Hemingway Daiquiri
A Daiquiri reworked with grapefruit and maraschino in place of most of the sugar. Tart, dry and faintly bitter.
- MethodShaken
- GlassCoupe
- IceNone (served up)
- Strengthabout 16.3% ABV
- BaseRum
- Tastesour, refreshing, bitter
Recipe
| 60 ml 2 oz | White rum (light, Spanish-style) |
| 22.5 ml ¾ oz | Fresh lime juice |
| 15 ml ½ oz | Fresh grapefruit juice |
| 7.5 ml ¼ oz | Maraschino liqueur |
| 7.5 ml ¼ oz | Simple syrup (1:1) (optional) |
Garnish. A lime wheel, or a thin wedge of grapefruit if you have one open.
Method
- Chill a coupe.
- Shake the rum, lime, grapefruit, maraschino and syrup (if using) hard with ice for 12 to 15 seconds.
- Double strain into the cold coupe.
- Garnish and serve at once.
About the Hemingway Daiquiri
This is the Daiquiri bent towards dryness. Grapefruit adds a bitter edge and maraschino brings a floral, nutty sweetness that is far less sugary than plain syrup. The result is sharp and bracing, a drink for people who find the classic Daiquiri a little too sweet.
History
Documented
The drink comes from El Floridita in Havana, where the head bartender Constantino Ribalaigua kept a family of numbered daiquiris in the 1930s, one of which already used maraschino. Ernest Hemingway, who lived in and around Havana from the late 1930s, drank at the Floridita often and liked his daiquiris very sour. A grapefruit-and-maraschino version became known there as the Hemingway Special (or, in a double-strength, sugarless form, the Papa Doble).
Legend and lore
Popular accounts have Hemingway drinking a dozen or more double daiquiris at a sitting and claim he avoided sugar because he was diabetic; both details are repeated far more often than they are sourced. Some versions credit the grapefruit to a later Floridita bartender, Antonio Meilán, rather than to Ribalaigua.
Disputed or unclear: Which Floridita bartender first added grapefruit, and the year the Hemingway Special first appeared in print, are not firmly established; the timeline year is approximate.
Variations
- Daiquiri. The original: rum, lime and plain syrup.
- Papa Doble. A double measure of rum with no added sugar at all, as Hemingway reputedly took it; very sharp and very strong.
- Frozen Hemingway. Blend with crushed ice in the Floridita style; add the optional syrup, since cold mutes sweetness.
Bartender's notes
- Taste your grapefruit first. If it is very sour, use the optional syrup; if it is sweet and pink, leave it out.
- Maraschino is strong-flavoured; measure it exactly, because a little too much tastes medicinal.
