El Floridita Daiquiri
An El Floridita Daiquiri is 60ml of white rum, 15ml of fresh lime juice, 5ml of maraschino and 10ml of sugar syrup, flash blended with fine crushed ice for five to ten seconds and heaped into a chilled coupe as soft snow, with a short straw. About 2.6 UK units. Its home is Havana’s El Floridita, owned from 1918 by Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, whose bar called itself la cuna del daiquiri. He is credited with the frozen daiquiri in the early 1930s, and he is reported to have called this one his Daiquiri No. 4. The maraschino lifts the lime without tasting of cherry, and the shaved ice makes it a frappé rather than a slush.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime wheel on the rim or nothing
Ingredients
60ml
A Cuban-style white rum with some flavour of its own, at 40% ABV. Cold mutes everything, and a bland rum disappears into the ice.
15ml
Squeezed gently on the day, within a few hours. Fifteen millilitres is less than a shaken Daiquiri takes, because the ice adds water and the maraschino brings some sweetness of its own.
5ml
Maraschino liqueur at about 32% ABV, not the syrup cocktail cherries sit in. It lifts the lime and rounds the rum without tasting of cherry.
10ml
With the maraschino it balances 15ml of lime. Cold dulls sweetness, so taste the first one and add up to a bar spoon more if your limes are sharp.
Instructions
Chill a coupe.
Add the rum, lime juice, maraschino and sugar syrup to a blender.
Add a cup of fine, dry crushed ice on top.
Blend in short bursts for 5 to 10 seconds, until the ice is fine snow rather than slush.
Spoon or pour it unstrained into the chilled coupe, heaped rather than levelled.
Serve at once with a short straw.
Our version
Based on Ribalaigua’s Daiquiri No. 4 as reported in 1937: two ounces of rum, a teaspoon each of sugar and maraschino, half a lime and shaved ice. We measure it as 60ml of rum, 15ml of lime, 10ml of syrup and 5ml of maraschino, with syrup in place of granulated sugar.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
The ice sets the texture. Fine, dry crushed ice straight from the freezer blends to snow; wet ice that has been standing blends to slush. Put the liquids in the blender first and the ice on top, and stop as soon as it looks even, usually after five to ten seconds. Squeeze the limes gently and on the day. Pressing hard forces bitter oil from the peel into the juice, and with so little sugar in the drink, it shows. Serve it at once. A frappé starts to collapse within a couple of minutes, and the last of it turns to liquid.
Behind the El Floridita Daiquiri
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Havana’s Floridita began in 1817 under another name, La Piña de Plata, the Silver Pineapple. Ribalaigua, a Catalan, joined as a cantinero in 1914, bought the bar four years later and built its name on daiquiris made with fresh juice and rum.
The bar kept a numbered list of daiquiris. In a 1937 American newspaper interview, Ribalaigua is reported to have given this one as his No. 4: two ounces of rum, a teaspoon each of sugar and maraschino, the juice of half a lime and shaved ice that floats like frost. Our measures are a close reading of that.
Snow, Not Slush
Ribalaigua used the blender to shave ice fine enough that the finished drink held its shape in the glass, rather than to liquidise it. That makes it a frappé.
A modern frozen daiquiri is blended long, to a slush drunk like a milkshake. This one is blended for seconds, sits heaped in the coupe and is drawn through a short straw as it gives way, so the last mouthful is wetter than the first.
The Maraschino
Maraschino is a clear cherry liqueur, made with the Marasca cherry’s stones as well as its fruit, hence the almond note. It is drier than most liqueurs.
At 5ml it lifts the drink: the lime reads brighter, the rum rounder, with a floral top note a plain Daiquiri lacks. Cherry-jar syrup adds only sugar.
Getting the Ice Right
The blender is rarely the problem. The ice is.
Dry crushed ice straight from the freezer shaves to snow. Ice that has stood and started to melt blends to slush, because it is already part water. Ice from a freezer with strong-smelling food in it carries that smell into a drink with nothing to hide it.
Liquids first, ice on top, short bursts, stop. Blending longer warms and wets the drink, and it cannot be brought back.
Three Floridita Daiquiris
The El Floridita Daiquiri beside the classic and the Hemingway
El Floridita Daiquiri
- Rum
- 60ml white rum
- Lime
- 15ml
- Sweetener
- 10ml syrup, 5ml maraschino
- Other
- None
- Method
- Flash blended with crushed ice
- UK units
- About 2.6
Daiquiri (IBA)
- Rum
- 60ml white rum
- Lime
- 20ml
- Sweetener
- Two bar spoons caster sugar
- Other
- None
- Method
- Shaken, strained
- UK units
- About 2.4
Hemingway Daiquiri (IBA)
- Rum
- 60ml white rum
- Lime
- 15ml
- Sweetener
- 15ml maraschino
- Other
- 40ml grapefruit
- Method
- Shaken, strained
- UK units
- About 2.9
| Drink | Rum | Lime | Sweetener | Other | Method | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Floridita Daiquiri | 60ml white rum | 15ml | 10ml syrup, 5ml maraschino | None | Flash blended with crushed ice | About 2.6 |
| Daiquiri (IBA) | 60ml white rum | 20ml | Two bar spoons caster sugar | None | Shaken, strained | About 2.4 |
| Hemingway Daiquiri (IBA) | 60ml white rum | 15ml | 15ml maraschino | 40ml grapefruit | Shaken, strained | About 2.9 |
How to Serve It
Unstrained into a chilled coupe, heaped rather than levelled, with a short straw and a lime wheel on the rim if you want one.
At once. A frappé holds its shape for a couple of minutes, then begins to collapse.
For the shaken original, make a Daiquiri; for grapefruit and maraschino with no sugar, a Hemingway Daiquiri.
Make it at home
The Spirit
White RumWhite rum is clear rum, usually bottled at 40% ABV, either unaged or rested in oak and then charcoal-filtered back to clear. It is the light, dry rum of the Daiquiri, the Mojito and the Cuba Libre, and the rum most of our recipes mean when they want rum that sits under lime rather than over it.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from a regular Daiquiri?
Is this the Daiquiri No. 3 or No. 4?
What does the maraschino actually do?
Is it the same as a frozen daiquiri?
Do I need a blender?
What did Hemingway drink at El Floridita?
How strong is an El Floridita Daiquiri?
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Daiquiri
A Daiquiri is 60ml white rum, 20ml fresh lime juice and two bar spoons of caster sugar. Stir the sugar into the rum and lime in the shaker until it dissolves, then add ice, shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strain into a chilled coupe. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and its method dissolves the sugar first too. The name belongs to Daiquirí, an iron-mining district and beach near Santiago de Cuba. The drink is usually credited to Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer in Cuba around the Spanish-American War of 1898. Constantino Ribalaigua Vert later refined and popularised it in Havana at El Floridita. With three ingredients and no liqueur or bitters, the Daiquiri hides nothing. A flat rum, tired lime or undissolved sugar shows in the first sip.
Hemingway Daiquiri
A Hemingway Daiquiri is 60ml white rum, 40ml fresh grapefruit juice, 15ml fresh lime juice and 15ml maraschino liqueur, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a lime wheel. The measures follow the IBA, which lists it as the Hemingway Special. There is no sugar syrup: the maraschino is the only sweetness. About 2.9 UK units. It comes from El Floridita in Havana, the bar Constantino Ribalaigua owned from 1918. Hemingway, who kept a room in Havana from 1932, is said to have asked for the house daiquiri without sugar and with double the rum, and the bar called that the Papa Doble. Grapefruit and maraschino came later and gave the drink its present form. It is drier and more bitter than a classic Daiquiri, and the grapefruit decides how it tastes.
Mojito
A Mojito is 45ml of white rum, 20ml of fresh lime juice, two teaspoons of white cane sugar and six sprigs of mint, built in a highball. The mint is pressed gently with the sugar, the glass is filled with cubed ice, the rum and lime go in, and 75 to 100ml of chilled soda water tops it. About 1.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures. The IBA only says to top up with soda, so the 75 to 100ml is ours. Press the mint once or twice and stop. Torn leaves make the drink bitter and grassy, and that, more often than the rum, is why a Mojito disappoints. The sugar grains help: they bruise the surface of the leaf as you press, and the lime then carries the oil through the glass.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 9 October 2026