Classic Daiquiri

A Classic Daiquiri is a Rum based cocktail with Lime Juice and Simple Syrup. That's it! It's not some sort of frozen drink that comes out of a machine or a blender. This is the way Daiquiris are meant to be. Try this classic.

For the best Dairquiri experience, make sure you use a good White Rum. There's not much in this drink, so you need to be using the best ingredients out there. This goes the same for your Lime Juice. You should be using fresh juice for all of your cocktails, but it's even more important here!

We find the 15 mL of syrup is just about right here. For some it may be too sweet and for others not sweet enough, so play with this element to see what you like best. The drink should still be fairly tart though, with the sugar only used to take the edge of the lime.

So whip up some Daiquiris and enjoy.

Total Time 4

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

45 mL White Rum
20 mL Lime Juice
15 mL Simple Syrup*
Lime wedge or twist to garnish (optional)

Instructions

Shake White Rum, Lime Juice, and Simple Syrup with plenty of ice in a cocktail shaker until very cold. The shaker should be almost too cold to touch.
Strain into a Coupe glass, neat.
Garnish, drink, enjoy.

Notes

*A Simple Syrup recipe can be found here.

Again, choose a good Rum. It's important. It needs to shine through the other elements of the drink and be front and centre. After all, this is a Rum cocktail. There's no sense in it being there if you can't taste it!

You can also play with a Daiquiri by using different varieties of Rum (Golden, Dark, etc.). Very often this creates a completely different drink; if you browse our recipes you'll see some of them! Better yet plug different kinds of Rum into our cocktail database by ingredient to see what other concoctions come up. There are plenty of kinds of Daiquiris as well as some other fun recipes too.

Have fun.

Our Review of the Daiquiri

I love a Daiquiri, but mostly because it’s been a great inspiration for other far better cocktails. Here I’m specifically talking about the Beachcomber, which is a wonderful Tiki improvement on the Daiquiri. To a lesser extent I’m talking about the Hemingway Daiquiri, but the Beachcomber does it better. That’s what I think at least…

Writing a review for a cocktail like the Daiquiri is hard. It’s simple and the basis for so many other cocktails, what are you supposed to say about it? As I’ve already said though, the best thing about a Daiquiri is what it’s brought us in the general world of cocktails. Beyond that, it’s actually not the most exciting cocktail out there.

Then again, that’s being a little unfair. If you use a great Rum with fresh juice, there’s very little to not like here. Perhaps I’m being cynical and annoyed at the pervasiveness of pre-made frozen Daiquiris out there, which has generally just ruined the cocktail to the point where novice bartenders don’t know that this classic, easy to make, shaken cocktail exists. But that’s the cynic in me. Plus, an otherwise great cocktail shouldn’t be blamed for the poor tastes of others.

All in all, Rum always goes well with fruit juice, and this is the cocktail recipe that started that trend. Without it, we probably wouldn’t have Tiki cocktails. And while I’m always a proponent of using the best quality spirits, a Daiquiri can be a good way to disguise otherwise not so great White Rum. That may be a plus and it may be a minus.

It’s a great cocktail, and maybe I’m being overly critical with the rating to follow, but there are many better cocktails that have spawned because of it. Because of that, I need to rate it down a little bit.

7/10

Review by Chas

Looking for other cocktails with White Rum or Rum in general?

Rum is a wonderful ingredient in cocktails! If you’re looking for more, we have some more cocktail recipes for you to look at:

Top 10 Rum cocktails – this is a list of our favourite Rum cocktails (no surprise the Daiquiri is on it!). It’s probably a good idea to check here if you like Rum.

White Rum cocktail recipes – this is all of our White Rum cocktails. It’s a good base for a lot of great recipes.

Rum cocktail recipes – while White Rum is a great base for a lot of recipes, other styles of Rum are great too!

Top 15 three ingredient cocktail recipes – you’ll note that the Daiquiri only has three ingredients and is easy to make. Here’s more.

Top 20 classic cocktail recipes – the Classic Daiquiri is, of course, a classic cocktail. If you’re looking for more classics, we have a great list for you.

Tagged Lime Juice

2 Responses

Chas says:
May 23, 2022 at 7:18 pm

Classic for a reason. So refreshing!
Reply
Steve says:
June 7, 2022 at 9:03 am

Can be a little sour. Maybe I should have added more sugar?
Reply

Classic Daiquiri Recipe