove.
Keep pouring
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The bartender’s note
One drink, one story, one bottle worth buying.
Thursday evening, so you have time to shop. No more than that.