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: Fill glass half full of shaved ice.

The gin-based daisy, in at least one bartender's guide from the mid-1930s,[2] is considered an early incarnation of the Cosmopolitan, a drink today well known as a citrus vodka-based concoction.

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[3]), distinguishing the daisy from other sour cocktails.

A later recipe, published in 1941 in Old Mr Boston's De Luxe Official Bartender's Book includes the following instructions: Shake well with cracked ice and strain into stein or 8 oz.

The daisy was the forerunner to other popular cocktails, notably the sidecar, from around the end of World War I, and the margarita, during the late 1930s and early 1940s.