
Don’t bother with churches, government buildings or city squares. If you want to know about a culture, spend a night in its bars.
- Ernest Hemingway
For National Daiquiri Day, July 19th, give it a twist with this classic “Hemingway Daiquiri”.
The good news is that you don’t need to head to Havana to have the Hemingway experience. He traveled pretty extensively between Key West and Cuba and certainly found his way through a number of watering holes.

As the story goes, he popped out of the bathroom at the El Floridita in Havana and saw a pitcher of frozen daiquiri’s on the bar. Tasted one and declared, double the rum and drop the sugar. Over time, the story just “took”.
To make it a Papa Doble…just double up on the rum.
Easy and quick to make. Be careful….they go down pretty easy.

Bartenders at La Floridita.

Hemingway Daiquiri at La Floridita.

Ingredients:
2 oz of light rum
¾ oz fresh lime juice
½ oz fresh grapefruit juice (ruby red)
½ oz maraschino liqueur (Luxardo is a good bet)
Garnish with a lime wedge
Quick note: Some people add ¼ oz of simple syrup for a touch of sweetness. But our intrepid writer wouldn’t have.
Now for the hard part: Toss them all in a shaker with crushed ice, shake hard for a few seconds, strain and “Voilà”!
Enjoy!