Daiquirí

The purest test of a bartender: rum, lime and sugar, shaken into an icy, electric balance — Cuba's elegant contribution to cocktail perfection. Ingredients: white rum, fresh lime juice, fine sugar or syrup, ice — nothing more. Method: 1) Shake all three hard with ice until the shaker frosts. 2) Strain into a chilled coupe. 3) For the frozen Hemingway-era style, blend with crushed ice into a fine snow. The experience: bright, bracing and silky — citrus and cane in perfect tension. History: the daiquirí is commonly credited to American mining engineer Jennings Cox, who mixed it near Daiquirí beach, Cuba, around 1898; Havana's El Floridita bar and its legendary cantinero Constantino Ribalaigua perfected it, and Ernest Hemingway made its frozen version famous.