We’re all experiencing the heat. Recently, you folks who call southern California “home” were treated to 100+ degree weather. At the same time, the weather out east was around 88…with suffocating humidity. I think I’d take 100+ dry heat over the humidity any day. Point is, cold drinks were in order for all of us last week. Early in May I stocked our bar cart for my husband’s birthday and since then we’ve been having a grand old time pretending to be master mixologists.
Mixologist Melissa at The Cellar Lounge
From gin and tonics to white Russians, it’s been fun and tasty. One of my favorites? A drink so terribly outdated, it’s sweet and cold and really should be served with an umbrella sticking out of the top. It’s so not my usual, but in the middle of this heat, it is the best thing since sliced bread: it’s the frozen daiquiri.
Classic daiquiri. Add ice, fruit and a blender to make it frozen (top with Moscato)
A classic daiquiri is a mixture of rum, ice, sugar and lime juice. A frozen daiquiri is created by pulverizing the mixture with ice in a blender, and the variations on flavor are endless. The drink was supposedly invented by an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox who was in Cuba at the time of the Spanish-American War. The drink became popular in the 1940’s when wartime rationing made whiskey and vodka hard to come by. Ernest Hemingway and John F. Kennedy were supposedly fans of the cocktail. The daiquiri remained en vogue in the 1950’s and 1960’s when America embraced the “tiki” and “Hawaiian” tropical culture. And in the 80’s the fruity drink was right at home with the likes of wine coolers, white Zinfandel and other sweet cocktails. The 90’s came and brought a return to handcrafted cocktails which has remained strong today. The daiquiri was sort of left behind, until now.
A summer cocktail lineup at The Cellar Lounge. Only one missing? A frozen daiquiri of course!
My version of choice has been a frozen pineapple daiquiri, with a viniferous twist – adding Moscato! I blend up 3 cups of pineapple chunks (half fresh, half frozen), 1 cup of ice, the juice of 1 lime, some simple syrup and about 2 shots of white rum. I blend until it’s thick and creamy and dreamy and cold and serve immediately (this makes 2 generous servings). But before I do…I top my glass with a healthy pour of sparkling Moscato wine. Oh Mylanta, it is amazing. I usually sip the Moscato first, which sits nicely on top of the thick daiquiri and is now colder than usual, and kissed with a bit of pineapple flavor. When it’s gone, I enjoy what lies beneath. If I close my eyes, sometimes I’m in Tahiti, sometimes its Catalina Island, sometimes I’m sitting at the Jamaican bar that Tom Cruise worked at in the movie Cocktail. All in all, this drink drops the scorching summer temperature at least 10 degrees.
Hot summer days call for ice cold Sparkling Moscato
Moral of the story is this: stock up on Moscato for the summertime. Great on its own or as a topper to your favorite frozen drink!
–Erica Martinez
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