Boadas, Miguel

Boadas, Miguel (1895–1967), was a Spanish bartender born in Cuba and the safekeeper of the throwing technique, which involves tossing a cocktail from one ice-filled tin to an empty one until the drink is perfectly cold and diluted. He learned bartending in 1908 when his father put him to work at El Floridita in Havana, then owned by his cousins. See Floridita. In 1922, he left for Spain and settled in Barcelona, where he opened his own bar, Boadas, in 1933. At this Barcelona institution—still open today—he and his successors, including daughter Maria Dolores and her husband, Pep Maruenda, kept the Cuban throwing technique alive when it had fallen into disuse, paving the way for its recent revival. Boadas was also the founder of the Catalonian Bartender’s Club.

“Miguel Boadas.” ABE: Órgano oficial de la Asociación de Barmen españoles: 21 (1966). Torns, Miquel. El besavo va anar a Cuba. Girona, Spain: Hermes Comunicacions, 1999.

By: François Monti

The Bohemian life at Joel’s, the home of the Blue Moon, as portrayed on one of its postcards, 1911. Source: Wondrich Collection.