One Daiquiri, Six Ways: Variations on a Classic

Long Weekend Beverage Director Jayson Wilde. Photo credit Andy Berry

When Future Bars Beverage Director Jayson Wilde was designing the beverage program for Long Weekend, he knew he’d need to focus on the Daiquiri. The bar opened with the promise of changing its theme every nine months to a new vacation destination, with the first theme of Havana, Cuba.

The three-level space in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood was designed with brightly colored cafe seating, a main bar and dance floor on the ground floor, and a dark, graffiti-tagged party basement where DJs were scheduled to play on weekend nights. All it needed was some Cuban cocktails.

The History of the Daiquiri and Mojito

The Cuban-themed Long Weekend. Photo credit Andy Berry

The Daiquiri is a Cuban drink popularized by Jennings Stockton Cox Jr. in 1896, though Caribbean peoples had been combining rum, lime, and sugar for many years already. The basic recipe and name for the rum sour came from Cox, who worked at a company near the town of Daiquiri in Cuba.

The drink was later modified by bartenders such as the legendary Constantino Ribalaigua Vert of the Bar La Florida in Havana, known as “the cathedral of the Daiquiri.” Shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in the U.S. in 1933, Ribalaigua created the frozen blender Daiquiri there, despite blender drinks being more often associated with the 1970s than 1930s.

El Floridita Bar in Havana, Cuba. Photo credit Eye

Not far from La Florida in Havana is La Bodeguita, where the specialty is Mojitos. (Ernest Hemingway is rumored to have said, “My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita.”) A Mojito contains the rum-lime-sugar trifecta of the Daiquiri, with added soda water to make it a tall drink, and mint as garnish (and often muddled into the drink as well).

The Mojito was also born in Cuba and first appears in print by that name in 1931, according to Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, writing in the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. The drink was popular during Prohibition, then enjoyed a renaissance beginning in the 1980s that continues to this day.

Creating the Bases and the Blends

Long Weekend’s classic Daiquiri. Photo credit Andy Berry

Back in San Francisco, Wilde was planning the drink menu for Long Weekend. In addition to the Daiquiri and Mojito, he planned to feature other Cuban drinks like the Hotel Nacional, Bumbo, Mulata, Canchanchara, Papa Doble, and El Presidente.

Havana Club Rum. Photo credit Tim Rüßmann

His classic Daiquiri uses Havana Club Anejo Blanco rum (the Bacardi-produced version available in the U.S., not the Pernod Ricard version sold in Cuba and the rest of the world except America), but there are also strawberry, tropical (pineapple-coconut), and watermelon versions. And each of these flavored Daiquiris uses a different blend of rums as its base.

Wilde says he spent a long time getting the rum blends for each of the flavors perfect because, as we’ll see, they get used in many different variations. A fruity, vanilla-forward rum blend for the Strawberry Daiquiri includes Diplomatico Planas, Cane Run white rum, and El Dorado 3 Year Old rum. The watermelon rum blend, on the other hand, calls for grassy flavors of a pot still rum, a rhum agricole, and a Mexican charanda. Only the tropical rum blend includes any flavored rum; about a third of it is Planteray Cut & Dry Coconut rum.

Converting One Cocktail Into Six

A blended Strawberry Daiquiri at Long Weekend. Photo credit Andy Berry

At Long Weekend, each Daiquiri is available on the rocks, up in a cocktail glass without ice, as a punch in a big dispenser, as a blended Daiquiri, as a granizado over shaved ice with a few dashes of a colored liqueur on top, or in the form of a Mojito with added mint and soda water. That’s six serving options for each of the classic and three flavored Daiquiris: 24 cocktails from four bases. Efficient! 

The classic Daiquiri is made with white rum, lime juice, and cane sugar syrup. To convert that into frozen form, they bump up the syrup by a quarter ounce, as blender/frozen drinks need more sugar than shaken ones. Likewise, the shaved ice version (granizado) has the same recipe as the blender version, but the drink is also topped with dashes of hibiscus-infused Licor 43 for a pop of color and flavor.

The fruit Daiquiris are each made with their individual rum blend, some supporting juice or liqueur in addition to lime juice, and flavored syrup. The Tropical Daiquiri, for example, includes pineapple juice and pineapple syrup instead of unflavored syrup. The Strawberry Granizado is topped with a touch of blue curaçao, the tropical version uses hibiscus Licor 43 again, and the watermelon one comes with a float of Midori.

For the Mojito versions of each Daiquiri, soda water and mint are added, and the lime and sugar are reduced by half. Additionally, they amplify the mint flavor by adding a few dashes of Giffard Menthe-Pastille to all Mojitos served at the bar.

How to Do It Yourself

A Watermelon Daiquiri Granizado is topped with a Midori float. Photo credit Alex Garrett

You, too, can turn one base Daiquiri recipe into six drinks. These formulas are simplified versions of what Wilde created for Long Weekend, and you’ll need to adjust them based on your choice of simple syrup.

Classic Daiquiri (served up): 

2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice, 3/4 part simple syrup. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.

Classic Daiquiri (served on the rocks):

2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice, 3/4 part simple syrup. Shake and strain over ice in a bucket glass.

Classic Daiquiri (served as a punch):

2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice, 3/4 part simple syrup. Multiply by the number of servings desired and serve over ice cubes in a drink dispenser with elaborate garnishes.

Blended Daiquiri:

2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice, 1 part simple syrup. Blend with ice and pour into a footed “poco grande” glass. Garnish with mint.

Daiquiri Granizado:

2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice, 1 part simple syrup. “Whip shake” with shaved/flaked ice and pour into a tall glass. Top with more ice and dashes of hibiscus leaf-infused Licor 43 or another flavorful liqueur.

A Classic Mojito. Photo credit Andy Berry

Classic Mojito:

2 parts rum, 1/2 part lime juice, 1/2 part simple syrup (or 1/4 part syrup with 5 dashes of mint liqueur). Muddle mint leaves in the bottom of the glass, add pebble ice, and build the drink in the glass. Top with soda water and garnish with a mint bouquet.