The Gayle Seale Daiquiri Challenge

People get honoured in so many ways. Statues are erected. Roads, buildings and parks are named after them. In football a certain turn is named after Cruijff, a penalty named after Panenka. Scientific breakthroughs are often named after the main contributor. That’s all fine and dandy, but what is the greatest honour of them all?! Getting a daiquiri named after you of course!

That’s what has happened to Gayle Seale, global brand ambassador of Foursquare distillery and wife of owner/distiller/blender/artist/wizard Richard Seale. The Gayle Seale daiquiri is a real thing, thanks to Global Rum Ambassador Ian Burrell: “When creating a cocktail, one of the hardest things to do can be to think of an appropriate name. The Gayle Seale was originally called The Bajan Daiquiri AKA The Gayle Seale, as it combines elements from two different cocktails. The first being The classic Corn 'n' Oil which combines BARBADOS RUM with FALERNUM, which is a BARBADIAN Rum liqueur (not a Non "Barbados rum" liquor that I see many people try and make)...plus a dash of Angostura bitters.

The 2nd drink is the classic Daiquiri, but of course, if making a Bajan Daiquiri you MUST use a rum from BARBADOS. Why? Because I created it, and that’s what the recipe calls for. Sort of like a Rob Roy calls for Scotch. Or a Boulevardier calls for Bourbon. Use another type of whiskey and it's a different drink.

Use a rum not aged in Barbados and the Gayle Seale is NOT a Gayle Seale. Why? Because Gayle is the brand ambassador for Foursquare rum, so it makes sense that this drink is exclusively with a rum from Foursquare distillery. When I created this drink I used Doorly's XO, but the Doorly's 8 & 12 work perfectly well too. As does the Foursquare Zinfandel 11 year old, but save that for when you are making one for me.”

Here’s Ian’s recipe:

"50ml Doorly's XO, 25ml Fresh Lime Juice, 15ml JD Taylor's Velvet Falernum, 10ml Sugar Syrup, 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters. Shake all the ingredients with plenty of ice in a shaker. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a twist of lime peel."

I can’t post this on Rum Revelations without taste testing this daiquiri with a few different rums of course, Big Daiquiri Challenge style. For that I asked my gf Mariangela and her friend Shauna to participate. I really had to force them to drink daiquiris with me :) For the comparison we used Doorly’s XO, Doorly’s 12 and Foursquare 2007. I love FS 2007, so before we started tasting I figured this would be a walk in the park for it.

The Cast

· Doorly’s XO - 40%

· Doorly’s 12 - 40%

· Foursquare 2007 - 59%

The Tasting

Doorly’s XO

Mariangela: Grapefruit, very refreshing!

Shauna: Nicely balanced, lots of flavour

Ivar: Balances out the lime well. Not a fan of the Angostura.

Sh: Not as strong as I expected

Ma: Too much bitterness from the Angostura

Iv: Not rummy enough for me

At this point we made a bold move. We cheated and slightly changed the recipe. Ma and I both thought the Angostura bitters were too forward. So we went from 3 dashes to one dash. Deepest apologies to Mr Burrell for this infidelity.

Doorly’s XO - Part 2

Sh: Very sweet and balanced, love it

Ma: Balanced, good daiquiri, very fruity

Sh: More fruity than the 12

Iv: Like this much better with less bitters

Doorly’s 12

Ma: Sweeter, not as balanced as the XO

Sh: More tartness, not as sweet & smooth as the XO

Iv: Sweeter than the XO and less lime forward. I like it

Ma: More subtle in its flavour

Sh: More alcoholy. I don’t like the 12

Foursquare 2007

Iv: Adds an entire dimension. Rum!

Sh: Doesn’t taste like a daiquiri

Ma: A waste of 2007

Iv: There is a certain bitterness

Sh: Doesn’t seem like a proper cocktail (too rummy)

Iv: Not outstanding enough to waste good 2007 on

Vote

Iv: Doorly’s 12

Ma: Doorly’s XO

Sh: Doorly’s XO

Final notes

I was clearly wrong in two ways. First of all, I was the only one to pick Doorly’s 12 as a winner. Shauna and Mariangela thought the XO was a strong number 1. Second, my Foursquare 2007 prediction was far off the mark. We all picked it as our least favourite. In this case, the better rum didn’t make the better daiquiri. This might have been different if we had compensated for the higher abv by decreasing the amount of rum in the cocktail. But we decided to use the same recipe for all three.

The Gayle Seale daiquiri is an interesting twist to the classic recipe. It’s refreshing and easy going and will therefore work for many people. I’m more into the “slap in the face” type of daiquiris, but I realize I’m part of a minority in this. If you want to be very comfortable, dreaming about a gorgeous Barbados sunset….this cocktail will surely put you on the right track.

Gayle Seale and Ian Burrell