Tropical Rum Drinks
No drink says tropical island getaway quite like a rum cocktail.
Crafted with the sweet liquor made from sugarcane and its byproducts, rum drinks are best enjoyed while staring out at the sea from the comfort of a beach chair. But if you can't catch a flight to paradise, you can also enjoy them at home.
Most rum cocktails simply require a squeeze of citrus, fresh fruit juices, a little bit of sugar, and a combination of light or dark rum. Throw a slice of fruit on the rim, and maybe a cocktail umbrella, and you’re pretty much good to go.
If you want to transport yourself back to that tropical island of your dreams, without even setting foot on a plane, these are the drinks you should be mixing up at home.
Rum Runner
Legend has it that the iconic Rum Runner cocktail was invented by John Ebert, better known as Tiki John, back in the 1950s. According to drinking lore, John needed to make way for an imminent delivery of more liquor at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. So he concocted a drink that would use up the surplus of rum they had stacked on the shelves.
The result? The Rum Runner, named after the daring smugglers who supplied the liquor along the coastline during the height of prohibition. The sweet drink has been a hit ever since its auspicious debut.
How to make a Rum Runner at home:
*1 ounce Orange Juice
*1 ounce Pineapple Juice
*1 ounce Blackberry Liqueur
*1 ounce Banana Liqueur
*1 ounce Dark Rum
*1 ounce Light Rum
*Splash Grenadine
*Orange, lemon or lime wheel for garnish
Add all ingredients to shaker. Fill with ice and shake. Strain over ice and garnish with orange, lemon or lime. For a frozen variation, blend ingredients with ice and serve with a straw.
Mojito
The Mojito is an all-time favorite tropical cocktail that’s found fans around the world, from Cuban-themed bars to remote tropical islands. Unsurprisingly, the drink hails from Havana, Cuba. Although its history and origins are disputed, it’s widely accepted to date back as far as the 1500s.
One popular story links the drink to Sir Francis Drake, who mixed a similar cocktail as a treatment for scurvy and dysentery after the raid at Cartagena de Indias. Though the original concoction was harsh on the palate, subsequent variations added mint, lime and sugar to sweeten it up, creating the popular cocktail still consumed with gusto at bars of all persuasions today.
How to make a Mojito at home:
*1 1/2 ounces White Rum
*1 ounce Fresh Lime Juice
*6 Mint Leaves
*2 teaspoons Sugar
*Soda Water
Muddle mint leaves with lime juice and sugar. Add to glass of cracked ice with a splash of soda water. Garnish with mint leaves and serve in a tall glass with a straw.
Bahama Mama
It’s hardly surprising that this refreshing tropical rum drink, which combines the liquor with fruit juice and grenadine, has its roots in the Bahamas.
Though its exact origins are still disputed, many believe the drink was named after a popular song of the day that celebrated 1930s entertainer Dottie Lee Anderson, who went by the stage name "Bahama Mama." Others believe the cocktail’s roots are in the prohibition era, when the Bahamas were used as a smuggling base for rum.
Either way, these days it’s a deliciously tropical rum cocktail that goes perfectly with blue skies and soft sand.
How to make a Bahama Mama at home:
*1 ounce Dark Rum
*1/2 ounce Coconut Rum
*1/2 ounce Grenadine
*1/2 ounce Banana Liqueur
*1 ounce Orange Juice
*1 ounce Pineapple Juice
*1/2 ounce Lemon-Lime Soda
*Pineapple wedge and Cherry for garnish
Fill tall glass with ice. Carefully layer all ingredients and garnish with cherry and pineapple wedge.
Daiquiri
The Daiquiri comes in a wide range of variations, with the name usually adapted to reference the dominant fruit flavoring used.
The drink shares its name with a beach, and iron mine, in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in Cuba. It was here where, in 1900, a group of American mining engineers reportedly invented the cocktail.
The Daiquiri has since gone on to become an icon, with the frozen variety particularly popular in humid tropical holiday destinations.
How to make a Daiquiri at home:
*1.5 ounces White Rum
*5/6 ounces Lime Juice
*1/2 ounces Simple Syrup
Chill glass with crushed ice. Fill shaker with ice cubes or crushed ice and add ingredients. Shake well. Remove ice from glass and strain the cocktail into it.
Mai Tai
Though the Mai Tai has become a popular drink in tropical destinations around the world, it actually originated in California. Two men claim to be its inventor: Victor Bergeron, who says he created it at Trader Vic’s in Oakland, and Donn Beach, who contests that he first made it at his restaurant Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood.
The drink draws its name from the Tahitian word for “good,” “Maita’i,” and comes in several variations that deliver significantly different flavors. But traditionalists will tell you a good Mai Tai only includes rum, Orange Curaçao, orgeat syrup and fresh lime juice.
How to make a Mai Tai at home:
*1 1/2 ounces White Rum
*3/4 ounce Dark Rum
*1/2 ounce Orange Curaçao
*1/2 ounce Orgeat Syrup
*1/2 ounce Fresh Lime Juice
Add all ingredients except for the dark rum into a shaker. Shake well and strain into a glass. Float the dark rum on the top, garnish with an orange slice, and serve with a straw.
The Painkiller
Though The Painkiller is an overtly commercial drink — it’s trademarked by Pusser's Rum — it’s become the go-to drink at Tiki resorts.
The refreshing drink has a fairly long history, and somewhat of a cult following. It was originally created in the 1970s at the British Virgin Islands’ Soggy Dollar Bar, so named because patrons buy drinks there using soggy dollars after they go for a swim.
Today, it’s still the drink of choice for beach-resort holiday-goers.
How to make a Painkiller at home:
*2-4 ounces Pusser's Rum
*4 ounces Pineapple Juice
*1 ounce Cream of Coconut
*1 ounce Orange Juice
*Grated Fresh Nutmeg
Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add all ingredients but the nutmeg. Shake well and pour over ice into cocktail glasses. Garnish with grated nutmeg.
Rum Punch
Rum Punch has been around for hundreds of years. It’s perhaps the easiest of the rum drinks to make, with fans around the world tinkering with various recipes to find their perfect mix.
The drink is believed to have been brought to England from India in the early 17th century by ship-workers who — when the beer they were drinking went bad — improvised making cocktails on shore using rum, citrus and spices.
Most rum punches are eyeballed and made in large batches, rather than crafted for carefully measured cocktail glasses. The Bajan (Barbadian) Rum Punch has even been consecrated in the poem: “One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak.”
How to make Rum Punch at home:
*1 part Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
*2 parts Sugar Syrup
*3 parts Dark Rum
*4 parts Water
Hurricane
The Hurricane is one of New Orleans’ most popular drinks, but you’ll also find it on several islands dotted throughout the Bahamas. It’s a quick, easy and sweet tropical rum cocktail you can easily make at home.
The drink allegedly originated at the famous Pat O’Brien’s Bar in the 1940s. When owner Pat O’Brien needed to use up his surplus of rum, he poured the various ingredients into glasses shaped like hurricane lamps, and served them up. The so-called Hurricane caught on soon after, and became one of the main drinks of the French Quarter.
It’s still sold streetside throughout the city, and is often served in to-go in plastic cups to visiting revelers.
How to make a Hurricane at home:
*1 part Dark Rum
*1 part White Rum
*1/2 part Over Proofed Rum
*Passion Fruit Syrup
*Lemon Juice
Add ingredients to shaker with ice. Shake and pour into glass, serve over ice.
Piña Colada
The literal translation of Piña Colada is “strained pineapple,” the drink’s core ingredient. Two bartenders at the Caribe Hilton hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico lay claim to making the first version of it.
The cocktail has become popular around the world, including in the United States, where it even has its own national day on July 10. Refreshing and sweet, it’s become the very symbol of the good life, with cameos in various forms of popular culture, from movies to songs.
Although there are now many recipes for variations of the Piña Colada, the original is a simple mix that remains the gold standard of the tropical rum drink.
How to make it at home:
*3 ounces Pineapple Juice
*1 ounce White Rum
*1 ounce Coconut Cream
*Pinapple wedge for garnish
Crush ice. Mix ingredients with crushed ice until you achieve a smooth consistency. Pour into chilled glass, garnish with a pineapple slice, and serve.
Bushwacker
The Bushwacker — a creamy, chocolatey take on the classic Piña Colada — was invented in 1975 by the bartender and restaurant manager at Sapphire Pub on Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Legend has it the men named the drink after a visiting guest’s dog, Bushwack.
The Bushwacker really took off after the recipe was bought by the owner of the Sandshaker Lounge in Florida, who mixed up popular variations on the original. Thirty years on, it remains the bar’s most popular drink. Order the banana or strawberry version, or go wild by downing a 151-proof version.
How to make a Bushwacker at home:
*1 ounce Dark Rum
*1 ounce Kahlúa
*1 ounce Dark Crème de Cacao
*2 ounces Milk
*2 ounces Cream of Coconut
*1 cup ice
*Cherry for garnish
Blend ingredients together with ice. Strain into hurricane glass. Garnish with a cherry. Some variations include whipped cream or nutmeg garnishing, and substitutions of alcohol.