Is this the best Daiquiri in the world?

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What makes a great drink? There has to be balance, of course, with layers of flavour, and served at the correct temperature. It’s easily said, much more difficult to do.

But if you answered the question of what makes a great drink with rum, lime and sugar, you’d also score full marks.

Of course I’m referring to the Daiquiri. It’s the greatest of all rum drinks. This is one of those truths that we hold to be self evident. To be deprived on the Daiquiri is to be withheld one’s inalienable rights. Rum, lime, sugar, and liberté, égalité, fraternité. It is one and the same.

Okay — I am a Daiquiri fan, clearly. So when Nico de Soto — globetrotting bartender, owner of NYC’s Mace and Paris bar Danico (which in 2024 landed at 49 on The World’s 50 Best Bars list), and big fan of Australia — came to Dean & Nancy on 22 in Sydney last month to make some drinks, and his take on the Daiquiri, well, I had to be there.

That’s because Nico titles his Daiquiri riff — which features Kota pandan liqueur (more on that in a minute) and coconut — as The Best Daiquiri In The World.

You’ve got to admire a bartender who’s game enough to put that claim on such a bartender favourite.

Nico isn’t a braggadocio kind of guy, however, and when I asked him why he called it that, he said it was down to the way he feels about the ingredients in the recipe.

“For me, pandan and coconut together — it’s my favourite combination,” he says.

And it’s a damn good Daiquiri. Is it the best in the world? Well, that’s a subjective thing — I often think that the best Daiquiri in the world is the one that’s in front of me.

I’m not sure I’d class Nico’s take as a Daiquiri in the purest sense, but it’s a damn tasty drink, of which I had a few — you know, to really get a sense of it. The garnish, by the way, is a little coconut agar agar lapis jelly, and it too was super tasty.

“We make it ourselves,” Nico says. “It’s quite easy to do, you do it layer by layer, agar agar then pandan, and then after it solidifies, a layer of coconut.”

So if this drink is comprised of all the things Nico loves most in the world, then I reckon it’s fair for him to call it the world’s best.

You can get Nico’s recipe for The Best Daiquiri In The World below.

What’s this Kota liqueur in the spec, you might ask?

And this is a new bottling to file under Bartenders Making Their Own Booze: Kota Liqueur.

It’s not available in Australia, Nico says — and he would know. He’s keen to get it distributed downunder, because Kota liqueur is his own.

“Now I have a liqueur,” he says. “We made that with [notable French liqueur maker] Gabriel Boudier in Dijon. It took a while to get the recipe that I wanted, and now we’re just starting to export — to the USA, UK, Germany, Denmark, Singapore. Australia has got to be next.”

It’s delicious, if you ask me, with that grassy, nutty flavour that pandan is known for put in the form of a classically made French liqueur, and bottled at 18 percent ABV. No doubt someone will pick it up locally soon.

The Best Daiquiri In The World

Kota Pandan liqueur, Planteray Cut & Dry Rum, lime juice, koji shio, pink coconut syrup.

• 30ml Planteray Cut & Dry Rum
• 30ml Kota Pandan Liqueur
• 25ml lime juice
• 15ml of koji shio pink coconut syrup*

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with agar agar lapis.

For the koji shio pink coconut syrup:
Blend 275g pink coconut water (H2Coco) with 450g white sugar, and 38g liquid shio koji until sugar dissolves — do not heat.

Recipe by Nico de Soto.