 Classic daiquiri served in a cocktail glass | |
| Type | Cocktail |
|---|---|
| Ingredients |
|
| Standard drinkware | Cocktail glass |
| Served | Straight up: chilled, without ice |
| Preparation | In a cocktail shaker add all ingredients. Stir well to dissolve the sugar. Add ice and shake. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. |
Thedaiquiri (/ˈdaɪkəri,ˈdæk-/;Spanish:daiquirí[dajkiˈɾi]) is acocktail whose main ingredients arerum, citrus juice (typicallylime juice), andsugar or other sweetener.
The daiquiri is one of thesix basic drinks listed inDavid A. Embury's classicThe Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, which also lists some variations.
Daiquirí is also the name of a beach and aniron mine nearSantiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba, and is a word ofTaíno origin.[1]
Historians widely agree that the cocktail was invented by an American mining engineer namedJennings Cox, who was in Cuba (then at the tail-end of theSpanish Captaincy-General government) at the time of theSpanish–American War of 1898. It is also possible thatWilliam A. Chanler, aUS congressman who purchased the Santiago iron mines in 1902, introduced the daiquiri to clubs inNew York in that year.[2]: 168 [3]
Originally the drink was served in atall glass packed with cracked ice. A teaspoon of sugar was poured over the ice, and the juice of one or two limes was squeezed over the sugar. Two or three ounces of whiterum completed the mixture. The glass was then frosted with a long-handledspoon. Later the daiquiri evolved to be mixed in ashaker with the same ingredients but with shaved ice. After a thorough shaking, it was poured into a chilledcoupe glass.
The Daiquiri was subsequently refined and popularized by Emelio “Maragato” Gonzalez and Constantino “Constante” Ribalaigua Vert in Havana.[4]
The basic recipe for a daiquiri is also similar to thegrog British sailors drank aboard ships from the 1780s. By 1795 theRoyal Navy daily grog ration contained rum, water, ¾ ounce of lemon or lime juice, and 2 ounces of sugar.[5] This was a common drink across the Caribbean, and as soon as ice became available this was included instead of the water.
Consumption of the drink remained localized until 1909, whenRear Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, aU.S. Navy medical officer, tried Cox's drink. Johnson subsequently introduced it to theArmy and Navy Club inWashington, D.C., and drinkers of the daiquiri increased over the space of a few decades. It was one of the favorite drinks of the writerErnest Hemingway and U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy.[6]
The drink became popular in the 1940s.World War II rationing madewhiskey andvodka hard to come by, yet rum was easily obtainable owing to U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sGood Neighbor policy, which opened up trade and travel relations with Latin America, Cuba, and the Caribbean. The Good Neighbor policy, also known as the Pan-American program, helped make Latin America fashionable.[according to whom?] Consequently, rum-based drinks (once frowned upon as the choice of sailors and down-and-outs) also became fashionable, and the daiquiri saw tremendous popularity in the US.
A wide variety of alcoholic mixed drinks made with finely pulverized ice are often calledfrozen daiquirí. These drinks can also be combined and poured from ablender, eliminating the need for manualpulverisation and producing a texture similar to asmoothie. On larger scales, such drinks are often commercially made in larger machines and come in various flavors with various alcohol or liquors.[10] Another way to create a frozen daiquiri (mostly fruit-flavored variants) is by using frozenlimeade, providing the required texture, sweetness and sourness all at once.[11]
Liquor portaldaiquiri John F Kennedy.
