A girl has got to have her special drink throughout the years that includes rum, caffeine and sugar

There are a few things I am known for in the workplace. I am a hard-worker that sends out emails at 6am. I am extremely dedicated and fair. I am known for having a brain and putting it to good use. I also have a loud voice when needed but also a gentle, subtle touch if the occasion calls for it. I suppose those are good qualities to have. Did I tell you I am also known for being quiet modest. No, seriously. I have repeatedly been told that. So much so it is likely to go to my head someday.

Speaking of things going to my head. I am also known for my cocktail choices. My Facebook status updates consist of mainly two things: (1) photos of my son and my corresponding lament at how fast he is growing up, and (2) photos of my cocktails. When I do not post cocktail photos people tend to know that there is something wrong with me. I once went a month without really posting said photos because I was holed up in my home office writing a million dollar grant and was without sunlight for a rather long time.

Anyway, my cocktails usually consist of some rum concoction.

Rum has not always been my drink of choice.

I used to be a 7up girl. Growing up I had really bad asthma and my doctor in the South Bronx told my mom that bubbly soda would be good for me. I am not joking. Thus, began my love affair with carbonated drinks. I slowly morphed into a Coca Cola girl. Then I became a diet Coke girl. And now, no meeting is complete without a bottle of Coke Zero gracing my lips.

In college I also developed a deep love of Earl Grey Tea. Every day at 2pm I would go to have tea in the Rose Parlor at Vassar.  That feeling of sipping tea, with the pinkie sticking out, was oh so gloriously satisfying. It felt like I was playing a role in a Jane Austen novel. Till this day, there is nothing better than stopping mid-afternoon to take a break and sip some fragrant and flavorful black tea.

Of course, in college I also developed a taste (out of money necessities) for a Long Island Iced Tea which includes every type of alcohol imaginable. It was the poor college girl’s drink of choice. As soon as I got my first real job I then started tasting other more flavorful and less toxic drinks. I never really did get into Cosmopolitans. Even when Sex and The City made them uber popular, I didn’t quite get their appeal. Even with their lovely pink hue (which I am a grand fan of) I couldn’t find it yummy for my tummy.

At one point, near the end of Ph.D program, I discovered coffee. I would go to Starbucks near midnight and get a dopio espresso. That is a double-shot. Boy was that effective. I got my dissertation done in 4 1/12 months. That is a record, folks! I slowly started discovering other coffee drinks to the point that now everyone knows my drink of choice (when it comes to coffee) is a Skinny Vanilla Latte.

Upon getting a demanding job that required tons of travel and business dinners, I started developing a grand fondness for the cocktail. What a wonderful invention. A cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters. Several dictionaries cite the origin of the word “cocktail” as originating in the U.S appearing in The Farmer’s Cabinet on April 28, 1803:

Drank a glass of cocktail—excellent for the head…Call’d at the Doct’s. found Burnham—he looked very wise—drank another glass of cocktail.

Indeed, drinking a glass of cocktail makes one quite wise.

When I traveled to Cuba I developed a deep fondness for rum. There is nothing like good Cuban rum. Now, I cannot get enough of Mojitos. Give me a Passionfruit mojito at any time, any place. It will make any meeting go faster and be more eventful. Do you know that ABBA song “Gimme Gimme a man after midnight”? Well, my version goes “gimme, gimme some rum anytime.”

One thing to note. Despite my love of Coca Cola and Rum. Please do not ever get me a Rum and Coke. I actually can’t stand it. Reminds me of my poor college girl days. I think I am beyond that now.

mojito