I’ve enjoyed trying a variety of rums in this cocktail. My first take split the base between a blended white rum and an overproof Jamaican white. I eventually settled on a version using Smith & Cross “Navy Strength” rum, so-called because its alcohol content is so high, gunpowder could still ignite if a barrel of rum happens to spill in the hold. This rum is full of funk or “hogo,” a term that stems from the French “haut gout,” which refers to slightly tainted meat or another strong yet desirable flavor.
The daiquiri is actually a very refined drink and one of the best tests of a barkeep’s skill in terms of balance, technique and dilution. This recipe is from the late Sasha Petraske of NYC bar Milk & Honey. He doesn’t tell us to use 3/4 oz. of simple syrup – instead, he gives a range dependent on how acidic your specific lime tastes at the time the cocktail is made. His book, Regarding Cocktails, was published posthumously by his wife, and from what I’ve heard, truly captures the kind, gentle, and exacting person he was in life.
This drink features Plantation Spirits Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum – a flavorful rum blend infused with ripe pineapple that tastes nothing like those crappy mass-produced and artificially- flavored versions on the bottom shelf of your local liquor store. Stiggins Rum is fantastic as the base for a rum Old-fashioned but equally marvelous in this daiquiri.
