The Daiquiri is the sour in its purest form: white rum, fresh lime juice, and sugar, shaken with ice and served up. Named for a beach near Santiago de Cuba and fixed in the canon in the bars of early-twentieth-century Havana, it is the drink bartenders use to judge a bar — because there is nowhere to hide.
The Test of a Bar
Three ingredients, no garnish to distract, no bitters to paper over a mistake. A Daiquiri is naked balance — if the lime, sugar, and rum are not in tune, you taste it immediately.
Fresh lime is not negotiable, and the sugar should be a syrup so it integrates cleanly. A classic ratio runs roughly 2 : 3/4 : 3/4, rum to lime to syrup, adjusted to the sharpness of your limes.
Shake It Cold
Shake hard and not a moment too long — the goal is a drink that is intensely cold, lightly diluted, and faintly frothy from the aeration. Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
This is the classic Daiquiri, served up and clear. It is a different animal from the blended, sweet, strawberry version — and once you have had it made well, the frozen kind starts to feel like a missed opportunity.
Variations
Grapefruit and maraschino, and no sugar at all — a tart, dry Daiquiri from El Floridita.
- 2 ozWhite rum
- 3/4 ozLime juice
- 1/4 ozMaraschino
The Daiquiri blended with crushed ice into a cold, pale-green slush.
- 2 ozWhite rum
- 1 ozLime juice
- 3/4 ozSimple syrup
Fresh strawberries blended into the Daiquiri — fruit-forward and frozen.
- 2 ozWhite rum
- 5 ripeStrawberries
- 1 ozLime juice
Donn Beach's mint-and-peach Daiquiri, blended pale green and built to be sessionable.
- 1 ozLight rum
- 1/2 ozPeach brandy
- 12-15Fresh mint leaves
Overproof Jamaican rum stacked with green Chartreuse and falernum — strong on purpose.
- 1 ozOverproof Jamaican rum
- 3/4 ozGreen Chartreuse
- 1/4 ozFalernum
Parfait Amour in place of most of the sugar, tinting the glass lilac.
- 1 2/3 ozLight white rum
- 1/2 ozParfait Amour liqueur
- 1/2 ozFresh lime juice
Embury's dressier footnote — orgeat and pineapple liqueur where the sugar syrup goes.
- 1 2/3 ozLight white rum
- 1/2 ozPineapple liqueur
- 1/4 ozOrgeat
Pineapple juice for half the sugar, shaken and poured over ice instead of blended.
- 2 ozLight rum
- 1 1/4 ozFresh pineapple juice
- 1/2 ozFresh lime juice
Pineapple and orange stacked over orgeat — the beach-chair end of the family.
- 1 1/2 ozLight rum
- 1 ozFresh pineapple juice
- 1/4 ozOrgeat
Overproof rum with coconut and coffee liqueur over pineapple — no Caribbean pedigree.
- 1 1/2 ozOverproof rum
- 3/4 ozCoconut rum liqueur
- 1/4 ozCoffee liqueur
Cachaça on overproof Jamaican rum, cut with coconut water — as loud as the name.
- 1 ozCachaça
- 2/3 ozOverproof Jamaican rum
- 1/3 ozCoconut water
Two nautical rums and gold-flecked Goldwasser — the name is the whole conceit.
- 3/4 ozOverproof white rum
- 3/4 ozNavy-strength rum
- 1/2 ozGoldwasser