21 Apr Daisy Week: Daisy de Santiago Cocktail Recipe
Daisy de Santiago Cocktail Recipe
We’re spending this week acquainting ourselves with a very old, mostly forgotten class of cocktail called the Daisy, a sort of sour with something(s) extra. It’s a deliciously refreshing and aptly named cocktail for the current season of warming temperatures and blooming flowers.
We get our final daisy of the week from Charles H. Baker’s early 20th century Gentleman’s Companion, in which he travels around the world, orders cocktails, and tells us about them (Can we have Baker’s job?). By his account, he stopped at the Bacardi distillery in Cuba at least four times, it being a good place to find free drinks. He claims to have been introduced to the Daisy de Santiago by Facundo Bacardi himself; and he ranks it as second only to the daiquiri among rum cocktails. Baker likes his drinks spirited; so I’m not surprised these two top the list, but I am surprised the Presidente wasn’t more in the mix.
We like this version of the daisy not just because it comes with a story, but because of the different direction it takes with the liqueur. While the prototypical daisy liqueurs are more fruity (orange curacao or maraschino being the classics), the Santiago uses the strongly herbal Chartreuse instead. Granted, it’s the sweeter and milder yellow version, but still … The Santiago is a delicious warning not to let your imagination get too hemmed in when creating your daisy cocktail.
Ingredients
- 2 oz silver rum–we used Lyon Overproof White; Baker, of course, used Bacardi
- juice of 1 lime (about 1 1/2 oz)
- 1 1/2 tsp gum syrup
- 3/4 oz yellow Chartreuse
- 1/2 oz club soda
- citrus and/or mint, for garnish
Instructions
- Stir the rum, lime juice, and gum syrup well with ice.
- Pour into an ice-filled rocks glass.
- Float the chartreuse on top.
- Float the soda on top of that.
- Garnish.
