Mai Tai

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. Difford’s Guide credits Jennings Stockton Cox, an American engineer who led one of the first mining parties into Cuba’s iron-ore country after the Spanish-American War of 1898; the Oxford Companion has him making or supervising the first Daiquiri in 1896, and a Santiago bartender naming it in 1908. Difford’s says Constantino Ribalaigua Vert of Havana’s El Floridita made the frozen version famous. 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.

Zombie

A Zombie is 45ml Jamaican dark rum, 45ml gold Puerto Rican rum and 30ml Demerara rum with 20ml fresh lime juice, 15ml falernum, 15ml Donn’s Mix, a teaspoon of grenadine, a dash of Angostura and six drops of Pernod, flash blended with cracked ice and poured into a zombie glass with mint. Those are the IBA’s measures. About 5.0 UK units in one glass. The Oxford Companion says Donn Beach created it in 1934 at Don the Beachcomber’s in Hollywood, and refused to serve more than two to a customer. Difford’s Guide says his recipes were notated in a secret code of numbered bottles and elusive mixes, and the Companion says Jeff Berry found the original formula in 2006 in the notebook of a former Beachcomber’s headwaiter, Richard Santiago. Donn’s Mix, two parts grapefruit juice to one of cinnamon syrup, is what separates it from a strong rum punch.

Hurricane

A Hurricane is 60ml of dark rum, 60ml of white rum, 45ml of passion fruit syrup, 30ml each of fresh lime and orange juice, and 15ml each of grenadine and simple syrup, shaken hard and strained over crushed ice in a hurricane glass. Garnish with orange and a cherry. At about 4.8 UK units it is a strong drink, a third of a week’s guideline in a single glass. The Hurricane most people know is Pat O’Brien’s, the New Orleans bar, where the Oxford Companion says it was introduced and head bartender Louis Culligan is credited with creating it. Difford’s Guide thinks it originated in 1939 at The Hurricane Bar in New York. The usual account is O’Brien’s own: during the Second World War whisky was only available to a bar that bought large amounts of rum, and the drink was a way to use it, served in a glass shaped like a hurricane lantern. Premixed versions later became the standard serve in the city. Made with fresh juice and a passion fruit syrup with real fruit in it, the Hurricane is a tart, balanced rum punch.

Jungle Bird

A Jungle Bird is 45ml of blackstrap rum, 22.5ml of Campari, 45ml of fresh pineapple juice, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 15ml of demerara syrup, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a double rocks glass, with a pineapple wedge. About 2.4 UK units. These are the IBA’s measures. It is credited to Jeffrey Ong, beverage manager at the Aviary Bar of the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, where it was poured as a welcome drink for guests; Difford’s Guide dates it to the hotel’s opening on 6 July 1973. The recipe reached print in John J. Poister’s New American Bartender’s Guide in 1989. Campari is what sets it apart. Pineapple has the body and sugar to carry the bitterness, and a heavy rum underneath holds both.