Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

While it’s usually tricky to learn the truth about where most vintage cocktails came from, the history of the Daiquiri is clear and even documented! Following the American-Spanish war of 1898, an American engineer, Jennings Cox, came to the small town of Daiquiri in Cuba for work.

Of course, working in the mines in Cuba was a fairly dangerous occupation, so all the engineers received a substantial salary and generous tobacco rations. But, Cox also requested that they received monthly rations of local rum too. He then began to experiment, mixing the rum with the ingredients he had available to finally invent the very first Daiquiri! The original cocktail, with its ingredients and name, were then all recorded in Cox’s personal diary.

The Daiquiri remained a Cuban speciality until 1909 when Admiral Lucius W. Johnson came over from America to visit different places of the American-Cuban War. He stopped off in Daiquiri, where Cox still resided and tried his delicious cocktail. Johnson loved it so much he brought it back to America and introduced it to the Army and Navy Club.