Bartending/Cocktails/Daiquiri

The daiquiri is a classic rum cocktail, consisting of white rum, lime juice, and sugar or syrup; it is a basic rum sour. It is particularly associated with Cuba and with Ernest Hemingway.

Classic daiquiri

Garnished daiquiri

Classically it is a simple drink (a rum sour), served in a cocktail glass; it also exists in numerous variations, and is often blended with fruit and ice to make fruit daiquiris.

Recipes

IBA standard (9:4:1):

• 45 ml (9 parts) white rum
• 20 ml (4 parts) lime juice
• 5 ml (1 part) gomme syrup

The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (8:2:1):

• 8 parts white Cuban rum
• 2 parts lime juice
• 1 part simple syrup

The 8:2:1 ratio was the author David A. Embury’s preferred ratio for sour-type cocktails.

Variants

Daiquirí Natural is the basic mix, that serves as the starting point to the more complex cocktails of the family: 1.3 oz (40 mL) light-dry rum, 0.7 oz (20 mL) lime juice, 1 teaspoon (5 mL) sugar, crushed ice. Mix the ingredients in a shaker and serve.

Daiquiri Floridita is the most common and famous version of this cocktail, allegedly it was invented by Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, barman and owner of the Floridita in the 1950s, whom Ernest Hemingway nicknamed El grande Constante. This recipe is also known as Daiquirí Frappé: 1.5 oz (45 mL) light-dry rum, the juice of 1 lime, 1 tsp (5 mL) sugar, crushed ice, 10 drops of maraschino liqueur. Mix all the ingredients in a blender until the ice is finely crushed and serve iced.

Papa's is the version of the cocktail that Hemingway allegedly preferred (Papa is the nickname that fishermen gave Hemingway in Cuba), is identical to the Floridita Daiquiri, it only substitutes lime juice with grapefruit juice. It is said that Hemingway drank this cocktail with no sugar and doubled the rum.

Mulata is the same cocktail as the Floridita Daiquiri, but instead of light-dry rum (which is colourless) it requires aged rum, which gives the cocktail an amber colour.

Fruit daiquiris

Daiquiris are commonly blended with crushed ice and fruit to make party drinks, or rather, a rum-based blended ice and fruit drink is conventionally called a fruit daiquiri; this is analogous to tequila-based blended ice and fruit drinks being conventionally called fruit margaritas. Examples include the banana daiquiri and strawberry daiquiri.

Virgin (no alcohol) fruit drinks are often referred to as “virgin fruit daiquiris”, as in the virgin strawberry daiquiri.

Strawberry Daiquiri

• 1/2 oz (15 mL) strawberry schnapps,
• 1 oz (30 mL) light rum,
• 1 oz (30 mL) lime juice,
• 1 tsp (5 mL) powdered sugar,
• 1 oz (30 mL) strawberries,
• crushed ice.

Mix all the ingredients in a blender until the ice is finely crushed and serve iced.

Similar drinks

• Caipirinha – analogous Brazilian cocktail
• Grog – similar older drink
• Margarita – tequila-based, similarly used in blended ice fruit cocktails.
• Mojito – more complicated, adding mint and soda
• Ti'Punch – analogous French Caribbean cocktail