The origin of the Daisy is quite unsure but the first written reference to it is in the 1866 novel “Gay Life in New York, or Fast Men and Grass Widow” by Henry Llewellyn Williams.

Looking at one of the first appearances in a cocktail book, it was in George Kappeler’s 1895 Modern American Drinks, we understand that cocktail Daisy is made with 1 part of sugar syrup, 1 part of orange (curaçao, cordial, or juice), 2 parts of lemon or lime, 3 parts of spirit (brandy, rum, whiskey, etc), and topped up with soda water.

Indeed, he writes variations calling for different spirits such as brandy, whiskey, gin and rum but following the same structure. In other words – prepared in the same manner, substituting the spirit.

Soon after, that simple masculine Daisy drink became a little bit fancier with the addition of raspberry syrup. With the gin getting more popular, the two kinds came into circulation – the old school Daisy with orange and the new style Gin Daisy with raspberry syrup.