twelve mile limit

1 oz White Rum (Pritchard's)
1/2 oz Rye (Old Overholt)
1/2 oz Brandy (Château de Plassons VSOP)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

For our second cocktail on Friday, we were already flipping through Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails after looking for Swedish Punsch drink recipes, when Andrea spotted the Twelve Mile Limit and was intrigued. The drink is a nod to the 12 nautical mile offshore boundary which is the territorial limit for a country's sovereignty. Haigh described how the limit used to be 3 nautical miles but the boundary was later increased to 12 miles, and during Prohibition this would have been the limits for governmental alcohol interdiction. The Three Mile Limit is a drink in itself and Haigh claims that it is a less stiff drink than the Twelve Mile Limit. The recipe I found for it makes it seem stronger proof-wise, although it has a gentler disposition:

Three Mile Limit
• 1 1/2 oz Brandy
• 3/4 oz White Rum
• 1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 dash Grenadine
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The Twelve Mile Limit tasted very much like other Prohibition cocktails I am familiar with including the Scofflaw with a sharp flavor as a common factor. Generally, the Prohibition drinks have teeth, whereas the more modern drinks seem to be smoother. Moreover, when modern day ones want to add some teeth of their own, it seems that the recipes utilize bitter liqueurs instead of sharper spirits and citrus like the Twelve Mile Limit's white rum and lemon juice. The Twelve Mile Limit's grenadine flavor was rather strong on the front part of the sip, the rye and brandy notes were in the middle, and the white rum flavor and heat appeared at the end of the swallow along with some vanilla notes. In addition, the citrus bite -- perhaps intensified by the liquors -- was detectable throughout the sip and swallow.