American Grog

Sorry about the vaguely fuzzy picture. I guess I was feeling...vaguely fuzzy...

American Grog:

• 1 lump (cube) of sugar
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• 1 1/2 oz rum

(Put ingredients in a hot whiskey glass, and) fill with hot water and stir.

Okay, so again going with the "vaguely fuzzy" feeling, for some reason I read "rum" and heard "whiskey". So pictured above is some sort of grog made with whiskey. I guess I was tired last night. Not 100% period-incorrect though, as both rum and whiskey (or, at least, the whiskey I used) are quintessentially American spirits. Oops. I'll try it again.

I'll just say this: it's not often that I get a hot drink. It was very...welcome? given the time of year and the blustery cold outside. Grog was originally invented to keep sailors from getting ridiculous in an era where sailors were issued half of a pint (umm, 8 oz.....) of rum a day because, apparently, umm, sailing just ain't the same when you're not tanked. Grog added a lot of water in an effort to get the sailors to drink the water that they so desperately needed, and to make sure that their daily rum-ration was spread out a bit. This drink isn't nearly so watered down as traditional grog would be (depending on the size of the glass, though that's something that needs a bit more research. A quick googling indicates that a whiskey glass is around 7 oz. full, so the one I used above is under-sized. Tonight, I'll rectify both those mistakes. Call it a do-over.