Daiquiri (Difford's recipe)

Difford's Guide
Discerning Drinkers (501 ratings)

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Retro Coupe
Ingredients:
1 2/3 fl oz Light white rum (charcoal-filtered 1-4 years old)
1/2 fl oz Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
1/3 fl oz Monin Pure Cane Syrup
8 drop Difford's Daiquiri Bitters (optional)
1/3 fl oz Chilled water (omit if using wet ice)
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Read about cocktail measures and measuring.

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of lime zest twist and lime wedge.
  3. SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Express lime zest twist over cocktail and discard.
  6. Garnish with lime wedge on rim.
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The founder of Bacardi was a Catalan wine merchant called Facundo Bacardi Massó, who left Spain for Cuba in 1830.

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AKA:

Daiquiri No. 1

Strength & taste guide:


Review:

Crisp, light and refreshing. Delicately simple yet with perfectly balanced complexity of flavours.

For an even better Daiquiri: In place of sugar syrup, use two slightly heaped 5ml measuring spoons of powdered sugar. If you like your Daiquiris very slightly tart then knock the excess sugar off so the sugar lays flat on the spoon. The sweeter you like your Daiquiris, the more heaped your loaded spoons should be. (I prefer slightly raised rather than flat.) To ensure the sugar fully dissolves, stir all the ingredients in the base of the shaker prior to adding ice and shaking.

To fill a large coupe, you'll need to scale up this recipe:
75 ml (2½ oz) Light white rum
22.5 ml (¾ oz) Lime juice
15 ml (½ oz) Sugar syrup
12 drops Difford's Daiquiri Bitters
10 ml (⅓ oz) Chilled water (omit if wet ice)

History:

My own tried and tested rum-heavy 10 parts rum to 3 parts lime to 2 parts sugar formula. This is my go-to recipe when making a straight-up Daiquiri with a dry light white (charcoal-filtered) rum. When using a more full-bodied rum, I follow a 6:2:1 Daiquiri recipe, which is better suited to "golden" rums.

Being the original Daiquiri, it is appropriately called Daiquiri No. 1 and is also known in Cuba as a "Natural Daiquiri," referring to its being shaken rather than blended.

This is the first of four numbered daiquiris in the 1934 1st edition Bar La Florida Cocktails, menu book of the famous El Floridita Bar, Havana, Cuba.

Daiquiri Num. 1
2 Ounces Bacardí Rum.
1 Teaspoonful Sugar.
Juice of half a lemon.
Cracked ice.
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Bar La Florida Cocktails, 1st Edition, 1934

See: Daiquiri cocktail history

Nutrition:

One serving of Daiquiri (Difford's recipe) contains 139 calories.

Alcohol content:

  • 1.1 standard drinks
  • 17.32% alc./vol. (34.64° proof)
  • 14.8 grams of pure alcohol
Difford's Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Bacardi's birthday image

Bacardi's birthday

The founder of Bacardi was a Catalan wine merchant called Facundo Bacardi Massó, who left Spain for Cuba in 1830.

Valentine's Day image

Valentine's Day

You can't have failed to notice that 14 February is St. Valentine's Day, a time of year when a sum equivalent to the GDP of a small country is spent on

Fernand Petiot's birthday image

Fernand Petiot's birthday

On this day in 1900, Fernand Pete Petiot was born in Paris, to parents who owned a guesthouse - he would come to fame, correctly or otherwise, as the inventor

Margarita Day image

Margarita Day

There are days for most things in the US, but Margarita Day is a subject very close to our hearts. Because, no matter who invented this classic cocktail,

World Bartender Day image

World Bartender Day

We're celebrating what the Oxford English dictionary defines as a person serving drinks at a bar, but we know as creative, hard-working folk who satisfy

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