Pear of Daiquiris

Boxes and Booze

Nov 27

For one of my favorite artists, I thought I would toast with one of my favorite cocktails. I’ve written about the storied “daiquiri” before, that simple yet simply perfect combination of rum, lime juice and sugar. Much maligned and confused with the frozen slush, fruit sweetened and sad slurper which many think of as a daiquiri, the original was the simple and elegant combination of rum, lime, and sugar. Hemingway and JFK were famously infatuated with them, and so am I. To prove it, we won’t even settle for one daiquiri, but for this special box, we’ll have two – a “pair of daiquiris”.

The Pear of Daiquiris cocktail

The first uses standard simple syrup and Plantation’s Pineapple “Stiggin’s Fancy” rum – a potion I have mentioned before along with another puzzling pineapple. The folks at Pierre Ferrand teamed up with cocktail historian David Wondrich to recreate an old-time pineapple rum the likes of which would have been imbibed in Dicken’s day. They have done it again, this time to create an overproof dark rum known as Plantation OFTD (Old Fashioned Traditional Dark, or as it is also fondly known Oh F* That's Delicious). The OFTD rum is the brainchild of a team of seven leading rum aficionados led by Pierre Ferrand's master blender Alexandre Gabriel. Such a rich and tasty rum holds up well to a bit of acidity, and the second daiquiri uses the OFTD rum with a spiced pear “shrub” (a sweetened drinking vinegar) to great effect. Put these two delightful daiquiris together and you’ve got a prefect pair. Of course, I had to take it a step further (I’m a glutton for pun-ishment), so this is the “Pear of Daiquiris” cocktail. Here’s to contradictory yet interdependent forces, light and dark (rum), magnificent puzzles and the culmination of our collective experiences. Cheers!