Ingredients:

Fresh lime juice, 1 oz

Simple syrup, 1 oz

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake hard with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Daiquiri is elemental. Deceptively simple and yet one of the most misunderstood and most often abused cocktails of our time. Much like the Martini and the Margarita it has seen every fruit imaginable and every type of artificial sweetener tossed into it and then often blended into a Slushie. While it never went completely out of fashion it has returned to the limelight (no pun intended). It has become in the last 20 or so years the litmus test for discovering the caliber of a bartender. What rum does he or she reach for if unspecified? How much lime and how fresh? What type of sugar or simple syrup and what measure? And what type of ice to shake with, in which type of shaker—and what shake?

White, 40 proof rum is the norm. Richer rums are wonderful adding depth and texture but requiring more attention to the amount of lime and sugar. The same is true for stronger proof rums. In all cases it should be aggressively shaken to properly dilute, chill and aerate. Using large ice or a combination of large and small ice adds a creamier mouthfeel by beating thousands of tiny air bubbles into the mixture. The aim is to perfectly assemble a balanced beverage that is full and bright, round and refreshing, and incredibly cold. The goal is grandiose in a microcosmic sort of way. The result should resemble the moon, a glowing pearl with a soft greenish hue.