Banana Daiquiri

Completely yellow with brown speckles. By then, most of the starch has turned into sugar, and you can really smell the banana. If it still has green spots, it tastes starchy and a little tart, which comes through especially strongly in the cocktail. A nearly brown banana is sweeter and softer. It works well in this drink, but leave out the sugar syrup. Half a banana weighs around 60 grams without the peel. Add more and the drink becomes heavy. Use less and the banana gets lost behind the lime.

There’s no juice in a banana. Put one in a shaker and you’ll be left with lumps that get caught in the strainer, while the drink in the glass is watery and lacks banana flavor. A blender incorporates all the fruit and gives it the creamy body this cocktail is all about. Blend in two stages. First, blend the banana with the liquid for ten seconds, without ice. Then add the crushed ice. That way, all the pieces of banana are gone before the ice goes in, and the blender only needs to run briefly afterward. The longer it runs, the more watery your drink will be.

The Mountain Top story features homemade banana liqueur, and many bars still serve crème de banane. That liqueur gives the drink a deep, almost baked banana aroma. A fresh banana alone can’t achieve that, especially if it’s not quite ripe. The downside is the sweetness, since most banana liqueurs are very sweet. Use no more than 1.5 cl and leave out the syrup. Taste it before adding the ice. Without the liqueur, it’s fresher and all about the fruit. With the liqueur, it becomes more of a dessert.

Both come from the blender, but they’re made differently. A Frozen Daiquiri gets its texture from the ice. Blend rum, lime, and sugar with plenty of crushed ice until it resembles wet snow, and the drink stays light and crisp. In a Banana Daiquiri, the banana does the work. The fruit makes it thick and creamy, the flavor gets diluted less, and it stays balanced for longer. That’s also why it’s served in a larger glass. If you like the classic Daiquiri , both drinks have the same base of 4.5 cl rum and 2.5 cl lime juice.

Blend two servings at a time. With a full blender, it runs for too long and the texture becomes uneven. Prepare the following for each batch: 9 cl white rum, 5 cl lime juice, 2 cl simple syrup, one whole ripe banana, and 300 grams of crushed ice. Peel the bananas just before blending. Sliced banana turns brown within fifteen minutes, though a few drops of lime juice help slow this down. You can mix the rum, lime, and syrup in a bottle up to an hour ahead and chill it. Then all you need to add for each batch is the banana and ice.

Leave out the rum and use 4 cl pineapple juice. It brings the acidity and tropical depth that normally come from the rum, while the banana remains the star. Keep the lime at 2.5 cl and the syrup at 1 cl. Blend in the same two stages. For children, you can reduce the lime to 1.5 cl. It’s a little like a smoothie, but the lime and crushed ice keep it fresh and light. Serve it in the same glass with a straw, and it’ll look just like the original.