Daiquiri
- 2 oz light rum
- 1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 oz simple syrup
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.
The origins of most of the classic cocktails are shrouded in myth and mystery but the Daiquiri's provenance is well documented. It originates with a couple of American mining engineers in Cuba just after the Spanish-American war around the turn of the century. (However, one feels duty bound to point out that the beneficial effects of rum, sugar and lime juice were not entirely unknown to the British Navy some 150 years previously.)
As with all cocktails where the lime juice is the star of the show we would recommend using Key limes. Even so the Daiquiri does not make it to our top shelf. Make it with gin and add a dash of bitters and you have the Bennett Cocktail, definitely on our top shelf. Tone down the lime juice some and add orange curaçao with a touch of almond syrup and you have the Mai Tai—another winner.