*LUPEC Boston’s latest ruminations, in case you missed ‘em in this week’s issue of The Weekly Dig.
Jackie Kennedy-Onassis and Michelle Obama are two of LUPEC Boston’s favorite First Ladies, so we jumped at the chance to participate in a recent fundraiser at the Boston Center for Adult Education, celebrating these ladies as style icons. What’s a good fundraiser without a good cocktail? LUPEC stepped in to supply the drinks, prompting us to ask: What would Jackie/Michelle drink?
Answering that question for Michelle Obama proved a bit more difficult (which we’ll address next week), but we know that during her White House years, Jackie Kennedy famously enjoyed daiquiris. If images of hot pink frozen concoctions come to mind when you hear the word daiquiri, think again. In its original incarnation, this classic is a far cry from the Ultimate Mango Berry variety found at T. G. I. Friday’s. A simple mixture of rum, fresh lime juice and sugar, the daiquiri is both classy and accessible, much like the late Jackie Kennedy.
There are many legends about the history of the daiquiri cocktail, all of which link the drink to a region of Cuba that was a strategic landing point for American troops during the Spanish American War. One story has American engineer Jennings S. Cox inventing the drink for a colleague with the few resources he had in his storeroom (lemon, sugar and lime) while working in an iron mine called Daiquiri in 1896. In another, an American general named William Shafter discovers the regional specialty while deployed in the town of Daiquiri, Cuba, in 1898. A third blames Havana-based barman Constantino Ribalaigua Vert for popularizing the drink at his El Floridita bar, albeit in a slightly different incarnation—with crushed ice and maraschino. Ernest Hemingway famously took a shine to a variation of this version, requesting his as a double with no sugar and calling it “Papa Dobles.”
None of these legends can be proven, of course, but the simple marriage of rum, lime and sugar made this pre-Prohibition classic an excellent solution for the rum that flowed into the US post-Noble Experiment. The version we served with Cruzan Aged Light Rum (from nearby St. Croix) were a hit with the fashionable ladies who attended the BCAE event. Pop on a pillbox hat and mix up one of these at home
DAIQUIRI
2 oz Cruzan Aged Light Rum
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
Shake and strain into a coupe.
CIN-CIN!
fancybrandy
Hanky Panky
joseypackard
Pink Lady
Pinky Gonzales
Hoskins
thepinkgin
Here is a toast to the rebirth of the daiquiri in its original glorious form! And kudos for recommending a flavorful rum as an ingredient – I think too many of us have been lead astray by using a very famous popular Puerto Rican brand that tastes, well, more like vodka than Rum. We are using Flor De Cana these days, and will keep our eyes open for a bottle of Cruzan Aged.
Awesome! May the Daiquiri flourish. I trust you’ve also tried a delicious Hemingway Daiquiri before?
We love them – I think they are an incredibly elegant summer drink – the Hemingway Daiquiris are on our “A” list and are one of the drinks I’ve written about in my blog – I feel like grapefruit juice is an underused ingredient, and Maraschino Liqueur (we are partial to Luxardo) is magnificent stuff – if used in moderation.
If you want an interesting ‘research session’ you can make each of Constantino’s recipes (there are four or five) – I think his Daiquiri #1 was a “straight daiquiri”, then the variants add grapefruit, maraschino, and there is one with triple sec/curacao.