Elevate Any Frozen Daiquiri With This Unexpected Fruit

With summer in full swing, refreshing drinks like daiquiris can be a great way to cool down. They're packed with sweet, fruity flavors and can be served on the rocks or frozen for really hot days.

While you'll often find recipes for mango or strawberry daiquiris, there's another tropical fruit that can make for an even more eye-catching drink — dragon fruit. Dragon fruit is the fruit of a cactus plant native to Central and South America and is known for its funky bright pink or yellow skin and white, pink, or red seed-speckled flesh.

When you add it to your daiquiri, its sweet flavors balance out the lime juice in your drink. It's also quite a light and refreshing ingredient, meaning it works well in your cocktail without overpowering the other flavors or making the drink feel too heavy. Plus, thanks to the fruit's unique appearance, adding a wedge of it to the rim of your cocktail glass gives your daiquiri a fun, tropical flair and makes it look just a little more appetizing.

When adding dragon fruit to your daiquiri, there are a few ways to go about it. You can cut it into cubes and stir it into your drink to add its flavors, or you can shake pureed dragon fruit into the mixture along with the other ingredients. This second method may lead to a stronger, more evenly distributed flavor. Another option is to skip the fresh fruit altogether and go for a dragon fruit-flavored simple syrup, although this may be harder to come across.

Another thing to be aware of is that there are actually a few different types of dragon fruit out there. Some varieties have a yellow skin while others have a red skin. The yellow variety has a sweeter taste, which can be great if you're looking for a flavor boost for your cocktail. At the same time, the flesh of the fruit can have different colors, ranging from white to pink to red. The darker flesh colors correlate to less sweetness, but they can add a fun tinge to your beverage that adds extra flair to your cocktail.

The fruit might be the focus of this cocktail twist, but it's far from the only thing you need to think about if you want to make this drink. While a classic daiquiri only needs rum, lime juice, and simple syrup, a dragon fruit version can grant more options for creativity, and you can incorporate additional fruits and liquors to add extra tasting notes.

If it's fruits you want to add, lychee might be a good pick. This fruit has a mild, sweet flavor that can work better for those who prefer more sugary palates. It can also help balance out dragon fruits with a more tart flavor. Another choice could be to play around with other tropical picks. Pineapple, for instance, brings a blend of refreshing tart notes and subtle summery sweetness that can create balance against a sweeter dragon fruit. Or, mix in some coconut for an extra tropical flair.

Another option is to play around with liqueurs. You can use liqueurs that have the above tropical fruits in them, or try a different tasting profile. Orange liqueur, for instance, can add a citrus boost to your cocktail. No matter how you mix things up, dragon fruit brings a unique flavor profile to your summer daiquiri.