Knickerbocker
A berry and balanced rum cocktail ∙ Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 21.3% ABV ∙
The Knickerbocker is a rum sour of light gold rum, orange curaçao, raspberry syrup and lime juice, served over cubed ice capped with crushed ice.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Light gold rum 75 mlOrange curaçao liqueur 5 mlRaspberry syrup 15 mlLime juice 15 ml
- Strain into the glass 2/3 filled with cubed ice
- Cap with crushed ice, serve with a straw
- Garnish with a lime shell and a seasonal berry: raspberries, blackberries, blueberries
Tips
- Strain over cubed ice filling two-thirds of the glass, then cap with crushed ice; the cubes melt slowly, and the crushed cap holds the berries in place.
History
The Knickerbocker is one of the oldest documented American cocktails, first printed in Jerry Thomas's 1862 guide How to Mix Drinks as a rum drink built with lime or lemon, raspberry syrup, and curaçao. William Terrington's 1869 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks reprinted a nearly identical version alongside a very different sherry-and-seltzer "Knickerbocker à la Madame." Harry Johnson's 1882 New and Improved Bartender's Manual kept the rum-and-raspberry formula but added pineapple and orange. All of these early versions were served over shaved ice.
Who actually created the drink, and where, has never been established; sources agree only that the name points to New York. "Knickerbocker" was a nickname for the descendants of the city's original Dutch settlers, popularized by Washington Irving's 1809 satirical A History of New York, written under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker, and the word became a byword for anything New York. The famed Knickerbocker Hotel, sometimes wrongly credited as its birthplace, was not built until 1906, decades after the drink was already in print, so the connection is coincidental at best.
Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book listed a "Knicker-Bocker Cocktail," an unrelated gin martini with sweet and dry vermouth. Its "Knicker-Bocker Special" was served straight up and closely resembled the earlier rum-and-raspberry recipes.
FAQ
What is a Knickerbocker cocktail?
One of the oldest documented American cocktails: a shaken rum sour sweetened with raspberry syrup and a little orange curaçao. The raspberry gives it its color and soft berry sweetness, and it comes in at about 21.3% ABV.
What are the ingredients in a Knickerbocker?
75 ml light gold rum, 5 ml orange curaçao liqueur, 15 ml raspberry syrup, and 15 ml freshly squeezed lime juice.
How do you make a Knickerbocker?
Shake the rum, curaçao, raspberry syrup, and lime juice hard with ice, then strain into a pre-chilled old-fashioned glass that is two-thirds filled with cubed ice. Cap the drink with crushed ice, add a straw, and garnish with a lime shell and a seasonal berry like raspberry or blackberry.
