First Rain Mango Daiquiri

A blended daiquiri for mango season. Frozen mango does the work of the ice, so the drink comes out thick and cold without going watery, and First Rain’s dry, clean profile keeps it from turning into dessert.

Ingredients

• 45 mL First Rain
• 20 mL fresh lime juice (about half a lime)
• 100 g frozen mango (about three quarters of a cup of cheeks or chunks)
• 15 mL sugar syrup, or 10 mL honey syrup (one part honey to one part hot water, cooled)
• A small handful of ice
• A thin lime wheel

Method

1. Chill a coupe in the freezer while you gather the rest.
2. Put the First Rain, lime juice, frozen mango, syrup and ice in a blender. Blend on high until thick and even, with no lumps of fruit left, about 20 seconds. If it will not turn over, add a splash of cold water, not more spirit.
3. Taste. Ripe mango is sweeter than you expect, so you may want a squeeze more lime rather than more syrup.
4. Pour into the chilled coupe and rest the lime wheel on the rim.

Where it comes from

The frozen daiquiri belongs to Havana in the 1930s, when Constante Ribalaigua at El Floridita put the electric blender to work on the classic rum, lime and sugar. Fruit followed soon after, and the mango version is the one that makes sense in Queensland, where mangoes arrive in November and keep coming through summer.

Fresh mango works too: use about 120 g of ripe flesh and double the ice. Kensington Pride gives the fullest flavour, Honey Gold the brightest colour. If you are making a jug, keep the ratio and blend in two batches so it stays thick.

First Rain is a silver cane spirit bottled without added sugar, so the fruit and the lime carry the drink. The recipe makes one; the mango bag in the freezer makes it easy to make four.