To Serve Man
Rum

Hotel Nacional Special

Glass
Coupe

A pre-tiki Havana daiquiri variation with pineapple and apricot brandy, praised by Charles H. Baker.

rum cuban classic pre-tiki shaken daiquiri-variant pineapple
Scale
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Ingredients

  • fresh pineapple juice (0.75 oz)
  • fresh lime juice (0.5 oz)
  • simple syrup (0.25 oz)
  • apricot brandy (0.25 oz)
  • aged white rum (1.5 oz)
  • lime wedge

Instructions

  1. Combine fresh pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, apricot brandy, and aged white rum in a shaker with cracked ice.
  2. Shake until well chilled and strain into a chilled coupe.
  3. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Sources

  1. Baker, The Gentleman's Companion, Vol. II (1939), Hotel Nacional Special entry, Baker's first-person reportage of the drink at the Hotel Nacional, with the "one of the three finest Bacardi drinks known to science" line and the Wil P. Taylor attribution. Baker's 1:1 rum-to-pineapple original ratio is documented here. ↩
  2. "Hotel Nacional Special." Difford's Guide. https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/1383/hotel-nacional-special (accessed 2026-05-03), modern published spec with the rum-forward 2:1 ratio reformulation; source for this file's measurement bill. ↩