Sour · Brunch · Summer

Hemingway Special

A Daiquiri with grapefruit and maraschino and no added sugar at all. Dry, tart and bracing, the way he asked for it.

Base: Rum
Glass: Coupe glass
Method: Shake
Strength: 19% ABV

Ingredients

60 mlRum
40 mlGrapefruit Juice
15 mlMaraschino Luxardo1 swap
A dry cherry liqueurlow
Less nutty
15 mlFresh Lime1 swap
Fresh lemon juicemedium
Slightly less floral, more tart

How to make

Technique

Shake · 10–15s

Shaking chills the drink fast while adding dilution and a light texture.

Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice.
Shake well and strain into a large cocktail glass.

Serve

Glass

Coupe glassAlso fine: Martini glass, Nick & Nora glass

Garnish

Grapefruit twistCut it wide — grapefruit oil is gentler than lemon and needs the area.

Taste & nutrition

19%ABV

150kcal

2.43Drinks

StrengthMedium

Sweet to dryDry

Estimated from ingredient amounts and assumed ABVs — not a lab measurement.

Good to know

Use freshly squeezed juice — bottled tastes flat.

History

Year1930s–40s

PlaceHavana, Cuba

Created byConstantino Ribalaigua (El Floridita)

Also called the Papa Doble, this is a Daiquiri built for Ernest Hemingway at El Floridita in Havana, where Constantino Ribalaigua tended bar in the 1930s and '40s. It skips sugar and adds grapefruit and maraschino, suiting the writer's taste for drier, tarter drinks. Legend has it Hemingway could work through many in a sitting. It is a more grown-up, less sweet cousin of the classic Daiquiri.

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