Cuban Daiquiri
The original daiquiri is not pink and not frozen: white rum, fresh lime and a little sugar, shaken ice cold and strained into a chilled coupe, the way it was made in Cuba before America put it in a blender.
Rum, lime and sugar were mixed in the Caribbean long before anyone named the result; Wikipedia points out the recipe resembles British naval grog, which by 1795 was rum, water, lime or lemon juice and sugar. The name comes from Daiquirí, a beach and iron-mining town near Santiago de Cuba. Difford's Guide credits Jennings Stockton Cox, an American engineer who led one of the first iron-ore expeditions there after the Spanish-American War of 1898; his men had a monthly rum ration, and a fellow engineer, Francesco Domenico Pagliuchi, wrote in 1948 that Cox first called the drink a "Rum Sour" before Pagliuchi suggested "Daiquiri". In 1909 Navy medical officer Lucius W. Johnson tried Cox's drink and took it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C., where a plaque in the Daiquiri Lounge still marks it (Difford's; Wikipedia). In Havana, Constantino "Constante" Ribalaigua Vert, who bought the bar La Florida (El Floridita) in 1918, refined the drink and made his frozen versions famous (search results from PBS and Cigar Aficionado), and Ernest Hemingway's sugarless double became the "Papa Doble" (Wikipedia, citing Hotchner's "Papa Hemingway").
🇨🇺 The original
The original daiquiri is not pink and not frozen: white rum, fresh lime and a little sugar, shaken ice cold and strained into a chilled coupe, the way it was made in Cuba before America put it in a blender.
🇺🇸 The American version
America put it in a blender with crushed ice and strawberries and served it slushy and pink, the version most people now picture when they hear the word. See the Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
The balance is the whole drink
About 8 parts rum to 3 lime to 2 sweet keeps it bright but not sour; small changes in lime or sugar show immediately, which is why bartenders use it as a test.
Hard shake, fine strain
A vigorous shake chills and adds about a quarter more volume of water, softening the rum; the fine strain keeps the texture silky.
Step by step
- Step 1
Method: Shaken. Chill a coupe in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
- Step 2
In the shaker tin, stir the sugar into the lime juice with a bar spoon for about 15 seconds, until no grains remain.
- Step 3
Add the rum, then fill the shaker two-thirds with ice cubes and seal it.
- Step 4
Shake very hard for 15 seconds; you want fine ice shards and a cold, slightly diluted drink.
- Step 5
Double strain through the shaker strainer and a fine tea strainer into the chilled coupe so no ice chips float on top.
- Step 6
Garnish with the lime wheel on the rim, or twist a strip of lime peel over the drink and drop it in. Serve at once.
Cuban Daiquiri
Serves 1 · 1 drink · 3 min total
Drink
- 2 oz (60 ml) white rum (Cuban-style light rum)
- 3/4 oz (22 ml) fresh lime juice
- 2 tsp superfine sugar (or 3/4 oz/22 ml simple syrup)
Garnish
- 1 thin lime wheel or a lime twist (optional)
- Ice cubes, for shaking
Method
- Method: Shaken. Chill a coupe in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
- In the shaker tin, stir the sugar into the lime juice with a bar spoon for about 15 seconds, until no grains remain.
- Add the rum, then fill the shaker two-thirds with ice cubes and seal it.
- Shake very hard for 15 seconds; you want fine ice shards and a cold, slightly diluted drink.
- Double strain through the shaker strainer and a fine tea strainer into the chilled coupe so no ice chips float on top.
- Garnish with the lime wheel on the rim, or twist a strip of lime peel over the drink and drop it in. Serve at once.
Adapted from two specs: Difford's Guide's preferred Daiquiri, 10 parts rum to 3 lime to 2 rich sugar syrup (75 ml, 22.5 ml, 15 ml), shaken and fine-strained into a chilled glass, and the recipe in Wikipedia's Daiquiri article, 60 ml white rum, 20 ml lime and 2 bar spoons superfine sugar. We use 2 oz rum, 3/4 oz lime and 2 tsp superfine sugar dissolved in the lime first, which is how Cuban bartenders worked with granulated sugar. diffordsguide.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Taste your limes: very juicy, tart limes may need an extra 1/2 tsp sugar.
- Cox's diary recipe, quoted by Difford's, was served over ice and topped with mineral water; try it long in a tall glass for a hot day.
- Hemingway's "Papa Doble", per Wikipedia citing Hotchner: two and a half jiggers of white rum, the juice of two limes and half a grapefruit, six drops of maraschino and no sugar.
- Our math: about 1.3 US standard drinks, assuming 80-proof rum.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Jennings Cox invented the daiquiri. Disputed: Difford's and Wikipedia credit Cox; skeptics note that Cubans had mixed rum, lime and sugar for centuries (Tales of the Imbibed, search summary).
- Pagliuchi named it. Disputed: the only source is Pagliuchi's own 1948 letter (Difford's); Basil Woon's 1928 book says Cox named it at a Santiago bar (Difford's).
- El Floridita is "the cradle of the daiquiri". Folklore: a local nickname; Cigar Aficionado (search summary) says the drink was named in Daiquirí, not Havana.
- Constante used an electric blender. Disputed: Cigar Aficionado calls him an early adopter of the Waring blender; PBS says he made frozen daiquiris without one, by shaking with chipped ice (both search summaries).
- The Army and Navy Club has a Daiquiri Lounge plaque. Documented by Difford's Guide.
Every other cocktail
Classic Margarita
Blanco tequila, orange liqueur and fresh lime, shaken hard and poured over fresh ice in a half salt-rimmed glass: the sour that Mexico, Texas and California all claim.
Frozen Margarita (Dallas, 1971)
The margarita as Texas made it famous: tequila, orange liqueur, lime and a little syrup blended with crushed ice into a smooth, spoonable slush, the drink a Dallas restaurateur put in a machine in 1971.
Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri
How America remade the Cuban daiquiri: white rum, lime and sugar blended with frozen strawberries and crushed ice into a thick red slush, the version that came with the electric blender.
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