Happy National Daiquiri Day: Recipe & History

by Melody Kettle


*Photo Credit: http://archive.blisstree.com/feel/classic-cocktails-for-your-summer-parties/You know it's going to be a good day when it's National Daiquiri Day!  Few libations say "chill out" quite like this classic rum cocktail. 

According to CHOW:

 The original daiquiri was a mixture of rum, lime, and sugar, served over ice. Yet another product of late-19th-century imperialism, the daiquiri was first recorded in a Cuban mining town of the same name. Although the locals had probably been knocking back rum and lime for years, in 1886 an American engineer, James Cox, and a Cuban engineer named Pagliuchi refined the rum and lime drink by adding cane sugar. When Admiral Lucius Johnson introduced the recipe to the Army Navy Club in DC, in 1909, the daiquiri was becoming one of the world’s most popular drinks. Many years later, John F. Kennedy may have tried his first daiquiri there. We will never know, but quite ironically, JFK, who also had a penchant for Cuban cigars, designated the daiquiri as his drink of choice.

Revolutionary RumConstantino Ribalagua, the famed bartender at Havana’s La Floridita—nicknamed La Catedral del Daiquiri—blended the drink with shaved ice, thereby creating the frozen daiquiri. Chief among the frozen daiquiri’s adherents was Ernest Hemingway. Ribalagua specifically created a sugarless Papa Dobles for Papa Hemingway, who apparently could wade through a dozen of these at one sitting. Standing is not an option after a dozen frozen daiquiris.

Here's a recipe for a classic Daiquiri:

1 1/2 ounces light rum

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon simple syrup or superfine sugar

Shake all ingredients well with ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

If you're looking to go out to celebrate National Daiquiri Day, here's a look at what they're serving up in Hoboken at the Kolo Klub and Bin 14.

Dark and StormyKolo Klub’s Dark N’ Stormy  ($12)

Gosling’s dark rum

Ginger beer 

Dash of lime juice

*Cocktail Consultants Michael Neff and Kenneth McCoy

1422 Grand Street, 2nd floor,

Hoboken, NJ

Bin 14's Revolutionary Rum ($9)

10 Cane rum

Raspberry orange puree

Lime juice

Mint

*Mixologists Vince Crysler 

1314 Washington Street,
Hoboken, NJ