El Floridita Daiquiri

Name: El Floridita Daiquiri
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 1 cocktail
Cuisine: Cuban
Ingredients: 60ml White Rum; 15ml Fresh Lime Juice; 5ml Maraschino Liqueur; 10ml Simple Syrup

Wayfinder

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. The Oxford Companion says the Floridita began as the Piña de Plata café in the centre of Havana, renamed the Café Restaurant la Florida some time between 1898 and 1907, that Constantino Ribalaigua Vert began working there in 1912 or 1914 (accounts differ) and bought the bar in 1935, and that shortly after Repeal he used the electric blender to make the first frozen Daiquiris. Kevin Kos’s history of the daiquiri lists this one as Daiquiri No. 4 in the 1937 edition of the bar’s cocktail book. The maraschino lifts the lime without tasting of cherry, and the shaved ice makes it a frappé rather than a slush.

blendedFrozenClassic

Glassware: Coupe Glass

Garnish: Lime wheel on the rim or nothing

Ingredients

Serves

White Rum

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.

Fresh Lime Juice

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.

Maraschino Liqueur

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.

Simple Syrup

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 the Daiquiri No. 4 in the 1937 edition of the bar’s cocktail book, as Kevin Kos prints it: two ounces of rum, a spoonful of sugar, a teaspoon of maraschino, the juice of half a lime and cracked ice, served frappé. 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.

The story

Behind the El Floridita Daiquiri

Flavour Profile

LimeCherryAlmondBrightIcy

Where It Comes From

The Oxford Companion says the Floridita’s bar began as the Piña de Plata café at the corner of Obispo and Monserrate in the centre of Havana, remodelled and renamed the Café Restaurant la Florida some time between 1898 and 1907. The Companion says Constante Ribalaigua, born in Lloret de Mar near Barcelona, began working there in either 1912 or 1914 (accounts differ), staying on after the Sala Pareda family bought the bar in 1918, and bought it himself in 1935; the Companion adds that his cocktails focused on rum and fresh fruit juices.

The bar kept a numbered list of daiquiris. Kevin Kos reads four daiquiris in the 1937 edition of the cocktail book, with the grapefruit No. 3 later becoming the Hemingway Special, and gives No. 4 as two ounces of rum, a spoonful of sugar, a teaspoon of maraschino, the juice of half a lime and cracked ice, served frappé. 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

Make it at home

The Spirit

White Rum

White 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.

Learn more

Master the Techniques

Shaken or stirred? When to shake or stir a cocktail

Go further

More to explore

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from a regular Daiquiri?

It adds 5ml of maraschino and is blended with crushed ice, not shaken. The shaken Daiquiri takes 20ml of lime and two bar spoons of caster sugar to its 60ml of rum; this one takes 15ml of lime, 10ml of syrup and the maraschino, and arrives as snow.

Is this the Daiquiri No. 3 or No. 4?

In the bar’s 1937 cocktail book, as Kevin Kos reads it, No. 4: rum, sugar, maraschino, lime and cracked ice. The version with grapefruit is listed as No. 3, which Kos says later became the Hemingway Special. The numbering varies between sources.

What does the maraschino actually do?

At 5ml it seasons rather than sweetens. Its stone-fruit and almond note makes the lime taste brighter and the rum rounder, and few people tasting it blind would name cherry. Much more and it takes the drink over.

Is it the same as a frozen daiquiri?

It is the Floridita’s own frozen daiquiri, but not the slush most bars now make. Blended briefly with fine, dry ice, it holds its shape in the glass like snow and is drunk through a short straw as it melts.

Do I need a blender?

For this texture, yes. A shaker cannot shave ice that fine. Shaken with crushed ice and strained, the same measures make a good maraschino daiquiri, but it is a different drink in the glass.

What did Hemingway drink at El Floridita?

He is said to have ordered the house daiquiri with no sugar and twice the rum, a drink the bar named the Papa Doble. Later versions added grapefruit and maraschino; the IBA lists that as the Hemingway Special, and our Hemingway Daiquiri uses its measures.

How strong is an El Floridita Daiquiri?

About 2.6 UK units: 2.4 from 60ml of white rum at 40% ABV and about 0.2 from 5ml of maraschino at 32%. The ice adds water, not alcohol. UK units are ABV times millilitres divided by 1,000; the Chief Medical Officers’ guideline is no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days.

Sources.

Correct as of 19 October 2026.

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Wondrich), “Ribalaigua y Vert, Constante” (secondary source: born in Lloret de Mar; began at the Piña de Plata / Café Restaurant la Florida in 1912 or 1914; the Sala Pareda family bought the bar in 1918, Ribalaigua in 1935; the electric blender; rum and fresh fruit juices).
Kevin Kos, “DAIQUIRI Cocktail Recipes Through History” (secondary source (a bartender’s blog): the 1937 edition of the Floridita (El Florida) cocktail book lists four daiquiris, No. 3 with grapefruit later the Hemingway Special; No. 4: 2 ounces rum, 1 spoonful sugar, 1 teaspoonful maraschino, juice of ½ lime, cracked ice, serve frappé).
The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Jeff Berry), “The Daiquiri” (secondary source: shortly after Repeal Ribalaigua used the electric blender to create the first frozen Daiquiris; the Daiquiri no. 3 and the Hemingway Special).