Air Mail
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 12.6% ABV ∙
The Air Mail is a sparkling rum sour of light gold rum, lime juice and honey syrup, shaken and topped with dry sparkling wine, a cousin of the French 75.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake the first 3 ingredients with ice: Light gold rum 30 mlLime juice 15 mlHoney syrup 15 ml
- Strain into the ice-filled glass
- Top with Dry sparkling wine
- Briefly stir
- Garnish with the tip of a mint sprig or serve without garnish
Tips
- Raw honey won't dissolve properly in a cold shake; honey syrup mixes in cleanly.
- Top with dry sparkling wine or Champagne rather than Prosecco, which makes the drink sweeter and less crisp.
History
The Air Mail is a sparkling relative of the Daiquiri, pairing rum and lime with honey syrup in place of sugar and topping them with dry sparkling wine.
The Air Mail itself is generally traced to the era of Prohibition, when Americans traveled to Cuba to drink legally and Havana's bar culture flourished, most likely in the 1920s or 1930s. Cuba began airmail service in 1930, and the drink appeared shortly after in a Bacardí promotional pamphlet titled Bacardi and Its Many Uses. The booklet called for a postage stamp as garnish on the rim of the glass. It offered no explanation for the name, though the timing points to that year's new air routes.
The recipe was later published in W.C. Whitfield's Here's How (1941), where he quipped it "ought to make you fly high," before appearing in Esquire's Handbook for Hosts in 1949.
Largely forgotten for decades, the drink was revived in the 2010s after appearing in Jim Meehan's PDT Cocktail Book (2011).
FAQ
How do you make an Air Mail?
Shake 30 ml light gold rum, 15 ml lime juice, and 15 ml honey syrup with ice, then strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Top with 30 ml dry sparkling wine, stir briefly, and garnish with the tip of a mint sprig if you like.
Is the Air Mail a strong cocktail?
Moderately, at about 12.6% ABV. There is only 30 ml of rum, and the lime, honey syrup, and sparkling wine stretch it, so it drinks more like a Champagne cocktail than a spirit-forward one.
Is an Air Mail shaken or stirred?
Both. The rum, lime juice, and honey syrup are shaken with ice; the sparkling wine goes in last with a brief stir so it keeps its bubbles.
How is an Air Mail different from a French 75?
The base spirit, the citrus, and the sweetener. An Air Mail uses rum, lime, and honey syrup, while a French 75 uses gin, lemon, and sugar syrup. Both are topped with sparkling wine. Rum and honey make the Air Mail warmer and more tropical than the crisp, gin-led French 75.
