Ok, people! It’s National Daiquiri Day!  Who knew?  For the longest time, the only way I could tell the difference between a daiquiri and a margarita was one had a salted rim and the other whipped cream on top.  This tells you two things: 1] my taste buds used to be pretty lame and 2] I tended to cocktail in some sketchy places…I mean who puts whipped cream on a daiquiri?  Well, maybe it was just the thing to do in the 90s.  So, now that I’m older {way, way older} I know the true difference – one uses tequila, the other rum, preferably white rum.  Both are great, hold the salt, hold the whipped cream, please.  

Whenever I think of a daiquiri three things come to mind.  Sun, my mom and Goldfarb.  A daiquiri seems like a perfect warm weather drink, so while the rest of the country is suffering from blistering heat and should be enjoying one of these as we speak, here in Seattle, I will just pretend it’s warm outside instead of the the reality…66 degrees.  Now, my mom and Goldfarb have a lot in common, most notably the love for the same movies.  I’m pretty sure if they showed a marathon of all the Zoro, Count of Monte Christo and Three Musketeers movies they would be in seventh heaven.  But they also both love daiquiris; and both loved them blended!  So it seems particularly wrong that I’ve made this drink while neither are here to enjoy it with me.  Perhaps I’ll make one for Goldfarb when he gets home.  And after posting this entry I am promptly calling my mom.  Maybe my dad will take her for an evening daiquiri. 

While I do like daiquiris, I’m not fond of overly sweet ones, or any other cocktail for that matter.  So when I saw golden raspberries at the market today I quickly scooped up a couple of pints.  The traditional daiquiri created in 1898 in the town of Daiquiri {near Santiago, Cuba} is shaken, not blended, but come on…a shaken daiquiri?  I say no way!  It’s blended or nothing, baby.  Hemingway made this drink famous but since its creation people have taken liberties with the recipe, using spiced rum, a variety of fruit, blended, frozen, etc.  Here’s my recipe for a blended golden raspberry daiquiri.  You can sub out the fruit for whatever you like and adjust the amount of simple syrup to account for the sweetness of the fruit you use…or your taste buds  You pretty much can’t go wrong. So play around with the recipe and enjoy!

Golden Raspberry Daiquiri
makes 1

2 oz. white rum {Bacardi Superior}
1 oz. fresh lime juice
½ oz. simple syrup
1 cup golden raspberries
2-3 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender until ice is broken down.  Serve immediately in a chilled glass.