The Best Painkiller Cocktail Recipe, According to Experts
At first made in the early 1970s at the British Virgin Islands’ Soggy Dollar bar—reachable only by sea—the Painkiller is a textbook boat consume. A mix of rum, pineapple and orange juices (both typically from a can) and coconut product, it places refreshment earlier mentioned complexity, inviting bartenders to attempt their hand at balance in a cocktail that by no means experienced it in the first location. “There’s no acidity,” notes rum qualified Paul McGee, of the normally cloying combination of components. “It just starts off with a awful recipe.”

But judging by a modern tasting of 10 recipes submitted by bartenders throughout the region, the Painkiller is not a dropped trigger. Though some pulled the method also far into Major Cocktail territory, with unorthodox additions these as Pedro Ximénez sherry and cold-brew concentrate, those that succeeded managed to honor the uncomplicated nature of the unique, contacting for considerate variations that produced the holiday consume experience worthy of a place on any contemporary cocktail menu.


Amongst the most widespread difficulties plaguing the entries was a inclination for overdilution. The quantity of the drink is massive to start out with—eight and a 50 percent ounces, of which five are juice. Increase to that the dilution from shaking with ice cubes, or buzzing the drink with pebble ice in a stand-up mixer, and it can rapidly grow to be a watery mess. Other frequent faults were a lack of acid, far too a great deal rum or too small rum.


On that very last point, even with the cocktail’s trademark staying owned by Pusser’s Rum (who, it should to be known, did not even generate the recipe), number of of the submitted Painkillers called for the manufacturer. In virtually each recipe, Jamaican rum created an overall look as section of the foundation-spirit mix, a collection that the judges (myself, McGee, Sunken Harbor Club’s St. John Frizell and Punch editor-in-main, Talia Baiocchi) uncovered favorable for its skill to boost the tropical banana and pineapple notes.
Getting major honors was Matthew Belanger, of Loss of life & Co. Los Angeles. His interpretation of the Painkiller leans on a mix of Smith & Cross Jamaican rum, El Dorado 15-year Guyanese rum and Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum for the foundation, with only an ounce and a 50 percent of pineapple juice (in contrast to four ounces in the unique spec) along with an ounce of Coco Lopez and 3-quarters of an ounce of orange juice. It was among the the most rum-forward of the bunch, and the judges unanimously liked the unorthodox garnish of a lavish mint plume alongside the requisite freshly grated nutmeg. Frizell observed that the drink’s spirit-forward development could possibly be “too significantly of a very good point,” but praised the drink for its refreshing features and prolonged end.

Second put went to Jelani Johnson, assistant distiller at Excellent Jones Distilling Co. The judges swiftly picked up an additional resource of acid, in this case lemon juice, and similarly identified the rum to glow via thanks to 4 distinct expressions, led by Coruba Jamaican rum together with Plantation O.F.T.D., El Dorado 12-12 months and a teaspoon of Rum Hearth. The judges imagined the nutmeg was significantly properly built-in many thanks to Johnson’s decision to shake the drink with grated nutmeg, instead than simply just dusting it atop the concluded drink. Johnson’s was also the only drink served on Kold-Draft ice cubes rather than with pebble ice, earning it read additional like a conventional cocktail than a colada. As McGee noticed, “It preferences like a Painkiller you would get at a cocktail bar.”

Third location went to Chris Coy, of the Inferno Home in Indianapolis, whose recipe equally called on a break up rum base of four expressions in equivalent 50 {d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}-ounce measures: Bounty Dark Rum and Bounty Spiced Rum from St. Lucia, pot-however Jamaican rum Worthy Park 109 and the Guyanese Hamilton Demerara rum. To that, he extra a few ounces of pineapple juice, two ounces of retail outlet-acquired toasted coconut syrup and a person ounce of orange juice, all flash-blended and topped with an impressive arrangement of a pineapple fan, pineapple fronds, an orange wedge and an orchid. The coconut and rum harmonized effectively in virtually Piña Colada–like style. As any Painkiller should to be, Frizell dubbed it “a crowd-pleaser.”
