Drink Your Next Daiquiri Cocktail Like Ernest Hemingway With A Few Simple Tweaks

The bar where Hemingway would drink daiquiris, El Floridita, christened the cocktail a “Hemingway Special,” or “Papa Doble,” because it was twice the size of a normal drink, but it has come to be known more clearly as just the Hemingway Daiquiri. The extra ingredients make it a more complex and sour cocktail than the classic daiquiri, with a lot of that coming from the Maraschino liqueur. Originating in Croatia and made from local sour cherries, Maraschino liqueur doesn’t have any of the cloying sweetness normally associated with Maraschino cherries. It is still lightly sweet and tastes of cherries, but the production process includes the cherry pits, which makes it nutty and bitter as well. It’s a very strong flavor best used lightly in cocktails, but it delivers an incredible variety of tasting notes to the clean citrus taste of the daiquiri.

The original El Floridita recipe for a Hemingway Daiquiri is suitably strong, using twice as much rum as juice and liqueur. The more common modern variation starts with two ounces of white rum in a cocktail shaker, then adds ¾ an ounce of lime juice, and half an ounce each of grapefruit juice and Maraschino liqueur. You can also add an optional quarter ounce of simple syrup. Shake with ice and strain into a glass. It’s a deliciously refreshing cocktail, so just try not to drink as many as the man himself would.