The Daiquiri, ahh the Daiquiri

Mad Gringo is in a mood today.

Heading into the weekend, the big seller this week has been the Daiquiri Daze Hawaiian Shirt. A bold shirt that says, "HEY! I'M WEARING TROPICAL CLOTHING TODAY!"

What inspires such a shirt? The Daiquiri. Mad Gringo's theme drink for the weekend.

Heading over to The Art of Drink, Mad Gringo was overwhelmed by the flood of memories that started to fill his brain as he read the recipe. Early afternoon in Key West on the back porch with Jay-bird unpacking from his trip to market and mapping out a plan for beach and Old Town that day. 

Fresh strawberries.

Fresh limes.

Bacardi.

I remember sunshine, laughter, "One Particular Harbour", reconstructing stories from the night before. . .and then fade to bright white light.

Key West.

Anywho. . .heading into this weekend - get to the store and grab some berries, grab some limes, grab some rum and invite a few friends over to make some memories of your own. (Or skip the strawberries and make a classic daiquiri, your choice)

The Strawberry Daiquiri as mixed by Darcy O'Neil at the Art of Drink:

2 oz White Rum
½ oz Fresh Lime Juice
¼ oz Simple Syrup
6 Fresh Strawberries

Hull the strawberries and muddle (crush) them in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add the rum, lime and simple syrup and stir to extract as much of the strawberry juice as possible. Pack your cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Fine strain into a sugar rimmed martini glass and garnish with a lime wedge or strawberry.

Fine straining is very important for this drink. I don’t stir the daiquiri with ice because I want to pulverize as much of the strawberry as possible to extract all of the flavours. But after you’ve done that you need to strain out the pulp. Plus, the drink is going to be slightly cloudy anyway, so if you give it a good shake it will take on a nice red colour.

Most bars that make a daquiri do it with a sugar rim, which nullifies the use of simple syrup in the cocktail. But I’ve found that the modern palate isn’t as accepting of the strong sour flavour, so I always include a dash of simple syrup to make it more palatable. I also rim the glass with sugar for esthetics.

The Strawberry Daiquiri doesn’t have to be the abomination that many bars have made it. It can be a well balanced, refreshing, cocktail that will make other people in the bar ask “what’s that?”.

Classic Daiquiri

2 oz White Rum
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup

And should you need a Daiquiri Daze Hawaiian Shirt, click the link.

Go slow. Enjoy the weekend.

MG