Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway, 1970
2 oz. lightly aged rum
½ oz. fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon caster (superfine) sugar
1 lime wheel, for garnish
Chill a large coupe in the freezer.
Place the rum, lime juice, and sugar in a blender, add ½ cup ice, and puree until smooth.
Pour the cocktail into the chilled coupe, garnish with the lime wheel, and enjoy.
He had drunk double frozen daiquiris, the great ones that Constante made, that had no taste of alcohol and felt, as you drank them, the way downhill glacier skiing feels running through powder snow and, after the sixth and eighth, felt like downhill glacier skiing feels when you are running unroped.
Islands in the Stream was published nine years after Hemingway’s death, though he had begun it back in 1950. Set against the backdrop of World War II, it tells the story of a painter named Thomas Hudson, who comes to terms with the deaths of his three sons.
The Frozen Daiquiri has acquired something of a bad reputation, given that in the 1980s it became associated with sickeningly sweet, overly artificial drinks, but the original differs from an “ordinary” Daiquiri mainly in its use of crushed ice (the drink is mixed in a blender). It doesn’t have to be especially sweet, and in fact, will be better if it’s not.