You Can Make Daiquiri (or Any Sour) Without Sugar Syrup.
Back in the early days of the pandemic, drink writer David Wondrich did us all a huge favor by tweeting “Drink of the Day” live from his kitchen with “fuck a home photo and old trading skills.” The series is amazing, but I pretty much forgot about it because I don’t drink that much anymore.
But then someone retweeted his March 2020 daiquiri recipe to my timeline, and a key detail caught my attention:
Like any good daiquiri recipe, Wondrich’s was simple and accessible, but it was the lack of simple syrup that caught my attention. Instead of dissolving sugar in water, he mixed regular table sugar with a little lime juice, then shook it with room temperature rum, then shook it with ice and strained it into a chilled coupe.
Simple syrup is not difficult to make – even in small quantities – but I am very lazy and always try to eliminate the steps from recipes, smoothies or whatever. Using plain sugar is certainly more convenient than making syrup, however simple it may be, so I decided to try the Wondrich method.
I squeezed half a lime into the shaker, added a heaping teaspoon of sugar to the juice, stirred quickly, and added two ounces of rum. I gave it a quick shake before adding ice and shaking to chill. I strained it in the compartment and was surprised to find very few grains of undissolved sugar in the bottom of the glass. (I saw very few, that is, I did not feel them in my language.)
This method can obviously be applied to the whole world of sour drinks , using a half lemon/lime pattern + heaping tablespoon of sugar + 2 ounces of liquor, just make sure sugar is dissolved in room temperature liquids before adding ice, then strain in a chilled compartment. You should always keep it in the freezer “just in case (or, in this case, inevitability)” according to Wondrich.