8 Tropical Cocktails You Can Make Without Rum

Rum is the unofficial backbone of the entire tropical drinks canon. Without it, there’d be no Daiquiri, Mai Tai, Painkiller, Planter’s Punch, Three Dots and a Dash, Zombie — the list goes on and on.

As strange as it may seem for an entire cocktail category to be dominated by a single spirit, it makes sense that rum would be the base of most tropical drinks. The majority of rum production takes place in the Caribbean — i.e., the tropics — so reaching for bourbon or gin might seem counterintuitive to the soul of something that’s supposed to conjure a beach vacation in a glass.

However, considering the fact that the majority of these drinks are products of the 1930s and ‘40s tiki craze, it’s apparent that most tropical cocktails are largely founded on fantasy. Two individuals who spearheaded the craze, Ernest Raymond Gantt (Donn Beach) and Victor Jules Bergeron Jr. (Trader Vic), were from Texas and San Francisco, respectively. Despite their success and the number of classic cocktail recipes both of them created, they developed the category without any established rules or restrictions. As such, a handful of their drinks — as well as those from bartenders who came after them — employ many base spirits other than rum, like gin, tequila, bourbon, and even Chartreuse.

So for anyone who’s in the mood for some island escapism, but doesn’t have any rum on hand, we’ve got you covered with these eight delicious tropical cocktails that don’t require any rum at all.

El Diablo

A Trader Vic original, El Diablo’s recipe might be a far cry from most of his other classics, but it still captures the tart, sweet, and spicy profile commonly associated with tropical drinks. The simple highball consists of tequila, lime juice, crème de cassis, and a splash of ginger beer, making it a refreshing respite from its rum-based cohorts.

The Chartreuse Swizzle

San Francisco-based bartender Marcovaldo Dionysos had created many Chartreuse-laced drinks before submitting his recipe for the Chartreuse Swizzle to a 2003 cocktail competition sponsored by the brand. And it was that spec that won him a gold medal. The liqueur’s herbaceousness sets the stage for the addition of pineapple juice, lime juice, and velvet falernum, culminating in a cocktail with one foot in the tropics and the other in the French alps. Simply swizzle the ingredients together, garnish with grated nutmeg and a mint sprig, and enjoy.

The Double Barrel Winchester

Layering multiple rums from different nations is one of the many tricks Donn Beach used to create the complex flavor profiles of his once-secret recipes. As he once said, “What one rum can’t do, three rums can.” But it wasn’t until the 21st century that bartender and tropical drinks enthusiast Brian Miller took that mantra and applied it to gin. He took the Zombie template and swapped the drink’s multi-rum base with three different gins, then tweaked the remainder of the spec to complement the floral botanicals of the base spirits. Miller dubbed the drink “the Winchester” in honor of his friend and then-Tanqueray brand ambassador Angus Winchester. Shortly thereafter, he added a fourth gin to the mix to create the cocktail’s sibling: the Double Barrel Winchester.

The Lion’s Tail

If a Daiquiri and an Old Fashioned went into wedlock, the result would be the Lion’s Tail. The mix of bourbon, lime juice, simple syrup, allspice dram, and bitters bridges the gap between the continental U.S. and the Caribbean, making for a cocktail that’s tropical and spicy, but bears a sweet caramel core courtesy of its bourbon whiskey base. One of the drink’s key ingredients, allspice dram, is a Jamaican liqueur made by steeping dried pimento berries in rum, and although its availability in the U.S. wavered throughout the 20th century, it’s now on offer at many liquor stores around the country. The drink itself has no prescribed garnish, but feel free to add a lime or orange twist to brighten it up with some citrus oils.

The Piña Verde

Sometimes, a single ingredient swap is all it takes to give an old, beloved cocktail a modern makeover. When bartender Erick Castro started riffing on the Piña Colada in 2010, he began subbing gin for rum and floating green Chartreuse atop the drink, eventually realizing that his favorite part about the cocktail was the harmony between the Chartreuse and coconut cream. So he took out the gin altogether, made Chartreuse the star, and the Piña Verde was born. A bottle of Chartreuse may be expensive these days, but the spirit’s notes of basil and mint weave seamlessly into the flavors of tropical fruit at play, and more than justify the splurge.

The Saturn

It’s been said that “the Saturn is for gin what the Mai Tai is for rum.” And it’s true. In the realm of tropical drinks, the Saturn bears a relatively simple build, so the base spirit has plenty of room to shine. One could go for a well-rounded dry gin like Seagram’s to abide by the classic recipe, but just about any expression can bring something new to the mix and pair well with the other ingredients at play: lemon juice, passion fruit syrup, orgeat, and falernum. Try it with an Old Tom gin for a more luscious, sweeter cocktail. Or reach for a navy-strength expression like Perry’s Tot for an extra kick of booze and botanicals.

The Singapore Sling

Like many tropical drinks, the Singapore Sling contains a laundry list of ingredients that come together to form something timeless and delicious, but its invention predates that of most other drinks in the category. Created in 1915 by Hainanese bartender Ngiam Tong Boon at the Long Bar in Singapore’s Raffles Hotel, the sunset-red cocktail leans fruity, floral, herbaceous, and spicy all in the same sip. There’s a lot of variation between published recipes of the drink, so there are many approaches to take, but gin and cherry liqueur are always accounted for. Serve it in a highball glass or a footed Hurricane — just like they do at the Raffles.

The Suffering Bastard

There are two canonical versions of the Suffering Bastard — one with rum and one without, the being the original. The first iteration was invented in 1942 by bartender Joe Scialom at the Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, as a hangover tonic for allied troops stationed there during World War II. Allegedly, the Suffering Bastard was such a hit that British soldiers sent a telegram to Scialom, asking him to send eight gallons of the cocktail straight to the front lines. Although some recipes call for bourbon, the classic spec consists of a split base of brandy and gin, half an ounce of lime juice, some Angostura bitters, and a splash of ginger beer. Garnishes also vary, but often bartenders top the drink with a mint sprig and an orange wedge.

Image retrieved from BooNKer via stock.adobe.com

The article 8 Tropical Cocktails You Can Make Without Rum appeared first on VinePair.