Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Strawberry Rhubarb Daiquiri!

A big strawberry kiss before Tales of the Cocktail.

Tastes as good as it looks.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. I’m in the process of packing for and panicking about Tales of the Cocktail, a national bartender’s convention held in New Orleans every year. (So. Many. Parties.) I expect to have many, many things to tell you. This trip wouldn’t be possible without the help of Yr Editrix, so if you aren’t a subscriber to Wonkette, please join in, or at least toss some money into the kitty to help out. Seriously. I couldn’t have done this without her.

Or give us money like this!

Before I go, I wanted to bring you a very, very upscale version of a cheap cocktail served on Bourbon Street. Here’s my culinary take on a classic — the Strawberry Daiquiri. Here’s the recipe.

Strawberry Rhubarb Daiquiri

2 oz Planteray Three Star Rum

1 oz rhubarb syrup

1 oz honey syrup

¾ oz lime juice

½ oz strawberry syrup

3-4 small fresh strawberries

2 basil leaves

2 dashes rhubarb bitters

Muddle the basil, strawberries, and rum in a shaker tin. Add the remaining ingredients and ice. Shake and double-strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a sliced strawberry.

Strawberry Syrup

12-14 fresh strawberries

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Bring all ingredients to a simmer over low heat. Reduce the heat to low and let cook for 20-45 minutes, or until the berries have lost texture and flavor. Strain into a container and keep refrigerated.

This recipe was inspired by a bottle of rhubarb syrup my wife found at a local farmer’s market a few Saturdays ago. Strawberry and rhubarb are a classic flavor pairing, and one I’ve never had time to explore in a cocktail. I’ve muddled strawberries into tequila for a strawberry margarita before. Muddling provided a light, subtle strawberry flavor in the margarita, which was perfect in that application. This time, I wanted a big strawberry bomb in a glass. I decided to use two different techniques to hammer the strawberry flavors home — raw muddled berries and a cooked syrup

I knew in theory that cooked strawberries and raw strawberries provided different flavors. But having the two side by side in the same glass was a revelation. Raw strawberries are tart and vegetal; cooked strawberries are sweet, unctuous, and barely acidic. I can understand why cooked rhubarb and strawberries are natural companions; the rhubarb’s tartness balances the sweetness of cooked strawberries, bringing the fruit back into harmony.

The tartness of the muddled fresh berries made the drink too sour on first taste. I didn’t want to use a sugar syrup when fresh ingredients were on hand; there’s nothing wrong with sugar, but it seemed like a missed opportunity to add more flavor to the drink. Local honey syrup rebalanced the cocktail while keeping us on point with flavors. Berries and honey love each other.

There’s already a lot going on in this glass, but the basil adds an herbaceous finish that just screams summer.

Let’s talk ingredients:

Ingredient shot. They don’t make them like this in NOLA.

Planteray Three Star Rum: This rum is dry and refreshing, with a slight funky Jamaican undertone. It’s a “clear” rum, but it’s made very differently than Bacardi. I’m not a fan of Bacardi overall, but it’s a solid daiquiri ingredient, so use that if you can’t find this gem from Planteray.

Rhubarb Syrup: I bought this ingredient from Sage Lane Syrups, a local business out of Canton, Ohio. Please shop local — order from them or a farmer’s market local to you.

Honey syrup: 1:1 honey to water, heated and stirred until combined. If you add pure honey to a cocktail, it’ll harden up and turn into taffy.

Lime juice: Always fresh.

Strawberry Syrup: This is a thin, simple, homemade strawberry jam; if you wanted to save some for your morning toast after making cocktails, I wouldn’t blame you.

Fresh strawberries and basil: So produce is a little … iffy in America these days. I used strawberries from a market I trust and basil from a plant growing in my backyard. Use caution and good sense. I can’t promise the rum will kill any wigglies.

Rhubarb Bitters: A great addition if you have them — they smooth out the drink wonderfully. Orange bitters will do in a pinch.

My home bar is Hemingway’s Underground, the hottest cocktail bar in pretty little Medina, Ohio. I’m behind the stick Wednesday-Saturday, 4-10. Last call’s at midnight. Swing on by, and I’ll make a drink for you… or anything else from our little Happy Hour here at Wonkette. We’ll make it through this together.

OPEN THREAD!