Recipes By Clay Risen

NYT Cooking

Santiago-Style Daiquiri

These days the standard daiquiri is made with simple syrup and lime juice, and is often served blended. But in its original incarnation, in late-19th-century Santiago de Cuba, bartenders made it with granulated sugar; either lemon or lime juice; and crushed ice. That's still how many people in Santiago prefer it, and how Eduardo Corona makes it at El Traguito — though the maraschino liqueur, more typical of daiquiris in Havana, is a recognition that sometimes even a classic can be improved.