Tagged: 3 stars, cocktails, daiquiri, plantation rum
One of the easiest-to-answer questions that people often throw my way is “What is your favorite cocktail?” As the owner of this beach bar blog and my more localized blog Hooch and Nosh, the assumption is that I enjoy cocktails. That assumption would be correct.
The beach bar lifestyle can certainly be enjoyed sans alcohol. For someone who “researches” them, though, that’s not really an option. Rum is such an integral part of the day to day operations of most of our favorite beach bars that you have to imbibe a little bit every now and then.
When you’re bellied up to a beach bar, rum lights up the path to a night filled with memories, stories (some partly real, some totally made up) and new friends. When you’re home in the Midwest USA, your kids want their third helping of mac ‘n cheese, the dogs are scooting/wiping their butts on the rugs and it’s snowing … again …, rum, specifically the kind found intertwined with lime juice and simple syrup, becomes your escape-in-a-coupe-glass.
That “Calgon take me away” moment all bundled up in a glass, better known as a daiquiri, is my favorite cocktail. And when it comes to my favorite cocktail, there’s only one rum that will do – 3 Stars white rum from Plantation.
The rum, lime juice and simple syrup create the perfectly balanced drink. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. That combo basically describes all of the cocktails in the sours category but it’s Plantation’s 3 Stars that is the difference. You’ll have to mess with the ratios to suit it to your taste but once you have it dialed in, you’ll be what old people, not me, as a “happy camper.”
It’s amazingly easy to make. Yep, it takes some ice and you’ll have to squeeze limes for the lime juice. You’ll also have to make some simple syrup (that’s easy as well) but once you have all of the ingredients patiently waiting for you in your refrigerator, it’s as easy as 1 2 3 (click here for a pdf of the recipe).
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INGREDIENTS
•2 oz Plantation 3 Stars rum
•1 oz lime juice
•.75 oz simple syrup
DIRECTIONS
1. Fill cocktail shaker a third full with ice. Add rum, lime juice and simple syrup.
2. Shake ingredients enough to chill the shaker but not enough to break up the ice into tiny pieces and dilute the cocktail with water. See video below for details. It may seem like I’m putting too much of an emphasis on the shaking part but this is where you really “make” the cocktail. Just like various dishes, you don’t want to cook/bake/fry them for too long/not long enough/too hot/not hot enough. It takes the correct balance.
3. Strain ingredients into a coupe glass (garnish with a lime if you have one). This will filter out the ice shards from the shaking. Double strain that ish if you really want to impress your friends. Please use a coupe glass. I die a little inside every time I’m served a daiquiri in anything but a coupe.
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Once you get used to making this cocktail, you can mix things up by using my new go-to favorite, demerara syrup, in place of the simple syrup. You can also add egg white to dress it up and garnish with any various fancy ways to attack a lime with a peeler or knife.
Don’t forget to mess with the ratios to suit your taste. Since I prefer my cocktails more spirit-forward and tart, the more I drink these, the less simple syrup I find myself using. For those just starting out, the above ingredients list is a good place to begin.
How To Make Simple Syrup
Shake, Strain and Double/Fine Strain
How To Make Demerara Syrup
