A Taste of Spring

The weather is in transition here moving from hard winter to bi-polar, warm and sunny one day to cold and snowy the next.  Several days ago the temperature was 73 degrees, breaking a record set in 1871.  That was followed by snow.  Today is another of those warm sunny days, and tomorrow there will be two inches of rain followed by more snow.

To celebrate the warm days we have a 12 Mile Limit cocktail.  The concoction contains white rum, rye whisky, cognac, lemon juice and a bit of grenadine.  It is definitely refreshing and is pictured here with a blood orange slice for a garnish.

The story behind the name goes back to 1920's when prohibition was in full swing and the country was dry.  There were party boats along the east coast which were moored just beyond what was then a three mile limit of U.S. sovereignty.   Smaller boats would ferry folks out to larger ones where every thing was legal. To combat that the government enacted a new twelve mile limit for territorial waters, a limit still in effect today.  The party boats then became ships and moved farther out, and the good times continued.  The 12 Mile Limit celebrates that move. How much truth there is in the story I don't know, but the cocktail is just the thing on a warm sunny day.