Name: Cranberry Daiquiri Recipe
Prep time: 2 min
Total time: 2 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 2 ounces light rum; 2 ounces cranberry juice; 1 ounce lime juice; 1 ounce of simple syrup ((more or less to taste)); Cracked ice

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A cranberry Daiquiri cocktail is tangy and refreshing. It’s simple to make and once you know how you can create numerous variations from frozen peach daiquiris to Hemingway’s favorite grapefruit version. We have Cuba and the British Navy to thank for the development of this drink.

You see, back when England and Spain were battling for the new world they spent a lot of time in the Caribbean. There was a law that the sailors were to get a gallon of beer a day but when the ship was away from port for long periods of time it was hard to do. Someone had the brilliant idea that rum, a beverage that was very easy to get in the Caribbean, was an acceptable substitute.. so each sailor was given a pint of rum per day.

A PINT y’all.

The Restless Chipotle Channel

The sailors were too bombed to do their jobs so Admiral Edward Vernon, who was given the knickname Old Grog, ordered that the rum be mixed with water and lime. (That was before anyone knew about the utter deliciousness of a cranberry Daiquiri cocktail) The sailors got their booze and prevented scurvy all at the same time. The man was brilliant! Well, it wasn’t until the Spanish-American war that the drink was given a name. Colonel Teddy Roosevelt was pushing the U.S. to help Cuba achieve independence from Spain and landed troops on Daiquiri Beach.

Once the island had been taken a man named Jennings Cox was entertaining guests and ran out of gin. He replaced it with rum, added lemons, sugar, and mineral water and created a punch that his guests loved, named the Daiquiri after the nearby beach.

It wasn’t very well known until the 1920s when F. Scott Fitzgerald mentioned the drink in his novel, This Side of Paradise. Even then the Daiquiri didn’t become widely ordered until a writer by the name of Ernest Hemingway took the drink as his own. Since Hemingway was a diabetic he created a sugarless version made with double rum, maraschino liqueur, and grapefruit. It’s known as the Papa Doble.

The Daiquiri is obviously the drink of angst filled writers.

So every Saturday I’ve been trying to post a classic cocktail both here and on Lowcarb-ology. Since the light in my kitchen is absolutely perfect at 9:30 to 10:30 AM I am getting quite the reputation with my family — mixing drinks so early in the morning. Having some basic recipes memorized makes it easy and it builds confidence behind the bar. Plus? These recipes deserve to be remembered.

Have a cranberry Daiquiri cocktail once in awhile and you’ll never have to worry about scurvy. This daiquiri has cranberry added because I like it that way sometimes and I had extra cranberry juice. This one is getting poured out because I am low-carbing and it has sugar. Plus it’s 10 in the morning. If you want to make the bare bones classic Daiquiri (which is delicious) just leave out the cranberry.