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

The Old Man, The Sea, and a stiff drink.

Grab a seat at the bar and I’ll make you one of these.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. It’s still mad busy at Hemingway’s, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about one of the cocktails that’s rapidly becoming a signature here at the bar. It doesn’t hurt that it’s one of my favorites. I’ve seen iterations of this rum cocktail that are too sweet, but my boss Courtney Hunter nailed this particular recipe. Let’s make a Hemingway Daiquiri. Here’s the recipe.

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 oz Planteray 3 Star

¾ oz lime juice

¾ oz grapefruit juice

½ oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur

Shake all ingredients over ice. Strain into a small chilled rocks glass. Garnish with a lime wheel and Luxardo cherry.

My home bar, Hemingway’s Underground, is not named after this drink. Nor is the bar named after Ernest Hemingway. The bar is named after the owner’s pet corgi, Hemingway. Who is presumably named after Earnest Hemingway, so there’s that at least.

The origin and name of this drink aren’t much clearer. As the story goes, Papa swung through Havana’s El Floridita hotel to do some business and saw the bartender setting up some daiquiris. Never one to miss an opportunity to drink, Hemingway snagged one off the bar. “Not bad,” he commented. “But I prefer no sugar and double the rum.” Turns out Hemingway was more into quantity than quality in his cocktails. (Papa claimed the record for daiquiris consumed at the El Floridita, having consumed a stunning 16 at one sitting. That’s a full pint of rum, for those of you playing along at home.)

The bartender did put the Papa Doble on the menu, and I have to confess I rather like one of these after a long day behind the stick. A glass of Planteray 3 Star or Probitas on the rocks with a lime wedge is just dandy, thank you … especially when my thighs are aching from eight hours of running laps behind the bar.

Exactly how the Papa Doble evolved into the Hemingway Daiquiri is a mystery. It seems the drink naturally evolved into its present form over time, with various bartenders tinkering with the recipe until a consensus was reached. Papa’s taste buds aside, the Papa Double really is too tart for most drinkers. Replacing simple syrup with maraschino liquor adds sweetness to the cocktail, but provides more character than just sugar. The grapefruit juice tilts the cocktail back towards tartness while adding another layer of flavor. A Hemingway Daiquiri should always be tart instead of sweet, but some attention to detail makes the cocktail worth remembering.

Ironically in an Alanis Morissette sort of way, the current version of Hemingway’s Daiquiri is no longer, technically, a daiquiri. A daiquiri is a drink made with spirits, citrus, and sugar. If you use a sweet liquor instead of sugar, the cocktail becomes a daisy, a cocktail family that includes the margarita. I wouldn’t get too hung up on cocktail nomenclature, however. Everyone wants to drink Papa’s Daiquiri, but Hemingway’s Daisy doesn’t seem too appealing.

Let’s talk ingredients:

Back alley shot. Too busy to photograph the bottles.

Planteray Three Star Rum: An unaged rum is definitely the choice here. Bacardi is so bland it may as well be vodka, but it will do in a pinch. Flor De Cana is a better choice. Planteray 3 Star is utterly delightful and within my price point. Probitas Rum has some great Jamaican notes that make the cocktail spectacular.

Luxardo Cherry Liqueur: Not to be confused with the very tasty syrup in a Luxardo cherry jar. Luxardo liqueur is clear, sweet, and redolent with rich cherry flavor. There are knockoff brands on the market, but I haven’t tried them to date.

Lime Juice: We use fresh lime juice at Hemingway’s. So should you.

Grapefruit Juice: We’ll break out the bottled stuff around 9:30 when we’re running out of just about everything, but fresh is best.

Garnish/Presentation: I prefer drinking this neat, but a few big rocks wouldn’t spoil the drink. Likewise, a lime wedge instead of a lime wheel would do here. I’m fond of giving customers the option of splashing more lime juice into a rum cocktail. The lovely cherry in syrup is non-negotiable. Most bars use Luxardo cherries, but we use Amarena cherries at Hemingway’s. They’re a touch cheaper and just as nice.

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 this drink for you … or anything else from our little Happy Hour here at Wonkette.

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