“Because what I say is simple to understand and to do, there is no one able to understand or do it.” -Lao-tse, Tao Te Ching #70

The simplest things are the most difficult. When something has a dozen parts, you can break it down and make sense of it and believe that you understand it. But when things are simplified, we have very little to wrap our brains around.

A daiquiri is rum, lime and sugar – a balance of bitter and sweet. I should end this here, because continuing on serves only to try and complicate something very basic. And yet if ever something transcended the sum of its parts, it’s the daiquiri.

Since I was 5 years old, Daiquiri Ice is the only flavor I’ve ever had at Baskin Robbins. It’s a simple, elemental flavor that, clearly, I have a longstanding obsession with. So this was the first drink that I really worked hard to perfect, and I spent most of the summer of 2005 testing variations of this.

Soon after I settled on a ratio (it’s not a recipe, it’s a ratio), I spent a weekend at a friend’s ranch outside of Smithville. I spent many hours making these poolside as a dozen friends came and went, through the sunny afternoon and into the evening. That was the weekend our friend Hana introduced us to her future husband Dana. We sat with those bittersweet drinks, feet in the pool, as smoke from the grill wafted by, and watched the sky turn deep dark blue. I remember thinking at the time (and not because of the rum) that I had no notion of what year it was, it could have been 1950. That was the first of several starlight evenings with wonderful cocktails, and I’ll rarely forget to toast that memory when I mix a daiquiri.

In a lowball glass…
2 Parts Light Rum
1 Part fresh squeezed lime juice
0.5 – 1 Part Turbinado Syrup

Start with 1 part lime juice and 1/2 part sugar syrup in the cocktail shaker, and taste… if the lime is too bitter, add sugar and taste until the lime has only a slight bite. Shake thoroughly with ice, pour through cocktail strainer over 2 or 3 ice cubes per glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

The turbinado syrup is the key to this drink. It’s just turbinado sugar and water in a 1:1 ratio. I discovered this after buying a very expensive bottle of turbinado syrup at William’s Sonoma. It adds the kind of molassey sweetness that you get with darker rum, without losing the bite of the light rum.

Despite my constant attention to precision in this drink, it still varies slightly every time – the limes are slightly different, the ice may have picked up some flavor in the freezer, etc… consistently elusive in its simplicity.