Vanilla Bean Daiquiri

Daiquiris are my favorite.

They’re a magic combination of rum, fresh lime and a bit of sugar to balance everything out.

You can also tweak the recipe to your liking by adding a little more or less lime, or more or less sugar. Rum is also such an incredibly diverse spirit category to explore, so you can make a daiquiri with a different rum every time and it could taste totally different.

Other than trying out different kinds of rum, I don’t generally mess with the core ingredients. However, I had the honor of visiting Belize to check out the Copalli Rum distillery and their organic farm. One afternoon, a bartender that worked at the distillery made me a Copalli Rum daiquiri made with syrup that was infused with freshly harvested vanilla. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since– it was just so good!

If you want to try making the syrup (the recipe for it is at the end), Costco usually has a pretty good deal on vanilla bean pods. They aren’t quite as good as the ones that are grown on Copalli’s property in Belize, but it’s pretty darn close!

ingredients:

2 oz Copalli Belizean white rum

1 oz fresh lime juice

¾ oz fresh vanilla bean syrup

Lime wheel

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instructions:

Combine ingredients and shake with ice.

Fine-strain into a coupe and serve up, or strain into a rocks glass over ice (up to you!)

Garnish with a lime wheel.

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How to make Vanilla Bean syrup:

ingredients:

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup sugar

• 1-2 vanilla bean pods

instructions:

1. Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and heat on medium until sugar is dissolved.

2. Slice the vanilla bean pods lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the pod(s) to the syrup.

3. Lightly simmer for about 10 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

4. Once the syrup is at room temperature, add the syrup to a resealable bottle and keep in the fridge. (I keep the pod(s) in the syrup but you can remove them if you want).

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More delicious rum cocktails to try out…