A bracing, sugar-free take on the Daiquiri, it sets white rum against fresh lime and grapefruit, sweetened only by a whisper of maraschino liqueur. Served up and ice-cold, it drinks tart and layered rather than sweet, the grapefruit's bitter edge and the maraschino's faint cherry-almond note rounding out the citrus before a crisp, dry finish.
Shaken · Double cocktail glass · Up
add
Add the white rum, grapefruit juice, maraschino liqueur, and fresh lime juice to a shaker.
shake
Fill with ice and shake well until thoroughly chilled.
strain
Double-strain into a chilled double cocktail glass, served straight up.
The Hemingway Special belongs to El Floridita in Havana, where Ernest Hemingway took his daiquiri with no sugar and twice the rum — an order that came to be known as the Papa Doble. Grapefruit juice and maraschino were folded in later, turning that stark request into a brighter, more approachable drink. No individual bartender is credited with the recipe; the record assigns it to the bar itself. The IBA now counts it among its Contemporary Classics.