I had promised to publish the best Daiquiri called The Hemingway Daiquiri(s) that became Anon’s go to cocktail in Havana and seems to have made its way back here to Sydney.
The Daiquiri
In honor of its (roughly) 112th birthday, I’m writing today about the “Cradle of the Daiquiri,” the Bar Floridita in Havana, affectionately known as the Floridita. There are two versions of the Daiquiri associated with Hemingway, as follows.
Two versions from which to choose:
E. Henmiway Special (circa 1937)
2 oz white rum
1 teaspoon grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon maraschino liqueur
½ oz fresh lime juice
“Frappe” (chip or crush) some ice, add to shaker, then add remaining ingredients. Shake well, then pour contents of shaker into a chilled cocktail glass.
Papa Doble, aka the Wild Daiquiri (circa 1947)
3 ¾ oz White Rum
2 oz fresh lime juice
2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
6 drops of maraschino liqueur
Blend well with ice. Serve in a large chilled goblet.
Suggested reading: Islands in the Stream, Cuba
I have learned that the Daiquiri is a very simple but elegant cocktail made with rum, lime juice and sugar. That’s it. Hemingway was a bit luckier, he moved to the Gulf Stream just as the King of the Daiquiri was just getting his start, behind the bar of the Floridita in Havana. We’ll come back to him in a moment.
Cocktail historians (yes, there are such things) tell us that the Daiquiri was invented around 1900. It seems that an American mining engineer by the name of Jennings Cox, stationed in the southeastern Cuban beach town of Daiquiri, was preparing to entertain some visiting friends from the States. To his horror, he discovered that he’d run out of gin. Just as so many cocktail origin stories are based on the “what do I do with these seemingly surplus and incongruous ingredients?” theme, Cox did have a goodly amount of rum, sugar, and limes. This was, after all, Cuba. Cox rolled up his sleeves, and the Daiquiri was born. Or so the story goes…
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