National Daiquiri Day

The John F. Kennedy Daiquiri

National Daiquiri Day is celebrated on July 19.  Daiquiri is a popular rum-based cocktail which is believed to have been one of the favorite drinks of Ernest Hemingway and President John F. Kennedy.  Although daiquiris are enjoyable throughout the year, July 19 has been set aside as National Daiquiri Day to celebrate this tropical drink, any time. We can recognize Jennings Cox, an engineer by trade, for the creation of this hot-weather Cuban classic. This distinctive drink rose to popularity in the United States during the 1940s.  Vodka and whiskey were rationed during WWII, making the spirits hard to come by.  However, due to Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, which opened trade and travel relations with the Caribbean, rum became easy to purchase.

In 1989, Cox was charged with supervising a mining operation in a village named Daiquiri, on the southeastern tip of Cuba.  After a long hot day in the mines Cox and his men would gather at a local bar to unwind.  It was here that Cox first mixed rum, lime and sugar over a tall glass of cracked ice.  The refreshing combination became a standard after-work beverage for the engineers who called the drink "Daiquiri" after the Daiquiri mines where they worked.  It is rumored Cox ran out of gin while entertaining guests at his home.  With local rum being the only option available to the village market, Cox used rum as a substitute in his recipe.  It turned out to be a hit naming his drink the "Daiquiri" after the nearby village.

Ernest Hemingway's fondness for the Daiquiri famously contributed to the drink's international popularity.  In 1960, legend has it JFK toasted his election as President of the United States with a Daiquiri made by his wife, Jackie.  Her personal recipe was tacked to the kitchen wall of the White house for the staff to follow.  JFK's Daiquiri is a little different, but features light rum, fresh lime juice and Jackie's "secret ingredient", Falernum.  Falernum is either 11% syrup liqueur or a nonalcoholic syrup from the Caribbean.  It is best known for its use in tropical drinks.  It contains flavors of ginger, lime, almond and frequently cloves or allspice.  

Although folks have been enjoying the classic Daiquiri since the early 1900s, the rise of the refrigerator caused the Daiquiri's simple blueprint to undergo some significant transformations over the years .. not to mention a hit to its reputation.  

The classic recipe soon gave way to Tiki culture, sugary mixes, sweet and sour, frozen fruit/syrups and readily available ice leading to the frozen Daiquiri such as the strawberry Daiquiri, the banana Daiquiri, the peach Daiquiri, the mango Daiquiri, the watermelon Daiquiri and the pineapple Daiquiri. Basically, if there was fruit sitting next to rum and a blender, someone used it in the cocktail.  As a result, over the decades, the drink earned a popular reputation. 

It wasn't until the late 1990s and the dawn of the modern cocktail renaissance people began to take the Daiquiri serious, again.  Eventually, cocktail aficionados became fascinated with the original recipes.

It is no secret famed author, Hemmingway was a huge fan of the Daiquiri.  He got his nickname "Papa Doble" for his habit of exclusively ordering his Daiquiris as doubles. Hemmingway frequented the legendary, El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba and his favorite bartenders even came up with a couple of recipe variations.  The best known which skips the addition of sugar adds maraschino liqueur for a hint of sweetness and fresh grapefruit juice for a twist of citrus.  The result is a dry, tart and tasty recipe although modern versions typically call for more liqueur than the scant six drops Hemingway preferred in his Daiquiri. 

Constantino Ribalaigua, famous bartender at the El Floridita was famous in Cuba long before Hemingway penned his name into history.  He was known as el rey de los coteleros or the "cocktail king".  His father taught him how to work the bar and to carry on the family profession, saving up enough money to buy El Floridita in 1918 at the age of 30.  There, he made a name for himself and for Cuban rum cocktails, in general.  Only Contance and Ernest know the truth of what went down when Hemingway walked into the El Floridita. Neither are alive  today to confirm just which variation of the Daiquiri Hemingway tried and modified.  El Floridita had numerous Daiquiris on the menu at the time.  Today, what we do know about the Hemingway Daiquiri is not the rum bomb Papa Hemingway ordered.  Still, Hemingway and his Daiquiris (and, by extension of Constance and El Floridita) are solidified in cocktail history.  

The Ernest Hemingway Daiquiri

The first written mention of the Daiquiri, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was penned by Hemingway's friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald.  He even beat Hemingway to the double Daiquiri!  In Fitzgerald's 1920 novel This Side of Paradise he writes "Here's the old jitney waiter.  If you ask me, I want a double Daiquiri."

The Daiquiri lives squarely in the pantheon of legendary drinks and right alongside the Manhattan, the Martini, the Negroni and the Old-Fashioned.

Salud!