This Banana Daiquiri is going to be the best-tasting, most authentically banana-flavored cocktail of your life. No artificial colors or banana flavorings here. The secret ingredient? Homemade cold-process banana syrup. This incredibly simple mix of fresh bananas and sugar turns an ordinary Daiquiri into a richly flavored, tropical delight.

a white cocktail in a vintage glass with a banana slice on the rim.

There are a number of ways to make a Banana Daiquiri. You can serve it blended and frozen, shaken and served up, with banana liqueur, banana syrup, or fresh bananas. The choice is yours. However, after trying a few different recipes, this simple, shaken Banana Daiquiri with an easy banana syrup is my favorite. If you’re looking for real banana flavor while also being able to taste your rum of choice, this is the recipe for you.

What makes a Daiquiri a Daiquiri?

A classic Daiquiri is a simple cocktail made with white rum, freshly squeezed lime juice and simple syrup. For a flavored Daiquiri, you can either swap out the simple syrup for a flavored syrup or muddle fresh fruits. Frozen, flavored Daiquiris have a bad reputation for being overly sweet and artificial-tasting. But if you use fresh ingredients and avoid Daiquiri mixes, you can make perfectly balanced, fruity, frozen Daiquiris right from the comfort of your home.

There is some variation in the specs for a traditional Daiquiri, but a good place to start is 2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice, and 3/4 part simple syrup. Some prefer it a bit sweeter with 1 part of syrup, while others like it even more tart with only 1/2 part sweetener. As long as the flavor of the white rum is in harmony with the sweet syrup and the sour lime juice, it’s a Daiquiri.

How to make it frozen

To make a frozen Daiquiri, all you need to do is add about 1 cup of crushed ice to your ingredients and blend everything until smooth. I recommend using flavored syrups, like the banana syrup in this recipe, rather than using fresh banana. The reason for this is because we want to control how much the flavors are diluted. Using whole, fresh bananas will add a lot more volume to the finished drink, essentially ‘watering it down’.

several bananas on a grey table with green leaves.

Instead, our banana syrup adds the same flavor, but in a more concentrated form. You can apply this to other fruity Daiquiris, too: use strawberry simple syrup to make a Strawberry Daiquiri, or passion fruit syrup to make a Passion Fruit Daiquiri. Use a quality blender and crushed (rather than cubed) ice for the best, smoothest texture.

Learn all my best tips for making great frozen drinks at home in my Frozen Honey Palomas recipe!

How to make the banana syrup

This syrup is made in the style of oleo saccharum. If you’re not familiar, oleo saccharum is a citrus peel syrup made by mixing lemon or orange (or lime, or grapefruit) peels with white sugar. The mixture is left for an hour or several, and the sugar slowly draws out the rich oils from the peels. Oleo saccharum is a great way to add bright citrus flavor to many drinks, from old school punches to lemonade.

a bowl of banana slices in thick syrup next to bananas.

To make this oleo-style banana syrup, you’ll simply toss sliced ripe bananas with sugar, cover the bowl, and wait an hour. Next, you can add a small measure of water to help dissolve the last of the sugar crystals, carefully strain out the bananas, and voila! While it does take a little bit of patience, it’s very easy and requires no cooking, which means beautiful, fresh banana flavor. Find all the details in my Fresh Banana Syrup Recipe.

What rum to choose

Daiquiris are most commonly made with white rum, but you can use an aged rum if you prefer. Here I’ve used Copalli White Rum, which is a really interesting, smooth, organic rum from Belize with a distinct grassy flavor. The simple format of the Daiquiri makes it a great choice when sampling a new rum.

pouring white rum from a measuring cup into a cocktail shaker.

You can really taste your rum of choice, and enjoy some of its more nuanced flavors. Other white rums I recommend for Daiquiris are Plantation 3 Star, El Dorado 3 Year, Flor de Cana 4 Year, or the full-flavored Probitas. You can certainly use the old standby, Bacardi, if you enjoy it, but there are many more white rums out there to choose from!

Banana Daiquiri variations

There are many ways to make a Banana Daiquiri. This ultra-simple recipe is my current favorite, but I also recommend checking out the Shaken Banana Daiquiri from Difford’s Guide and the Parasol by Shannon Mustipher.

Both of these recipes use Giffard’s Banane du Bresil, which is a delicious, high quality banana liqueur made with Brazilian bananas and Cognac. If you don’t have time for making banana syrup, I highly recommend picking up a bottle of Banane du Bresil!

The Parasol is a particularly wonderful tropical cocktail that is made with a touch of pineapple juice and garnished with freshly grated nutmeg.

How to garnish

I like to garnish with a banana slice. Just be sure to slice the banana while it’s still in the peel! Then, cut a slit just long enough to allow the slice to sit on the rum of your cocktail glass. A fresh banana slice makes a great finishing bite for this cocktail, but you can also garnish with a sprig of mint to amplify the fresh flavors, or skip the garnish altogether.

You may also enjoy these other Daiquiri recipes: