Frozen Lemon Daiquiris

Beat the heat this summer with Frozen Lemon Daiquiris reminiscent of the New Orleans classic cocktail. Sweet and tart, this citrus and rum cocktail is like a fresh frozen lemonade. 

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Today I bring you one of my favorite cocktails of the year, the Frozen Lemon Daiquiri.

I have long been a daiquiri fan. It all started with bright red, super sweet and booze-less frozen strawberry daiquiris at my middle school friend’s bat mitzvah.

Then on a trip to New Orleans in college, there were more of those too-sweet, too-colorful daiquiris, this time with alcohol.

But later, in bartending school, I discovered the real deal. The path to a good daiquiri, I learned, is paved with quality, fresh ingredients.

Frozen lemon daiquiri recipe

The frozen lemon daiquiri is a recent discovery, featuring rum, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and ice — all mixed up together in a blender.

I discovered this daiquiri on another trip to New Orleans, this time for work. One night my coworkers and I wound up at a gumbo restaurant in the French Quarter.

(It’s always hard to know what’s a tourist trap and what’s not, but I could tell this was the real deal because there were lots of locals in line. While we waited for a table, a man who was picking up takeout told us his mom made the best gumbo, but this place made her favorite. Sold.)

On the drink menu were frozen daiquiris, which I might have ignored, because — to recap — I was hooked on the good songs now.

But these intrigued me because they boasted that they were made with fresh juices, kind of like this frozen mango daiquiri I made a few years back. I ordered a frozen lemon one, and it was glorious.

It tasted like frozen lemonade, but so much better.

What is a daiquiri?

The daiquiri is more than just a cocktail. It’s actually a family of cocktails featuring rum, citrus juice and sugar. It’s what we call a “sour” cocktail, and there are many variations depending on the type of citrus.

A few years ago, Chris and I took a trip to Richmond for a food festival. We were super lucky to get to take a few classes from cocktail wizard David Wondrich, who taught us all about making daiquiris.

One of the classes we took was an entire class on the Hemingway Daiquiri, supposedly Earnest Hemingway’s favorite cocktail. And that’s when I feel back in love with daiquiris.

It’s a tart little thing, with rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice and Luxardo liqueur, plus a lime wedge garnish. If you like grapefruit, I recommend this one!

Ingredients

These frozen lemon daiquiris are like eating lemon ice cream or sorbet — so delicate and decadent and delicious.

To make these ice-cold lemon daiquiris, you only need a few items from the grocery store:

• silver rum
• lemons (or lemon juice concentrate)
• sugar (to make simple syrup)
• ice — if you need to make a lot, you may want to stock up!

Rum

This recipe calls for white rum (AKA silver rum) but you can use any rum that you have on hand.

You may use gold rum or even spiced rum for more spiced flavor, but keep in mind they may change the color of the finished cocktail. Check out my Rum 101 guide for my favorite rum brands.

Lemon Juice

The trick to a perfect lemon daiquiri is fresh lemon juice.

You can skimp on the fresh lemon juice and use the pre-bottled concentrate, but if you have the time to squeeze some lemons, you will have a better cocktail. The concentrated stuff will provide a big change in quality.

These are my favorite juicers if you decide to try juicing lemons at home:

citrus juicers

citrus squeezer

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electric juicer

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juicer with measuring cup

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Simple syrup

I always recommend making your own simple syrup. It’s so very easy! Just equal parts of sugar and water. You can even skip the stovetop step and make your syrup right in the blender to save time.

You can also have some fun with flavors here. Try making a mint syrup or honey syrup to impart more depth to your finished daiquiris.

The resulting cocktail was a sweet-tart, citrus delight reminiscent of the frozen lemonades I loved at baseball games as a child.

And I still love it so, if this limoncello lemonade isn’t enough proof.

So I set out to make my own frozen lemon daiquiris at home and I wanted to share the recipe with you.

How to make the best frozen lemon daiquiri

The frozen lemon daiquiri is so easy to make.

You’re going to need your blender to make crushed ice for your frozen cocktail.

1. Throw your rum, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup into a blender.
2. Add some ice. (Always add liquids first so your blender can do its job properly!)
3. Then blend away until smooth and no ice chunks remeain.

I really think you’ll love this cocktail! It’s a perfect melody you’ll love forever.