Today's cocktail: Cuba Libre

Today's ingredients: white rum, Coke, lime juice

Hugo the First: angry and agitated.

For the first time in fourteen years, the Charlotte Hornets took the court this week (and won in thrilling fashion, no less). The first iteration of the Hornets was a windfall for Charlotte, establishing the city's first professional franchise and putting us on a national footing in 1988. My first NBA game was a Hornets game, and the only thing I remember was a court-length alley-oop to Rex Chapman, who caught the ball facing away from the basket before dunking it backward over his head. The Hive exploded. I was nine years old and in love with basketball.

Hugo the Second: you came to the wrong neighborhood, mofo.

For a number of reasons, the team left in 2002, and the expansion Bobcats were a joke from their 2004 beginning, from the boondoggle uptown arena deal to the fishiness of the nicknaming process. I quit following basketball completely. The Hive exploded in 2007, replaced by The Cable Box, and I couldn't have cared less. After New Orleans became the Pelicans in 2013, the Hornets name was available to return, pushed in no small part to the groundswell of support from folks around the region and on social media, which brings us to Opening Night this past Wednesday.

My vocational background is in live-event audio production. As such, I cannot attend a concert or sporting event without scrutinizing the sound equipment, the production elements, and the general "flow" of the experience. The Cable Box has a tendency to not get the most out of its sound system (which may or may not be addressed in a recent upgrade proposal). Anyone who's been to a large event, or even a bar or club, knows that in order to get the crowd loud, you have you make it a loud environment. The audio in this arena is practically a whisper, especially in the upper deck, which is sad for the amount of money put into the system and the events it's supposed to support.

I don't know if it was the type of crowd (it was a full house) or just the rapt attention paid to the game itself (the usual movement of people around the concourse was practically nonexistent), but the game was very church-like until the end. Perhaps the crowd took the whole "the buzz is back" thing too literally because the noise levels were rarely above a busy beehive. Perhaps the crowd took the whole Opening Night thing too literally because the noise levels only rivaled some of those I've experienced at the Blumenthal. Perhaps I'm just crotchety and hard of hearing. At least I looked the part (of Opening Night, not of being crotchety and hard of hearing).

Cuba Libre

The Cuba Libre sounds like a great idea. It's easy to get excited over something you probably know by its more common rum-and-Coke moniker, mainly because it's familiar and comfortable, and you might expect it to wow you somehow, yet it never does. It doesn't disappoint, either, but it's not going to knock your socks off. From the IBA:

• 5cl / 1.6oz white rum
• 12cl / 4oz cola
• 1cl / 0.3oz fresh lime juice
• Build all ingredients in a highball glass filled with ice.
• Garnish with lime wedge

Around these parts, cola--ALL cola--is called "Coke," as in, "what kind of Coke do you want?" You could answer with Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, or (more regionally appropriately) Cheerwine or Sun Drop. It's just different shades of Coke, even though actual Coke is an Atlanta product whereas Pepsi is from North Carolina, just like Cheerwine (but not Sun Drop, despite its association with the area), but to me, Pepsi has this medicinal after-taste that I can't quite embrace. Anyway, pick your Coke.

White rum can be a little tricky, mainly because rum has very little in the way of global standardization. We'll explore rum as we go along, primarily as it compares to other, better categorized spirits, but white rum also goes by "light" or "silver" (a common tequila designation). It typically has little flavor except for some general sweetness (unless flavoring was added after-the-fact) and was perhaps filtered if it was aged for any appreciable amount of time. Bottom line is that white rums are generally used for mixing, not drinking straight. Pick your poison. I happened to have some Cruzan aged white rum that I think was part of a holiday bottle swap last year. It's not something I would typically buy, but a 0.75L bottle can be had around here for about $12, and this one was free. Good enough.

Lime is lime is lime. Actual lime is preferable to juice, especially if you're going to garnish the drink. The wife has a lime tree that dictates a lot of the cocktails in the house (usually gin-and-tonics), and being that cooler weather is coming, we need to use up the limes. Ya know, vitamin C and all.

At the end of the day, this is a supremely simple and highly variable cocktail that everyone knows and enjoys, but no one's going to be breaking down the door to get one. It's just kind of nice to have on occasion, good for a light buzz, and completely mindless in its consumption, which is fine. Not every cocktail needs to be studied and dissected and analyzed. Just enjoy.

Cigar optional, but it's a good drink to pair with.