The Hemingway daiquiri recipe
for your table
Set out a cocktail glass with some ice and cold water so it is thoroughly chilled by the time you pour.
Juice the grapefruit and lime fresh, then strain the juice so no pulp ends up in the drink.
Add the rum, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and maraschino to a shaker with ice and shake vigorously for twelve to fifteen seconds.
Discard the ice water from the glass, strain the cocktail into it, and garnish with a lime wheel.
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The story
The Hemingway daiquiri is also known as the Papa Doble, after Ernest Hemingway's nickname and the double measure of rum it contains. The drink is associated with a bar in Havana where he was a regular; that is the commonly accepted story, not an established fact. The version told in the stories also contained no sweetener at all, just rum, grapefruit, lime, and maraschino, which is too sharp for most people to enjoy. The 1.5 cl of maraschino in this recipe is the compromise: enough sweetness to balance the acidity, but too little to turn it into a sweet cocktail.
The right glass
A Hemingway daiquiri goes into the glass without ice, so the cold has to come from the glass itself. A stemmed cocktail glass is therefore the right choice: hold it by the stem and you will not warm the drink with your hand. Allow for twenty to twenty-five centiliters, because with eleven centiliters of drink, the shaker quickly adds three centiliters of melting water, and you still want to have some room left. Looking for a flatter model? Check out our coupette glasses.
Onis New Era Cocktail Glass 22 cl (6 pieces)
Bormioli Rocco Ypsilon Cocktail Glass 24.5 cl (2 pieces)
Both sets together € 56,90.
The right tools
For a Hemingway daiquiri, in addition to the glass, you use a shaker, a citrus press for the fresh juice, and a jigger for precise measuring. These are the bar tools we use ourselves; you can find everything in our bar tools & cocktail sets.
Glassware set (our pick 01) + 3 bar tools together € 76,80.
What do you make a Hemingway daiquiri with?
For a Hemingway daiquiri, you need white rum and maraschino, a liqueur made from marasca cherries. Well-known rum bottles include Havana Club and Captain Morgan. On each drink page, you can read the percentage, what it tastes like, which cocktails it works in, and which glass you need.
Variations & twists
Leave out the maraschino and add half a bar spoon of sugar syrup to get closer to a standard daiquiri with a hint of grapefruit. If you want it just as it is described in the stories, remove all the sweetness and expect it to be sharp. Maraschino also appears in the last word, with gin and green Chartreuse, and if you prefer to stick with rum, try the Mary Pickford, with pineapple juice and grenadine. Looking for more inspiration? Browse more than 100 cocktail recipes.
Serving tip
Chill the glass with ice and water while you shake, then discard it just before serving. Juice the grapefruit at the last moment, because fresh juice loses its freshness within an hour. A lime wheel on the rim is enough garnish; a red cherry does not belong in it, even though the name maraschino might suggest otherwise.
Good to know
Maraschino is not a cocktail cherry
Maraschino is a clear liqueur distilled from marasca cherries, including their stones, which give it the dry, slightly bitter core flavour this recipe needs. The bright red cocktail cherry is also called a maraschino cherry in shops, but it is something completely different: a cherry preserved and coloured in sugar syrup. Pour syrup from one of those jars into your shaker and you will get a sweet, thick daiquiri instead of a dry one. You can recognise the liqueur by the woven basket around the bottle and by the fact that it is colourless.
Why it is drier than a standard daiquiri
A standard daiquiri contains sugar syrup, and that sugar is there purely to balance the lime juice. It has been left out here. The only sweetness comes from 1.5 centilitres of maraschino, and it is balanced not only by lime but also by grapefruit, which already has a bitter edge of its own. The result is a cocktail that is closer to a sugar-free sour than to the sweet summer drink most people picture when they think of a daiquiri.
Fresh grapefruit is not optional here
Grapefruit juice from a carton is pasteurised and therefore sweeter and flatter, and the precise bitter edge this recipe relies on is the first thing to disappear. So juice the fruit yourself and strain the juice. Keep in mind that one grapefruit is not the same as another: a pink fruit is sweeter than a white one, and late in the season they are more acidic. So taste it before shaking and adjust the amount of maraschino accordingly.
Papa doble and the double measure
The drink's second name, papa doble, refers to the writer's nickname and the double portion of rum. Six centilitres in a glass without ice is potent, and you can tell. If you want it longer, you can serve it over crushed ice instead of straining it; this reduces the alcohol per sip and brings it closer to the blended version served in many bars.
Adjusting the proportions
If you find it too sharp, the simplest adjustment is an extra half a centilitre of maraschino, followed only then by half a bar spoon of sugar syrup. If you find it too sweet, increase the lime juice by half a centilitre rather than reducing the maraschino, because that liqueur also provides the core flavour. Note what you adjust, because with four components in this recipe, you can quickly end up asking the same question again.
Frequently asked questions
What is in a Hemingway Daiquiri?
A Hemingway Daiquiri contains 6 cl white rum, 2 cl fresh grapefruit juice, 1.5 cl fresh lime juice and 1.5 cl maraschino. Shake it with ice and strain it into a chilled cocktail glass, garnished with a lime wheel.
What exactly is maraschino?
Maraschino is a clear liqueur distilled from marasca cherries with their stones. It tastes dry and slightly bitter and has almost nothing to do with the red cocktail cherry also called maraschino, because that is a cherry preserved in sugar syrup.
Why is there no sugar in it?
Because the maraschino is the only source of sweetness, while the grapefruit brings bitterness. This makes it the driest daiquiri in the series. If you find it too sharp, add half a bar spoon of sugar syrup.
What glass do you serve a Hemingway Daiquiri in?
In a chilled stemmed cocktail glass holding twenty to twenty-five centilitres, because it goes into the glass without ice and needs to stay cold. See our cocktail glasses for suitable models.
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