The Classic Daiquiri Recipe that Everybody Should Know (2024)

Ahhh the Daiquiri...

It makes me imagine myself sitting in a big tropical bar on the beach with huge open windows, palm trees, and a relaxing warm breeze. I've never actually been in any setting even close to that but I can imagine it happening when I drink a Daiquiri.

What does a Daiquiri taste like?

The perfect combination of tart lime, sweet cane sugar, and refreshingly crisp rum all coming together.

The short answer is: use your favorite white rum.

But lets go in depth a bit more and give you some brands to look out for when it comes time to choose your rum. There are so many good white rums on the market that I would say some of the best advice is probably just avoid anything that is priced too good to be true, or comes in a bottle that you could picture at a frat house party.

These are my recommendations of white rums for Daiquiris:

1. Plantation 3 Stars:Will give you a really balanced cocktail with subtle hints of baking spice, cinnamon and clove in the very background. The three stars represent the three countries the rum is from: Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica. (~$17)
2. El Dorado 3 Year:This is three year barrel aged demerara rum which means it will give you lots of toffee and vanilla notes that contrast the tart lime really well. (~$18)
3. Rhum Barbancourt Blanc:This is a fresh cane rum from Haiti that will give you a slight touch of green herbal grassy-ness in a good way. (~$19)
4. Flor de Cana Extra Seco:A four year old rum from Nicaragua that will give you a nice dry and crisp cocktail. (~$16)
5. Diplomatio Planas:A blend of rums aged up to six years with flavors ranging from dark coffee to tropical fruits. This will give you a more complex daiquiri as it is a slightly more premium option. (~$32)

When you mix in a the funky grassy bubblegum flavor of Wray and Nephew with a rum that has baking spice notes like Plantation 3 star or El Dorado 3 year it's magical.

The combination just works perfectly.

1. Nice white rum
2. Fresh lime juice
3. Simple syrup

If you use those ingredients in a ratio somewhere around 2 oz rum and 3/4 oz of both lime juice and simple syrup you'll be in pretty good shape. Don't overthink it. Make a simple syrup by gently heating a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar just until all the sugar is dissolved, then squeeze some limes yourself!

You don't need any type of mix or fancy machine to make a classic Daiquiri.

Just use good ingredients and shake the shit out of it!

This cocktail is up there with the Margarita and Martini as one of the most tweaked and adjusted drinks of all time.

Some versions are great, and some leave A LOT to be desired.

I'm not some cocktail purist that won't drink anything other than the "one true Daiquiri". But, when the only ingredient of the original three left is rum... that's not reeeealy a Daiquiri anymore.

I can get down with a Frozen Daiquiri, the strawberry version, and I have even seen some really awesome Daiquiris served out of a machine, just don't use mix or call it a Daiquiri just because there's rum in it.

Fair enough?

Nobody is really sure where exactly the Daiquiri recipe came from since there are so many conflicting origin stories.

It was most likely created in Cuba some time in the early 1900's and was spread through the Navy into American culture.

It became popular near the middle of the century and is likely to be one of the main reasons that rum made it's way into America as something other than just something that sailors drank with lime juice.