Daiquiri
Rum, lime, sugar — the cleanest sour on the canon, shaken hard and served cold.
- Double strained upthin foam cap
- Hard shake 10–12swith cracked ice
- Rum + lime + syrupin shaker
- Chilled coupepre-frozen
How to make it
- Combine rum, fresh lime juice, and simple syrup in a shaker.
- Fill with ice and shake hard for 10–12 seconds.
- Double strain (through a Hawthorne and a fine mesh strainer) into a chilled coupe.
- Optional lime wheel on the rim.
The history
The Daiquiri is named for the village of Daiquirí near Santiago de Cuba, where American mining engineer Jennings Cox is credited with the drink in the late 1890s. Rear Admiral Lucius Johnson brought the recipe back to the Army & Navy Club in Washington, D.C. around 1909, from which it entered American bar culture.
The Havana bar El Floridita, and its bartender Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, made the drink famous in the 1920s and 30s. Hemingway drank Daiquiris there daily — his personal version (No sugar, double rum, grapefruit and maraschino) is the Papa Doble, not the classical Daiquiri.
The frozen blender-drink versions of the mid-20th century — strawberry, banana, piña colada-adjacent — share almost nothing with the original. The classical Daiquiri is a small, tart, cold drink meant to be finished in five minutes.
Common mistakes
- Bottled lime juice
The Daiquiri is 25% lime by volume. Bottled juice tastes chemical and flat. Squeeze to order.
- Under-shaking
Shake hard for a full 10 seconds. The drink needs aeration for its signature texture and a proper chill. A weak shake produces a warm, syrupy Daiquiri.
- Aged rum by default
The classical Daiquiri uses light Cuban-style white rum. Aged rum makes a different, richer drink often called a Daiquiri No. 3 — good, but not the template.
Variations
- Hemingway Daiquiri (Papa Doble)
60 ml white rum, 15 ml maraschino liqueur, 22 ml grapefruit juice, 15 ml lime juice. No sugar. Shaken hard, up.
- Daiquiri No. 3
Substitute aged rum and add 5 ml maraschino liqueur. Richer, drier.
- Hotel Nacional
Add 15 ml apricot brandy and 15 ml pineapple juice — a longer, more tropical variation from 1930s Havana.
Frequently asked
- Can I use gold rum?
- You can, but the drink loses its clarity of expression. Save gold rum for the No. 3 variation.
- Sugar or simple syrup?
- Always syrup. Granulated sugar will not dissolve fully in a shaken drink and leaves grit at the bottom of the glass.
- How hard should I shake?
- Hard, for at least 10 seconds. A properly shaken Daiquiri lands with a thin foam cap on top.
- Frozen Daiquiri?
- A different drink. The Hemingway-era Cuban 'Frozen Daiquiri' is shaved-ice-and-blender, roughly 60 ml rum, 20 ml lime, 5 ml maraschino, sugar, blended briefly. Not the classical spec.