Strawberry Daiquiri
White rum, lime, sugar and fresh strawberries, blended with ice. The frozen Daiquiri's most popular child — and with real fruit, a genuinely good drink.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Put a coupe or hurricane glass in the freezer.
Add the rum, lime juice, syrup and strawberries to a blender with about a cup of ice.
Blend until smooth and thick, 15 to 20 seconds, then taste: add syrup if the berries were tart.
Pour into the frozen glass and garnish with a strawberry on the rim.
A thoughtful finish
- Ripe berries are the recipe. Pale, hard, out-of-season strawberries make a pink drink that tastes of sugar; deep red ones make it taste of strawberries. Frozen berries are a good option and reduce the ice you need.
- Taste before you pour. Fruit varies, and the syrup is the adjustment.
- A little lime zest in the blender adds aroma the juice alone does not.
Common mistakes
- Strawberry syrup or 'daiquiri mix' instead of fruit. That is the version that gave the drink its reputation.
- Too much ice. It should be a thick, pourable slush, not a snow cone.
- Skipping the lime. The acid is what keeps strawberry and sugar from being a milkshake.
A few good questions.
Is it meant to be frozen?
The strawberry version almost always is. A shaken version — muddled berries, rum, lime, sugar — exists and is drier and more adult; both are correct.
Frozen or fresh strawberries?
Either. Frozen berries are picked ripe and make a thicker drink with less ice; fresh ripe berries taste brighter. Avoid unripe fresh ones.
What rum?
A clean white rum. The fruit and ice would hide anything more expensive.
Can I make a pitcher?
Yes — multiply by four, blend in batches, and keep the pitcher in the freezer between pours. Stir before serving.
Variations
- Daiquiri — The original: rum, lime, sugar, shaken.
- Pineapple Daiquiri — With pineapple in place of strawberries.
- Strawberry Margarita — Tequila in place of rum.
- Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri — The same without the rum.
Where it comes from
c. 1930s–1960s · Havana and the United States · La Floridita (frozen Daiquiri)
Contested. More than one origin is claimed for this drink. We show the competing accounts rather than pick one.
The frozen Daiquiri was perfected at La Floridita in Havana in the 1930s by Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, who put the drink through an electric blender with shaved ice and strained it to a snow; Hemingway drank his there by the dozen. Fruit versions followed as blenders reached American bars and homes — Ribalaigua himself made pineapple and grapefruit variants — and the strawberry version became the defining one through the 1960s and 1970s, when frozen fruit and sweet mixes made it a chain-restaurant fixture. Nobody can be credited with the strawberry version in particular; it is what happens when a blender meets a punnet.
Sources
- Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, Floridita cocktail book, 1939 (book)
- Jeff Berry, Potions of the Caribbean, 2014 (book)
- David Wondrich, Imbibe!, 2015 (book)
Strength. About 1.33 US standard drinks at an estimated 7.9% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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