Oh So Beautiful Paper

Ernest Hemingway was a great many things, including a Nobel laureate in literature.  For our purposes here, he was also prolific drinker and among his vast legacy are several great cocktails, including the rum-based Papa Doble.  Whether celebrating his life and work or trying to beat the sweltering heat we’ve been suffering under lately, enjoy one this weekend.  – Andrew

Read below for the full recipe!

Papa Doble

2 oz Clear Rum
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur

Combine all the ingredients with crushed ice, shake well, pour everything into a chilled cocktail glass, and enjoy!

The Papa Doble is very tart, a little sweet, fantastically cold, and very refreshing.  I should emphasize, this is not very sweet.  If you want a sweeter drink than Hemingway did, you can increase the Maraschino Liqueur to 1/2 oz; this is quite tasty, but the sweet taste of Maraschino, reminiscent of almonds, can easily overwhelm a drink.  The clear rum can easily be overshadowed by the strong flavors of all that citrus and Maraschino, so consider experimenting with a more robust rum, like a Rhum Agricole or Cachaça.

Hemingway spent a lot of time in Cuba, visiting in the 1930s and living there for a time in the 1950s.  It was in Cuba that Hemingway helped develop the Papa Doble, his take on the Daiquiri (and for that reason known as the Hemingway Daiquiri). He wasn’t a fan of sweet drinks and wanted to take the sugar out of the Daiquiri; the original recipe probably included only a dash or two of Maraschino liqueur to balance all the sour citrus juice.

There’s a huge range of Papa Doble recipes out there, many of which sound terrible.  I’m not sure which is the most authentically Hemingway, but I’m not sure it matters much either – play around with these proportions until you find a recipe that works for you!

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

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