The Rum Barrel

The Rum Barrel is on my top 5 tiki cocktails to make and drink and it can be enjoyed by almost anyone. Unless you don’t like orange juice or pineapple juice then you my friend are on your own. It is a time consuming cocktail to prepare with the 12 or 13 ingredients in it but don’t let that discourage you from crafting this great drink. Just think about this, you are making two drinks in one! You will get a balanced drink with the collision of lime, grapefruit, orange and pineapple, the sweet and sour. The 4 ounces of rum and the tropical juices fuse together sending your taste buds into tiki bliss. The best part of it all is the presentation when serving this giant drink in a signature ceramic Rum Barrel mug that impresses everyone.

The Rum Barrel is another one of Don the Beachcomber’s wonderful creations. Don invented this cocktail but he was not the only one to offer a Rum Barrel. In Beverly Hills Steven Crane offered a Steve’s Rum Barrel. At the Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale, they still offer their own version called the Barrel O’ Rum. There were other Polynesian tiki bars that also offered their own Rum Barrels, such as the Aku Aku in Las Vegas, Latitude 20 in Torrance, CA., The Warehouse in Marina Del Rey, CA., and the Hawaiian Village in Florida. In Detroit, the Mauna Loa had the Bob’s XXXX Rum Barrel. What makes these places special is that they all had professionally made ceramic Rum Barrel mugs specially made for this drink. The barrels displayed their name and location often on the actual mug or at the bottom of the mug. These mugs are now highly collectible within the tiki community and can fetch a good amount of money on ebay if you are the seller.

Here are some Rum Barrel recipes you can try at home:

Beachcomber’s Rum Barrel

1 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
1 oz Orange Juice
1 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Honey Mix
1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum
1 oz Gold Jamaican Rum
2 oz Demerara Rum
1 tsp Falernum
1 tsp Pimento Dram
6 drops Pernod
6 drops Grenadine
Dash Angostura Bitters
8 oz Crushed Ice

Pour ingredients into a blender. Blend at high speed for 5 seconds. Pour into a ceramic rum barrel mug.

Steve’s Rum Barrel

3/4 oz Fresh lime juice
3/4 oz Orange juice
3/4 oz Grapefruit juice
3/4 oz Unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 oz Passion fruit syrup
1/2 oz Honey mix
2 oz Dark Jamaican rum
2 oz Light Puerto Rican rum
1 dash Angostura bitters
6 drops Pernod
3 drops Almond extract
4 oz crushed ice

Pour ingredients into a blender. Blend at high speed for 5 seconds. Pour into a ceramic rum barrel mug.

Mai-Kai Barrel O’ Rum

2 oz Fresh lime juice
2 oz Orange juice
2 oz White grapefruit juice
2 oz Passion fruit syrup
1 tsp Honey Mix
2 oz Light Puerto Rican rum
2 oz Dark Jamaican rum
6 dash Angostura bitters
4 oz crushed ice

Pour ingredients into a blender. Blend at high speed for 5 seconds. Pour into a ceramic rum barrel mug.

The Poison Float Rum Barrel

1 oz Fresh lime juice
1 oz Pineapple juice
1 oz Grapefruit juice
1/2 oz Passion fruit syrup
1/2 oz Honey Mix
1 oz Club Soda
1 oz Denizen Aged White Rum
1 oz Don Q Añejo Rum
2 oz Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum
1/4 oz Falernum
1/4 oz St Elizabeth Pimento Dram
1/4 oz Grenadine
1 Dash Angostura bitters
8 oz crushed ice

Pour ingredients into a blender. Blend at high speed for 5 seconds. Pour into a ceramic rum barrel mug.

For me, the best part of making this oversized drink is not the fact that I will drink it but using the original vintage mugs and of course the presentation. Below are some examples of my vintage rum barrel tiki mugs: