The Origins of the "Daiquiri"
By Patrick McSherry
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American War
General:
The alcoholic drink, the daiquiri, has its origins dating back at
least to the Spanish American War.
The History:
The daiquiri, according to most
sources, can trace its history back to the years following the Spanish
American War in Cuba, when American iron miners set up operations on
the island. One of those miners was Jennings Stockton Cox, whose mining
operation was in the vicinity of the Cuban town of Daiquiri. Cox is
generally given credit for inventing the drink called the “daiquiri,”
which he named for the town. Daiquiri was the site of the first landing
of Major General Rufus Shafter’s Fifth Corps in its assault on Santiago.
However, there are earlier references to the drink that would become
known as the Daquiri. N. G. Gonzalez was an American citizen and
newspaper correspondent who had been born in Cuba. During the war, he
joined the staff of Cuban General Nunez, and returned to Cuba to take
up the fight against the Spanish. When Nunez returned to Florida to
attempt to raise more troops for another expedition, Gonzalez stayed
behind and nominally served on the staff of Col. Rodriquez. In this
capacity he met Maximo Gomez, the overall commander of the Cuban
insurgent forces. It was Gomez who introduced him to the drink that
would become the daiquiri. Gonzalez described the meeting as follows:
“Before
the powwow began, the General did the honors by handing out his
precious flask of rum and a silver cup, of and from which we partook.
At the close of it he treated Captain Johnson to a mango and me to a
lime [food was a scarce commodity for the Cuban insurgent forces], and
then he suggested to me the advisability of putting the lime to its
best use. So he rummaged out another flask with a very fine aromatic
decoction of cane syrup, and out of this, the juice of the lime and
some more of the rum, he brewed me a punch which surpassed even the
best efforts of the lamented William Hayne, the majordomo of the
Columbia club in its palmy days. From the expression on my face,
Johnson saw that I had got hold of a good thing, so he dropped his
unripe mango and put up a look of inquiry. Thereupon the General brewed
him one also. If I had had that punch two days before after my swamp
trip, I would have been Willing to canonize Maximo Gomez. But it was
very nice even two days after.”
The combination of ingredients mentioned by Gomez constitute a
“daiquiri.” It would appear that the combination was already in use by
the time of the Spanish American War and not invented by Cox as is
traditionally thought.
The first recorded recipe for the drink, which is attributed to
Jennings Stockton Cox, is to serve six people and is as follows:
The
juice of 5 lemons
6 teaspoons sugar
6 cups of Bacardi Carta Blanca (rum)
2 cups of mineral water
Crushed ice
Interestingly, this “first” recorded
formal recipe for the famous lime drink actually does not include lime,
but lemon instead. It seems that in Cuba foreigners had a tendency to
mistake green, unripe lemons as limes. Gonzalez noted in his travels
with General Gomez that “…only the lemons are ripe, these being the
small wild variety known in the States as limes.” Therefore, it is also
unclear whether Gomez’ concoction, described by Gonzalez, actually
contained lime or lemon!
Bibliography:
"Classic Cocktails in History: the
Daiquiri," The Alcohol
Professor.
alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/blog/2014/05/14/classic-cocktails-in-history-the-daiquiri
(10/30/20).
Gonzalez, N. G., In Darkest Cuba: Two Months'
Service Under Gomez Along the Trocha From the Caribbean to the Bahama
Channel. (Columbia, S.C: The State Company, 1922), 231.
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