White rum, lime and sugar, shaken hard: the benchmark sour, and the drink a bartender is most often judged by.
What makes it daiquiri
White rum, fresh lime and sugar — nothing else
Shaken hard with plenty of ice and served up, very cold
Around 2 : ¾ : ¾ — rum, lime, syrup — tuned to the lime on the day
Where it comes from
It's named after Daiquirí, a beach and iron-mining town near Santiago de Cuba. The usual story credits an American mining engineer around 1900, though rum, lime and sugar were drunk together there long before anyone wrote it down.
Havana made it famous. With only three ingredients there's nowhere to hide, which is why it's the drink bartenders use to test each other — and the one every other sour is measured against.
How it varies
Frozen
Blended with ice, as it was often served in Havana.