Reclaiming The Daiquiri

The Revolution© starts here, it starts today.  And gentlemen in England now-a-bed shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here!

I am a Rum Guy©, having discovered that out of all the popular mass-produced spirits (whiskey, vodka, gin, &c), rum is by far the most interesting.  The variety of rum is astounding, from darks to lights, overproof, cachaças, aguardiente, and many others.  Each island in the Caribbean produces its own rum, and each has a distinct, recognizeable character.  Rum is made around the world, in Mexico, Brazil, India, Mauritius, Hawaii, Vietnam, and so forth.  It can be a bland stock mixer (*cough* Bacardi), or can be excellent for sipping (Zacapa 23-year).  It mixes with just about everything.

There is a problem though: the signature rum drink, the Daiquiri, is massively misunderstood.  This happens over, and over:

SERVER: Can I get you something to drink?
ME: I think that I would like a Daiquiri.
SERVER: I’m sorry, we don’t have a blender.

WRONG!  Damn it, the Daiquiri is not a ‘blended’ drink!  You want to cheapen it, like those corn syrup and artificial color tequila concoctions that most Americans think are Margaritas?  NO - the Daiquiri is shaken!  It has a long pedigree: the Kennedys drank Daiquiris in the White House; Hemingway spent several years subsisting on nothing but the drink.

So, we’re taking it back.  Spread the word, be a part of it.  Order in restaurants, and correct them when they are wrong.  Make these for friends - they are excellent on a hot afternoon (only the Mojito - properly made - can rival them).

It’s really a simple drink.  Nearly all Rum-based cocktails have four basic ingredients: citrus, sugar, rum and ice.  You can make a pretty good cocktail following this rhyme:

1 of sour
2 of sweet
3 of strong
4 of weak

That is, one part lime, two parts sugar (you’ll need to back this off some, or it over-powers), three parts rum, four parts ice.  Tweak up or down to your tastes.  All right!  Time for the Seattle Daiquiri©:

1 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
2 oz fine light rum

Shake vigorously with crushed ice.  Strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Serve immediately.

Always - ALWAYS - use fresh lime juice.  Anything that comes in a bottle will make the drink taste chemically (I have had enough of these in restaurants).  Simple syrup is just a form of liquid sugar.  You can buy it (in the coffee syrups aisle), or make it like this:

1 cup superfine sugar (Baker’s sugar, NOT Confectioners, which has corn starch in it)
1 cup water

Heat in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar melts completely.  Will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.  You can also, if feeling frisky, try substituting Turbinado sugar.  I would not use brown sugar, it gets a bit heavy and colors the drink.

For the rum, I suggest Cruzan 2-year white rum.  Bacardi white is very flat, and uninteresting, and should only be used if you are making these en masse (for a party or some such).  Cruzan is inexpensive, easy to find, and has a lot more character.  Others that I like are the Don Q white, and surprisingly, the Tommy Bahama, though it is over-priced.  You can try out amber or gold rums, which are mostly the same as the whites (at least, in the larger brands) but they will give the drink a very different, and not always pleasing color.  Save the dark rums for Grog or Dark&Stormy (or Corn&Oil!).  Whatever you do, NEVER go below Bacardi.  All that stuff (Monarch, Potter, et al) is on the bottom shelf for a reason.

When shaking the drink, don’t over-shake.  Five to ten seconds is enough.  When the top of the shaker freezes up, it is time to pour.  This allows the small ice chips to suspend in the drink, without the ice diluting too much.  And most definitely serve immediately!  The ice in the drink will water it down quickly (though, on the whole, not substantially).

Feel free to adjust the proportions up or down to your taste, or experiment with adding other items.  The classic ‘Hemingway’ Daiquiri adds grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur(1).  If nothing else, give it a try - your friends will love them.
The Daiquiri also makes a great ‘rum tester’.  When I purchase a new rum I have not tried, the first thing I do is make a Daiquiri out of it to see what it is like.  You can quickly become familiar with the various styles of rum in this way (makes for a very pleasant weekend).

(1) This has nothing to do with maraschino cherries.  It is a rather nasty-smelling spirit out of Croatia.  I think they take whole cherries - pits, stems, leaves, whatever - and grind them up and make alcohol.  You wouldn’t ever drink it straight, but it adds a nice ‘high note’ to a Daiquiri.  I will often add a few drops to the recipe above to round it out a bit.