Classic Daiquiri Recipe

Before you start

The daiquiri is a three-ingredient sour: rum for body, lime for acid and sugar to balance it. Because there is nothing to hide behind, small details decide the result: juice squeezed the same day, a syrup you have measured, and a hard shake that chills and dilutes the drink at the same time.

This spec uses a 2:1:0.75 ratio of rum to lime to rich syrup equivalent. It sits on the tart side of balanced, which suits most limes; adjust the syrup by 5 ml at a time once you have tasted it.

Ingredients

• 60 ml (2 oz) white rum — a dry, lightly aged Spanish-style rum is traditional
• 30 ml (1 oz) fresh lime juice — about 1 large lime, strained
• 22 ml (¾ oz) simple syrup (1:1) — or 15 ml rich 2:1 syrup
• 1 cup (about 150 g) ice cubes — for shaking
• 1 lime wheel — optional garnish

Method

1. Chill the glass: fill it with ice and water while you build the drink, or keep it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Squeeze the lime and strain the juice through a fine strainer to remove pulp and seeds. Juice is brightest within a few hours of squeezing.
3. Add the rum, lime juice and syrup to the shaker tin. Taste a drop on a spoon; it should be sharp and sweet at the same time.
4. Fill the shaker about two-thirds with fresh, dry ice cubes. Seal it firmly.
5. Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the outside of the tin is frosted and painfully cold to hold.
6. Empty the glass. Double-strain the drink through the Hawthorne and fine strainers so no ice shards dilute it further.
7. Garnish with a thin lime wheel, or serve it plain, and drink while it is very cold.

Tips for success

• Measure everything with a jigger. A 5 ml change in lime or syrup is easy to taste in a drink this small.
• Use ice straight from the freezer. Wet, half-melted ice over-dilutes the drink before it is cold.
• Limes vary in acidity. Taste your first drink and adjust the syrup for the batch of limes you have, not the recipe.

Substitutions

Simple syrup

Use 15 ml of 2:1 rich syrup for a silkier texture, or 15 ml of light agave syrup for an earthier flavor. Demerara syrup works but darkens the drink.

White rum

A lightly aged gold rum adds vanilla and oak. Funky Jamaican rums are delicious but loud; start with 45 ml of white rum and 15 ml of the funky rum.

Lime juice

Bottled lime juice tastes flat and bitter here. If fresh limes are not available, make a different drink rather than a weaker daiquiri.

Variations

Frozen daiquiri

Blend the same spec with about 1 cup of ice until smooth. Add 5 ml more syrup, because cold dulls sweetness.

Hemingway-style

Reduce syrup to 7 ml and add 15 ml grapefruit juice and 7 ml maraschino liqueur.

Troubleshooting

The drink tastes too sour

Your limes are especially acidic or the syrup is under-measured. Add 5 ml syrup to the next drink and check that your syrup is 1:1 by weight, not by volume of granulated sugar.

It tastes thin and watery

The ice was wet or the shake ran long. Use fresh, cold ice, shake for about 10 seconds and strain immediately.

Little ice chips float on top

Double-strain through a fine strainer. Shards keep melting in the glass and dilute the drink.

Storage

Serve immediately; a shaken daiquiri loses its texture within minutes. For a party, combine rum and syrup ahead and keep them in the fridge, then add lime juice squeezed the same day and shake to order.

Safety notes

Contains about 60 ml of 40% ABV rum, which is roughly 1.6 U.S. standard drinks (a standard drink is about 14 g of pure alcohol). Do not serve to anyone under the legal drinking age, and never drink and drive.