Named after the Canadian-American film actress of the silver screen, Mary Pickford. This drink is made with rum, pineapple juice, maraschino liqueur, and grenadine. The Mary Pickford cocktail’s flavor is described as sweet but with a kick, not unlike the actress herself.
While the origin of the Mary Pickford cocktail is debated, the most common story is from 1920s Cuba. It goes that either Eddie Woelke or Fred Kaufmann (it is not known which on it was) at the Hotel de Nacional de Cuba created the drink in her honor while she was in Havana working on a film with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks (her husband at the time). If she and her party were really ever on that trip is debated as there is no official travel record and they never worked on a film in Cuba together.
What we do know is that the first printed record of the Mary Pickford cocktail is in Basil Woon’s 1928 cocktail book called “When it’s Cocktail Time in Cuba.” It is also seen in Harry Craddock’s 1930 edition of the “Savoy Cocktail Book.”
The Mary Pickford easily becomes a non-alcoholic drink when its rum base is omitted. Simply swap the maraschino liqueur for maraschino cherry juice and mix it with pineapple juice and grenadine. Its fruity-sweet flavor can be easily cut with a little citrus with a simple squeeze of a lime wedge.
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