Daiquiri

From JFK to Hemingway, this widely popular cocktail has been enjoyed by many through the years.  It is incredibly easy to make consisting of only 3 ingredients and when mixed correctly is the perfect balance of sweetness, citrus, and alcohol. 

Pro Tip: Use a higher proof white rum if possible especially if using simple syrup in order to get a more concentrated rum favor. Cana Brava is my go to, Plantation 3 Star White is also good.  

History 

Jennings Cox is responsible for bringing us the delightful Daiquiri.  Actual documentation of this was found on a signed recipe card from 1896.  Cox was an American mining engineer who lived in Cuba after the Spanish-American war. He supposedly ran out of gin while hosting a party so switched to making his cocktail with rum.  Some say that the recipe was brought to Washington, D.C. by a U.S. Navy officer a decade later while others claim that the U.S. Congressman who purchased the Santiago iron mines is responsible for spreading it through NYC’s night clubs.

A Popular Drink

Either way, the drink increased in popularity in the 1940s due to Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy aka the Pan-American program. After WWII rations of vodka and whiskey were difficult to find but rum was now being traded openly between Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin America. (At one point rum was considered the drink of low lives and sailors but with the Pan-American program making Latin America fashionable, rum drinks, especially the Daiquiri quickly became the new trend.)

David A. Embury lists this cocktail as one of the six basic drinks in his book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks first published in 1948.  Originally the cocktail was served in a tall glass over ice with sugar spooned on top followed by lime juice. Later the cocktail was mixed in a shaker. The jury is still out on preparation. Some bartenders swear by defusing raw sugar in lime juice while others use simple syrup. (If you choose simple, you’ll really want to opt for the higher proof rum!)

Variations:  There are so many choices here from frozen to flavored. Get creative! Just remember if you’re adding fruit or anything that is naturally sweet you’ll need to adjust the amount of sugar so you don’t end up with a candy sweet, hangover ensuing type cocktail. Here are some well known revisions. 

The "Papa Doble" (Double Daddy) or Hemingway Special

 In the 1920s and 1930s, the famous Floridita bar in Cuba began making this drink with crushed ice and a quick spin in the blender giving birth to the frozen daiquiri. While visiting the Floridita, Earnest Hemingway tried the signature cocktail and replied “That’s good but I prefer it without sugar and double rum.” Thankfully this drink has been modified over the years to add grapefruit and maraschino liqueur because drinking a double pour of rum with just a splash of lime would not make for a very balanced cocktail.  

As the story goes, the drink itself was rather off putting to the average guest but a drink named after the celebrated writer was very marketable. So the bartenders at the Floridita, keeping to Hemingway’s preference of no sugar, added some grapefruit juice and a splash of the Italian maraschino liqueur.  The Hemingway special might possibly be the most popular adaptation of the daiquiri.

Hemingway Daiquiri

The Cocktail King

Though the stories around the Floridita Bar are flamboyant and innumerable, one thing is for certain: the legendary mixologist Constantino Ribalaigua Vert aka "El Rey de los Coteleros" or "The Cocktail King" is responsible for this recipe. Having spent roughly 50 years behind the bar of the Floridita, Vert began as a bartender and ended up owning the place until his died in 1952. It is said that he has squeezed over 80 million limes and concocted 10 million daiquiris. Now, that's a lot of drinks! 

The Floridita

At its most basic, this cocktail, is considered a “grog” and was brought to us by the British Navy all the way back in the 1700s.  Click here for more history and to learn about the category of cocktails known as sours.