The Daffodil

Wayfinder

The Daffodil is a house gin serve for St David’s Day, named for the national flower it resembles in the glass: Welsh gin shaken with limoncello, fresh lemon and a short measure of syrup, strained into a coupe under a lemon twist. Its work is colour as much as flavour, yellow-hued and spring-forward for a feast day that lands while winter is still arguing its case. Doubling the lemon sounds like a mistake and is the opposite. The limoncello brings sweetened, sunny peel; the fresh juice brings the sharp half of the same fruit; and ten millilitres of simple syrup trues the seam between them. Underneath, a Welsh gin supplies the structure, and there are several worth reaching for. Serve it cold and serve it early in the running order. It is a first-drink cocktail, bright enough to open a gathering and clean enough that the heavier whisky serves still make sense afterwards.

ShakenCelebratory

Glassware: Coupe Glass

Garnish: Lemon Twist Expressed over the surface and dropped in

Ingredients

Serves

Welsh gin

50ml

The structure of the drink: juniper and botanicals holding the citrus in shape. A gin with something floral or herbal of its own gives the middle of the sip a character the lemons cannot.

Limoncello

20ml

Sweetened sunshine, and the source of the colour. It is the peel half of the lemon, and brands vary widely in sugar, so taste it before you pour.

Fresh lemon juice

20ml

The sharp half of the same fruit, squeezed to order. It answers the liqueur’s sweetness directly, which is why doubling the lemon works rather than doubling the sugar.

Simple syrup

10ml

Ten millilitres, and the fine adjustment rather than the sweetness engine. It trues the seam between the two lemons, and it is the measure to trim if the limoncello runs sweet.

Instructions

Shake the gin, limoncello, lemon juice and syrup hard with ice.

Strain into a chilled coupe.

Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in.

Expert Tip

Limoncellos vary enormously in sugar, from bracing to nearly syrupy, and this build assumes one in the middle. Taste yours before it goes into the shaker, and if it runs sweet trim the simple syrup rather than adding lemon juice: the ten millilitres of syrup is the fine adjustment here and the acid is already calibrated. Keep the whole thing very cold. There is no ice in the finished glass to lean on, so the coupe should come out of the freezer and the shake should be short and hard rather than long and gentle. And express the twist over the surface rather than dropping it in unsqueezed. Those oils are the third lemon in a drink already built on two.

Flavour Profile

LemonJuniperPeelBright

The Idea

The Daffodil was written for St David’s Day, named for the national flower of Wales and built to look like it: a soft yellow drink in a coupe, bright at the edges, arriving when winter is not quite finished.

It is a contemporary house serve rather than anything inherited, and the brief behind it was simple. Give the guest who does not drink whisky a serve that is just as Welsh as the Welsh Gold beside it. The answer is Welsh gin, a category that barely existed two decades ago and now runs the length of the country.

The Gin

Welsh distilling has plenty to offer this drink. Aber Falls distils at Abergwyngregyn, near the waterfall that names it. Brecon is made by Penderyn. Pollination comes from the Dyfi Distillery and is built on botanicals foraged in the Dyfi Valley. Cygnet works out of Swansea.

Each expresses a different corner of the landscape and any of them carries the drink. Welsh gins often lean on more unusual botanicals than a classic London Dry, which suits this build: the frame is citrus-heavy, and a gin with something floral or herbal of its own supplies a middle to the sip that the lemons cannot.

The Two Lemons

Limoncello and fresh lemon juice sound like a redundancy and work as a partnership. The liqueur is sweetened peel: rounded, sunny, and the source of the drink’s daffodil colour. The juice is the fresh, sharp half of the same fruit.

Set at 20ml each they answer one another, and the 10ml of simple syrup is the fine adjustment between them rather than the sweetness engine. Limoncellos vary widely in sugar, so taste yours before it goes in the shaker and trim the syrup rather than the juice if the seam runs sweet. The finished drink should land bright and dry enough to ask for the next sip.

The Sour Frame

The architecture underneath is the sour family’s: citrus and sweetness in conversation with a spirit, the same bones as a White Lady. What the Daffodil changes is where the sweetness comes from.

Handing it to limoncello means the sugar arrives already flavoured, carrying oils from the peel, so the drink gains a second citrus register without another bottle of juice. It is the same move elderflower makes in a Snowdonia Sour: let the sweetener do double duty as the signature. Drinks built this way stay short and legible, and they hand their character to whichever bottle you choose, which is why the Welsh gin is the point rather than the decoration.

How to Serve It

Shake everything hard with ice, strain into a chilled coupe, express the lemon twist over the surface and drop it in. Cold matters more than usual, because there is no ice in the glass to lean on and the drink’s charm is its briskness.

Serve it first in a St David’s Day running order, as the opener that sharpens appetites before the heavier serves take over. And keep it in mind past the first of March: underneath the flag it is a well-mannered spring gin sour that suits any bright afternoon.

The Spirit

Gin

A flavour requirement rather than a method. The law asks only that juniper be the predominant taste and that the spirit reach 37.5%, which leaves everything else on the botanical bill to the distiller and permits a gin that was never redistilled at all.

Learn more

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Welsh gin should I use?

Aber Falls, Brecon, Pollination from the Dyfi Valley and Cygnet in Swansea are all good choices, each expressing a different corner of the landscape. Any well-made gin works in the frame; a Welsh one keeps the drink on theme.

Is limoncello plus fresh lemon too much?

No, because they bring different halves of the fruit. Limoncello is sweetened peel, rounded and sunny; the juice is sharp and fresh. The 10ml of simple syrup trues the seam between them and is the measure to adjust.

Why is it called The Daffodil?

For the national flower of Wales and for the colour: the drink pours a soft yellow that suits a St David’s Day table. The name is a house one, and there is no older story behind it than that.

My limoncello is very sweet. What do I change?

Trim the simple syrup first, and take it out altogether if you need to. The lemon juice is already calibrated against the gin, so adding more acid to correct sweetness only makes the drink sharper rather than balanced.

Master the Techniques

St David's Day Cocktails: Welsh Drinks & Whisky Guide

How to Shake a Cocktail Like a Pro

White Lady

The White Lady was created by Harry MacElhone at Ciro's Club in London in 1919, in an early form built on crème de menthe, and then substantially revised by MacElhone himself at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1929, when he replaced the mint with gin and added egg white. The earlier drink carries the same name and is a different thing entirely. The 1929 revision is the one ordered today. Gin, Cointreau and fresh lemon in a ratio that seats the gin clearly in front, with the liqueur and the acid holding a balanced frame around it. The official specification stops there; MacElhone's own rebuild adds an egg white, and that version is below. It is often described as a Sidecar made with gin, which is accurate as far as it goes and misses the specific relationship between juniper and Cointreau's orange. The two sit at adjacent points in the canon rather than one being a substitution of the other.

Limoncello Spritz

The Limoncello Spritz is a digestivo promoted to the aperitivo hour. Limoncello was made to be drunk ice-cold in small glasses after dinner, and lengthening it with prosecco and soda moves it to the other end of the meal entirely. The spritz template is fixed: a liqueur, a sparkling wine, a splash of soda, over ice in a large glass. Most versions put something bitter in the liqueur position. This one puts something sweet there instead, which is why the soda is not optional here in the way it very nearly is in an Aperol Spritz. It is the only thing standing between the drink and syrup. It spread through Italian summers in the 2010s and outward from there, and it was argued about by people who felt limoncello belonged after dinner. They lost. What it does well is give a table that finds bitterness a chore something to drink at the same hour as everyone else, and it tastes exactly like the coast it comes from.