This week we talk to Lou Bustamante. He is the author of The Complete Cocktail Manual: 285 Tips, Tricks, and Recipes. This is a great book and is sanctioned by the United State Bartender's Guild.
It is Bartender Journey Podcast # 206! Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.
Cocktail of the Week – El Presidente
1½ oz. rich white rum

1½ oz. Dolin Vermouth Blanc
1 barspoon orange Curaçao or Grand Marnier

½ barspoon real grenadine
*
Stir ingredients well with cracked ice and strain into a chilled glass. Express oils from an orange twist over the top and drop in or discard. Garnish, if desired, with a cherry.

*Real Grenadine
:
2 cups fresh pomegranate juice or POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice

2 cups unbleached sugar

2 oz pomegranate molasses

1 tsp orange blossom water
Warm juice just enough to dissolve sugar.  Add pomegranate molasses and orange blossom water.  Keep chilled.
Morgenthaler Article on grenadine

This drink was was apparently named in honor of Mario García Menocal, president of Cuba from 1913 to 1921. Of course in 1920 when Prohibition took effect in the US, many people would fly down to Cuba for the weekend to get some legal booze and live it up a little. The cocktail spread around, and was soon found in some of the illegal US Speakeasies during Prohibition.