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.
Frozen daiquiris started in Havana, where Constante Ribalaigua's El Floridita made them famous (see our Cuban Daiquiri recipe), but the fruit-flavored blender version is American kitchen history. Difford's Guide says the strawberry daiquiri's origin is unknown and that the earliest published recipe it found is in home economist Mabel Stegner's 1952 book "Electric Blender Recipes". Wikipedia describes the frozen daiquiri today as blended with finely crushed ice, often made in commercial machines or with frozen limeade, with banana and strawberry versions the best known. Difford's warns that too much ice makes a "tasteless slushy drink", which is the trap this recipe avoids.
🇺🇸 This one is American
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.
🇨🇺 The original
The original daiquiri is three things shaken hard with ice: Cuban white rum, fresh lime juice and sugar, served straight up and very cold. See the Cuban Daiquiri recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Frozen fruit replaces some of the ice
The berries chill and thicken the drink, so less ice is needed and the strawberry flavor is not watered down.
Purée before ice
Blending the fruit in the liquid first gives a smooth drink without seeds and pulp caught in ice lumps.
Step by step
- Step 1
Method: Blended. Chill a coupe or hurricane glass in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Put the rum, lime juice, simple syrup and frozen strawberries in the blender with no ice. Let the berries sit in the liquid for 2 minutes to soften slightly.
- Step 3
Blend on low for 10 seconds, then on high for 15 seconds, until the berries are a smooth purée.
- Step 4
Add the crushed ice and blend on high for 20 to 30 seconds, until thick, smooth and evenly pink-red with no ice chunks.
- Step 5
Taste with a spoon: add 1 tsp syrup if the berries were tart, or 1 tsp lime if it tastes flat, and blend 5 seconds.
- Step 6
Pour into the chilled glass, perch the fresh strawberry on the rim and serve with a straw right away.
Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri
Serves 1 · 1 drink (about 8 oz) · 5 min total
Drink
- 1 1/2 oz (45 ml) white rum
- 3/4 oz (22 ml) fresh lime juice
- 3/4 oz (22 ml) simple syrup (1:1)
- 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries (about 2 1/2 oz/75 g, 5 or 6 berries)
- 1/2 cup crushed ice
Garnish
- 1 fresh strawberry, cut halfway up so it sits on the rim
Method
- Method: Blended. Chill a coupe or hurricane glass in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Put the rum, lime juice, simple syrup and frozen strawberries in the blender with no ice. Let the berries sit in the liquid for 2 minutes to soften slightly.
- Blend on low for 10 seconds, then on high for 15 seconds, until the berries are a smooth purée.
- Add the crushed ice and blend on high for 20 to 30 seconds, until thick, smooth and evenly pink-red with no ice chunks.
- Taste with a spoon: add 1 tsp syrup if the berries were tart, or 1 tsp lime if it tastes flat, and blend 5 seconds.
- Pour into the chilled glass, perch the fresh strawberry on the rim and serve with a straw right away.
Adapted from Difford's Guide, "Strawberry Daiquiri (frozen)": 1 1/2 oz light rum, 2/3 oz lime, 1/2 oz rich sugar syrup and five small ripe strawberries, dry-blended to break down the fruit, then blended with crushed ice and poured into a chilled coupe. We use frozen unsweetened strawberries (the American freezer-aisle way, and they chill the drink), 3/4 oz lime and 3/4 oz 1:1 simple syrup, cut the ice to 1/2 cup to make room for the frozen fruit, and add blend times. diffordsguide.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Fresh strawberries instead? Use 5 hulled ripe berries and 1 cup crushed ice, as Difford's does.
- Make it a virgin strawberry slush: leave out the rum and add 1 1/2 oz cold water or lemon-lime soda.
- Our math: about 1.0 US standard drink, 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.
- The strawberry daiquiri is a Cuban classic. Folklore: Difford's says its origin is unknown; the earliest recipe it found is American, from a 1952 blender cookbook.
- Frozen daiquiris were invented in America. Disputed: frozen and shaved-ice daiquiris were already served in Havana (Basil Woon in 1928 wrote that the drink "must be drunk frozen", quoted by Difford's); the fruit-and-blender style spread in the US.
- More ice makes it better. Documented as wrong by Difford's: too much ice gives a "tasteless slushy drink".
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