A disclosure right off the bat: The concept for this drink – if not the precise recipe – comes courtesy of my cousin Stephen, an excellent fellow who lives in Manhattan. He pulled me into an early Covid-era Zoom class conducted by one of his favorite NYC bartenders who was making dark rum drinks. But I played with the recipe a bit, so I claimed the name …
David’s Dark Daiquiri is a variation on the standard Daiquiri, a summer-perfect confection of white rum, lime, and white sugar syrup. Light, breezy, and to my taste, a little thin. Not where I’d turn on anything but a hot summer day.
This version steps things up and transforms the traditional Daiquiri into a rich, rounded, much deeper, cocktail that’s perfect for fall and winter.
For the base spirit we substitute dark rum – specifically Diplomatico Reserva from Venezuela – for the white Bacardi. Instead of plain simple syrup, we use syrup made from raw sugar – turbinado in this case – which makes a brown syrup. And we bump up the lime juice a bit to keep it from getting too sweet.
The result is a rich, mahogany concoction, bursting with flavor. It warms rather than cools – the opposite of a traditional Daiquiri.
Absolutely wonderful! And very easy to sip on a chilly evening.
David's Dark Daiquiri
2 ounces dark rum*
1 ounce raw sugar syrup**
1.25 ounces lime juice (you can adjust this to taste)
* Diplomatico Reserva is totally deluxe, but why not sip your way up and down the dark rum aisle. You may find something you like even better. If you do, by all means tell me about it!
** Using turbinado or demarrera raw (not brown) sugar, make the syrup the same way you do simple syrup. Bring equal parts sugar and water to a boil, dissolve, and cool. Done!