Daisies

Daisy is a category of very basic cocktails created in the mid to late 1800s. Back then, a common trend emerged where bartenders made their own variations on one simple cocktail formula: a fancy sour, orange liqueur and/or grenadine and top off with seltzer water. And so, the basic daisy cocktail was born and bartenders began experimenting across the nation.

One of the earliest known recipes was published in 1876 in the second edition of Jerry Thomas's The Bartenders Guide or How To Mix Drinks: The Bon-Vivants Companion:

Brandy Daisy

3 or 4 dashes gum syrup
2 or 3 dashes of orange cordial [Curaçao liqueur]
The juice of half a lemon
1 small wineglass of brandy

Shake well and strain into a glass, and fill up with Seltzer water from a syphon.

Also listed are the Whiskey, Gin and Rum Daisies, made the same way substituting the type of spirit.

The gin-based daisy, in at least one bartender's guide from the mid-1930s, is considered an early incarnation of the Cosmopolitan, a drink today well known as a citrus vodka-based concoction.

Fresh citrus — typically lemon juice, but occasionally orange or lime juice — is common throughout most daisy recipes. Liqueurs or cordials also figure prominently, ranging from Curaçao to maraschino or yellow Chartreuse (a suggestion from the writer Nathaniel Gubbins in his 1899 book The Flowing Bowl), distinguishing the daisy from other sour cocktails. Additional sweeteners sometimes added range from gomme syrup to grenadine syrup, raspberry syrup, or bar sugar.

A later recipe, published in 1941 in Old Mr Boston's De Luxe Official Bartender's Book includes the following instructions:

2 oz California brandy
juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp raspberry syrup or grenadine
½ tsp powdered sugar
fill cracked ice

Shake well with cracked ice and strain into stein or 8 oz. metal cup. Add cube of ice and decorate with fruit.

Drinks that originated with the Daisy

The daisy was the forerunner to other popular cocktails, notably the sidecar, made with brandy, from around the end of World War I, and the margarita, made with tequila, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Even as the margarita has become especially popular during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, its base spirit has also surfaced in both tequila daisies and tequila sidecars.

Margarita is the Spanish word for daisy. By the 1930s, the daisy formula had made its way to Mexico using the most prevalent ingredients in the area: tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice, which, of course, is known as the margarita.

Another daisy variation has made a successful comeback, thanks to cocktail master Dale Degroff, but really hit the mainstream thanks to a starring role in the "Sex in the City" series. Yup, the cosmopolitan is also a daisy cocktail, made with citron vodka, Cointreau, lime juice and cranberry juice.

During spring and summer, you can lengthen your daisy with a little soda water, or in the case of the cosmo, with cranberry juice.

From Jerry Thomas' Bartender's Guide, 1887

Brandy Daisy.
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup.
2 or 3 dashes of Curacoa cordial
The juice of half a small lemon.
1 small wine-glass of brandy.
2 dashes of Jamaica rum.

Fill glass one-third full of shaved ice. Shake well, strain into a large cocktail glass, and fill up with Seltzer water from a syphon.

Whiskey Daisy.
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 3 dashes gum syrup.
2 dashes Orgeat syrup.
The juice of half a small lemon.
1 wine-glass of Bourbon, or rye whiskey.

Fill glass one-third full of shaved ice. Shake well, strain into a large cocktail glass, and fill up with Seltzer or Apollinaris water.

Santa Cruz Rum Daisy.
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup.
2 or 3 dashes of Maraschino or Curacoa.
The juice of half a small lemon.
1 wine-glass of Santa Cruz rum.

Fill glass one-third full of shaved ice. Shake thoroughly, strain into a large cocktail glass, and fill up with Apollinaris or Seltzer water.

Gin Daisy.
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 3 or 4 dashes of Orgeat, or gum syrup.
3 dashes of Maraschino.
The juice of half a small lemon.
1 wine-glass of Holland gin.

Fill glass one-third full of shaved ice. Shake well, strain into a large cocktail glass, and fill up with Seltzer or Apollinaris water.