Banana Daiquiri

If by Banana Daiquiri, you mean a banana smoothie with a bit of lime and rum, than this is the drink you asked for. First, I don't hold that all Daiquiris must be frozen. Second, If it is a Daiquiri it should be tart. What the hell is this creamy banana thing?

Laying all that aside, this is a pretty good drink. It is truly 90s vintage or related to resort beach drinks of the 80s where the word Daiquiri meant frozen tropical drink, not a tart juicy rum sipper. You can make this cocktail in a balloon wine glass if you like. I wanted it in a Hurricane glass because it belongs on a cruise ship.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. half-and-half
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 sliced banana
• lime slice

Combine all ingredients except lime slice in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a balloon wine glass. Garnish with lime slice. 

Anna's Bannana

This is a very approachable tropical cocktail that tastes a lot like a frozen Banana Daiquiri. It is a simple blender smoothie with vodka as its power and lime juice and banana as its base. There's no artificial flavor used here, which is nice, and the drink is pretty tart. Honey adds richness, though and is another natural ingredient. No fake bananas!

• 2 oz. vodka (MurLarkey Divine Clarity used)
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 small banana slice
• 1 tsp. honey or almond syrup
• slice of lime

Add all ingredients except the lime slice in a blender with cracked ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled wine glass. Garnish with the lime slice.

Frozen Guava Daiquiri

 

At first glance, I'm thinking, "Just what we need. Another flavor of Daiquiri." But guava is a far better fruit in a Daiquiri than the strawberry. Taste it and you will see that there is more acid in guava and the flavor is a little unrecognizable but agreeably tropical. That's a good thing. You don't want your Daiquiri tasting like a New England farmer's market. It's a Caribbean drink, after all!

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3 Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. guava nectar
• 1 tsp. creme de bananes (1/2 oz. MurLarkey banana whiskey and 1 tsp. sugar used)

Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a deep champagne glass (stemless wine glass used).

Savane

 

If you live in Virginia, you don't have to look far for distilleries. In fact, you can make a cocktail that is a perfect escape from the ordinary, an exotic vacation, with spirits made only in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Savane is a rum-forward cocktail with acidity and spice. You can think of it as a version of a classic Daiquiri with tropical spices. Swap out lemon for lime juice and throw in banana and a coricopia of equatorial spices from the world tropic zones and you get what I mean.

Here we have Vitae's platinum rum as the base spirit. Vitae is a rum distillery in Charlottesville and Platinum is their flagship rum. MurLarkey's banana whiskey adds ripe fruit taste from an infusion of dried bananas in white whiskey. MurLarkey is known as a whiskey distillery, but they also make vodka and gin. Finally, I made falernum from Blue Sky distillery's Black Beard's Point rum. Blue Sky makes light and spiced rums as well as vodka and gin. 

It all comes together in this colonial cocktail in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum 
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. banana liqueur (MurLarkey Banana whiskey used) 
• 1 tsp. falernum (homemade used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.