The Grand Prix / La Chaparra

There can be little doubt that to this day the best known Cantinero remains Constantino – Constante for his friends – Ribalaigua. Ernest Hemingway did much to make his bar, El Floridita, and his Daiquiris famous worldwide. Constante indeed came up with the magical Daiquiri Floridita – and its countless variations – but sadly, the fame of this one drink tends to eclipse the many other cocktails the great man invented. Thankfully, a recent and growing interest in classical Cuban mixology has led today’s Cantinero to rediscover some excellent recipes. One of them is Constante’s La Chaparra.

The « chaparra » is the Spanish name of the holm oak, so ubiquitous on the Iberian peninsula – and indispensable to the production of the famed iberico ham – that some have suggested it is Spain’s official national tree. Although Constantino Ribalaigua was born in Catalonia, it is much more likely that he chose the name of its cocktail for its Cuban meaning: Chaparra is slang for a short woman. Unsurprising really: the Iberian holm oak is a squat tree. Needless to say, the identity of the « woman of short stature » who might have inspired Constante remains a mystery…

Many resources, online or in print, present La Chaparra as an equal parts light Cuban rum and sweet vermouth cocktail, which would basically make it a Palmetto sans bitters. Cantineros would be better inspired to ignore this version and look for Constante’s recipe. According to Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller, old friends of the Cantineros, La Chaparra is the result of a process that started with a very classical formula: rum, vermouth (sweet or both sweet and dry) and some of the typical ingredients of the time – bitters, curaçao and/ or pomegranate syrup. One of those predecessors, the Salome, even called for a savoury touch: the bartender added three celery leaves in the shaker. La Chaparra made its first (print) appearance in Constante’s 1937 cocktail book. To the basic equal parts rum and sweet vermouth structure, he added, as he was wont to do, a bit of plain sugar and, much more surprisingly, the peel of … a whole lime. You read that right: the peel, not the juice. Squeezing its oils in the mixing glass before adding the other ingredients, Constante obtained a strong cocktail that was much brighter than one would have expected, especially for a drink without any juice!

Jared and Anistatia’s research show that La Chaparra became very popular indeed and remained so until the ‘50’s, even though Constante’s original recipe suffered a few unfortunate modifications. To add insult to injury, it slowly faded into oblivion over the following fifty years. It all changed when Nick Strangeway adapted the drink and put it on the menu of El Floridita London. While La Chaparra remains a scandalously little known cocktail, some of the best Cantineros around are taking notice of it. Among them there is Giuseppe Santamaria, the Barcelona-based Italian bartender, who won third place at the Havana Club Grand Prix 2010 with a delightful twist on La Chaparra.

If you never had a Chaparra, you could do worse than reaching for that Havana Club bottle and your mixing glass: it’s a fantastic, complex cocktail, the citrus adding its typical zing without, for once, any of the dilution. And although our version is heavy on rum, it’s a surprisingly light drink. What are you waiting for, Cantineros?


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La Chaparra

45 ml Havana Club Añejo 3 años

15 ml sweet vermouth

5 ml simple syrup

The peel of a whole lime

Squeeze the oils of the lime peel and drop it in the mixing glass, add the
remaining ingredients and stir with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and
garnish with a lime peel.