Pineapple Daiquiri

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.

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. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails says it is a version of the Daiquiri No. 3 from Havana’s Floridita bar, named for the writer who downed them there in volume. Difford’s Guide has Hemingway trying the Floridita’s standard frozen Daiquiri and saying he preferred it without sugar and with double rum, which became the Papa Doble, and says the head bartender Antonio Meilan later added maraschino and grapefruit juice to make the Hemingway Special. It is drier and more bitter than a classic Daiquiri, and the grapefruit decides how it tastes.

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.

Piña Colada

A Piña Colada is white rum, pineapple and cream of coconut blended with ice: 50ml white rum, 50ml fresh pineapple juice and 30ml cream of coconut, blended for 10 to 15 seconds with a cup of crushed ice and poured into a hurricane glass, with a pineapple wedge and a cherry. The measures are the IBA’s own. A few drops of lime are optional, to correct a sweet batch. The Caribe Hilton in San Juan credits its bartender Ramón “Monchito” Marrero with the drink in 1954, as Difford’s Guide reports; Difford’s adds that Marrero himself claimed 15 August 1952. It depends on Coco López, the sweetened cream of coconut Ramón López Irizarry developed in 1949, by Imbibe’s account. There are rivals: Ricardo García, also at the Caribe Hilton, claims to have invented it, with 1954 the year Punch gives, and the Barrachina restaurant, by its own account, names Ramón Portas Mingot in 1963. Punch says the Piña Colada was declared Puerto Rico’s national drink in 1978. Cream of coconut is the ingredient that decides it: thick, sweet and rich in fat, never coconut milk. Each one carries about 2.0 UK units.