Rationing was on the mind of Americans in the WWII years. Staples like sugar, coffee, butter and canned foods were used with asperity to conserve limited supplies. This Pilgrim Rum advertising recipe booklet (1943) from Fleishmann Distilling was originally printed pre-war in 1936, and contains a couple recipes for cocktails with tea. Not having seen the original and not being a beverage historian, I wonder if the cocktails with tea recipes were added specifically because access to coffee was limited.
There is a page added to specifically to explain the use of rationed ingredients in so many recipes. Pilgrim’s rationale: the war won’t last forever and you can’t make tasty things without tasty ingredients. They did, however, list recipes that could be made without rationed ingredients.
Leave it to the marketing department to point out that you don’t need any scare ingredients to enjoy Pilgrim rum. You can drink it straight. Just like shampoo marketing departments figured out the way to sell more shampoo was to add “repeat” to “lather and rinse.”
Party Punch
Rum punches are refreshing. Modern recipes call for orange, pineapple and lime juice with grenadine. This cocktail with tea recipe has a blend of lemon, orange, pineapple and cranberry juices mixed with sugar, tea and seltzer. It sounds so delicious that the Pilgrim Rum hardly seems necessary. (You would need to add extra tea and bubble water to keep it from being too strong, and perhaps cut back on the sugar.) With or without the rum, it would be a hit for a summer or winter celebration.
It’s hard to remember in our super-sized era that punch cups only hold 5 ounces. It’s even harder to imagine a situation where you would only be serving 3 ounce portions, as is mentioned.
Hot Teajus
The name is confusing, Teajus is currently an Indonesian powdered tea drink. Name aside, this hot cocktail with tea would be a nice way to wind down after a long winter day. Imagine how fresh it would taste with a good darjeeling or English breakfast loose leaf tea.
This is supposed to be a post cocktails with tea, but these two seasonal recipes are also in the booklet and could not be ignored. Consider this bonus content.
Both of these seem like the kind of warm cozy cocktail that would be served in a 1940s movie that involves ski sweaters, a roaring fireplace, snow and some sort of hijinks because every good movie needs hijinks.
If you’re interested in reading more about rationing during WWII, you might enjoy our post looking into a WWII rationing cookbooklet.
