6 Daiquiri Variants to Shake Up This Summer
When the weather starts to heat up, many drinkers cast aside Old Fashioneds, Negronis, and other boozy, stirred cocktails for spritzes, highballs, and tropical drinks. Arguably, one of the easiest ways to usher in the summer season is with a round of Daiquiris.
At its core, the Daiquiri is a simple mix of rum, lime, and sugar, but it’s also a litmus test for how well a bartender knows how to balance cocktails. It’s a bar’s equivalent to a plain slice at a pizza joint, a cheeseburger at an American restaurant, or a flagship IPA at a brewery. When all proportions are in check, the ingredients are fresh, and the drink is prepped with precision, a well-made Daiquiri is a harmonious blend that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Once a bartender masters the classic spec, it’s time to look beyond the three-part recipe and start tackling some of the many Daiquiri offshoots. From riffs with banana liqueur and blended strawberries to specs spiked with sparkling wine, yellow Chartreuse, and sherry, here are six Daiquiri variants to shake up this summer.
El Floridita (Hemingway Daiquiri)
Credit: Gabrielle Johnson
It’s a cocktail that goes by several names — El Floridita Daiquiri, Papa Doble, and Hemingway Daiquiri — but all are interchangeable monikers for this Daiquiri riff created by the former proprietor of Havana’s El Floridita bar, Constantino Ribalaigua Vert. According to an NPR interview with Ernest Hemingway’s niece, Hilary, the acclaimed author went into El Floridita one day in the early 1930s to use the restroom, and ordered a Daiquiri after hearing the bar’s patrons raving about the drinks. Allegedly, after his first cocktail, Hemingway ordered another with “less sugar and more rum,” prompting barman Ribalaigua Vert to create what is now known as the Hemingway Daiquiri: a mix of white rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice, and Maraschino liqueur.
The Air Mail
Credit: Gabrielle Johnson
In the middle of the Venn diagram between the Daiquiri and the French 75 lies the Air Mail: a blend of Cuban gold rum, lime juice, honey syrup, and sparkling wine. The cocktail was dreamed up and promoted by the Bacardi team back in 1930, and although the brand never offered an explanation for the drink’s name, it’s presumed to be a nod to Cuba’s air-mail services that launched the same year. Glassware recommendations for this cocktail vary, but we find that Collins glasses and Champagne flutes are the best vessels for preserving its carbonation. For the garnish, top with a mint sprig, a lime wedge, or stick a postage stamp on the outer rim of the glass as the original recipe suggests.
The Banana Daiquiri
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Among the likes of tropical drinks pioneers Donn Beach and Trader Vic in the early 20th century was the arguably lesser-talked-about Harry Yee. A Hawaii native, Yee worked as the head bartender at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki for over three decades, during which he invented several classic cocktails, including the Blue Hawaii, the Tropical Itch, and the Banana Daiquiri. Although he used to build the drink by adding ripe bananas to blended Daiquiris, most bartenders today make the cocktail as a shaken Daiquiri with banana liqueur to achieve a more consistent flavor profile.
The Daisy de Santiago
Credit: Geovanna Rivera
The Daisy de Santiago is another fizzy Daiquiri riff created at the former Bacardi HQ in Santiago, Cuba. Built with white rum, lime juice, simple syrup, yellow Chartreuse, and soda, the drink is traditionally served over ice, making it an herbaceous, sessionable take on the original. The cocktail was first documented by American writer, world traveler, and cocktail enthusiast Charles H. Baker Jr. in his 1939 book “The Gentleman’s Companion,” in which he calls the Daisy de Santiago “the best Bacardi drink on record along with the immortal Daiquiri.” While using Bacardi white rum yields a great, balanced version of this cocktail, don’t shy away from experimenting with other brands’ expressions to tweak the drink’s profile.
The Daiquiri Especial
Credit: David Chow
Not quite a modern classic (but a delicious cocktail nonetheless), the Daiquiri Especial is a spin on the original drink with accents of baking spice, nuts, and woody tannins courtesy of Angostura bitters, oloroso sherry, and a dusting of grated nutmeg. Created in the early 2020s by Evan Hosaka, former lead bartender at Las Vegas’s now-shuttered The Dorsey bar, the Daiquiri Especial employs a multi-rum blend consisting of rhum agricole, Jamaican rum, and blended white rum, making for a complex base brimming with hogo funk, grassy minerality, and just a touch of sweetness. The drink not only showcases the flavor potential of rum blends, but it also proves that the Daiquiri template remains ripe for riffing in the modern era.
The Strawberry Daiquiri
Credit: Superjuicy
Even though the Strawberry Daiquiri has a reputation for being a sweet-leaning, “basic” beverage, it wouldn’t be one of — if not, the most — famous Daiquiri riff out there if it weren’t a crowd-pleaser. The drink’s exact origins are unknown, but it was likely the product of bartenders adding different fruits to frozen, blended Daiquiris in the early-mid 20th century. Such experimentation also led to the invention of drinks like the Miami Vice, a delicious, eye-catching cocktail that’s half frozen Piña Colada and half Strawberry Daiquiri.
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