The Strawberry Daiquiri adds ripe strawberries to the frozen formula. Done properly — with real fruit, not syrup — it is a genuinely good drink: the berry's sweetness and gentle acidity slot neatly alongside the lime.
Made with real strawberries, it earns back every bit of its reputation.
Real Fruit, Not Syrup
The Strawberry Daiquiri's poor reputation comes entirely from bottled sour mix and artificial purée. Built with fresh, ripe strawberries, it is bright and clean — far closer to the original Daiquiri than the lurid bar version suggests.
Balancing the Berry
Strawberries bring their own sweetness, so the simple syrup should be cut back and then adjusted by taste. Ripe summer fruit needs very little; pale, out-of-season berries need both more sugar and a little more lime to come alive.
Shaken or Frozen
The drink is almost always blended frozen, but a handful of muddled strawberries shaken into a standard Daiquiri makes an excellent, less sweet version — served up, the colour of a sunset.
The Daiquiri Family
The classic — white rum, fresh lime, and sugar, shaken hard and served straight up.
- 2 ozWhite rum
- 1 ozFresh lime juice
- 3/4 ozSimple syrup
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
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