The Daiquiri – A quintessential summertime cocktail. Born in Cuba, the seemingly simple combination of rum, lime, and sugar is anything but. The perfect alignment of these ingredients takes great skill and, as stated by PUNCH Magazine, is what makes the Daiquiri a drink worth of competition.
In search of the perfect expression of this classic cocktail, three visiting bartender critics from New York joined Punch staff in a blind-tasted 20 recipes curated by America’s top bartenders from Seattle to Boston.
Among classics, the Daiquiri is arguably the sour held in highest estimation in cocktail circles. A child of Cuba (it takes its name from a beach near a coastal mining town), it took the tropical triptych of rum, lime juice and sugar and brought it to its apex. Credit, perversely enough, typically goes to an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox, who worked in Santiago de Cuba near the dawn of the 20th century and liked to entertain with pitchers of rum sours. Some local bartenders eventually helped to finesse the concoction.
On its face, the drink is simple enough, but it can split in infinite directions. Is the sugar raw or employed by way of syrup? Is that syrup 2:1 or 1:1? Is it made from turbinado, demerara or superfine cane sugar? Then of course, there’s the lime.
“It’s the omelet of cocktails,” said Simó. “If you can’t make an omelet, you don’t know how to cook. Same thing with a Daiquiri.”
The top three recipes (by vote) in this blind tasting are as followed:
- 2 oz Flor de Cana 4 Year Extra Dry
- 1 oz lime juice, double strained
- .75 oz rich cane syrup, (2:1, cane sugar:water)
2) St. John’s Frizell’s Daiquiri
- 2 oz Denizen Aged White Rum
- .75 oz lime juice
- .75 oz simple syrup, (1:1, sugar:water)
- 1.75 oz Diplomático White Rum
- .25 oz Neisson Blanc Rhum Agricole
- 1 oz lime juice
- .75 oz simple syrup, (1:1, sugar:water)
Check out the full article and more recipes from the tasting here!
