Pago Pago
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 20.5% ABV ∙
The Pago Pago is a shaken tiki sour of light gold rum, green Chartreuse, white crème de cacao, lime, and pineapple juice, served up in a coupe. Cold and silky on the tongue, it balances herbal bite against cocoa richness, finishing bright and tart with just a whisper of tropical sweetness.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Light gold rum 45 mlHerbal liqueur (e.g., Green Chartreuse) 15 mlWhite Crème de Cacao 15 mlLime juice 15 mlPineapple juice 20 ml
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge on the rim
Tips
- Use fresh lime juice rather than bottled — its brighter acidity is what keeps the pineapple and cacao from tipping the drink too sweet.
- Fine-strain after shaking to keep pineapple fiber and ice shards out of the coupe for a clean, silky texture.
- Chill the coupe before straining; the drink is served up with no ice, so it warms quickly in a room-temperature glass.
History
The Pago Pago first appeared in print in 1940, in the second edition of The How and When, a cocktail guide by Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco published by a Chicago liquor retailer. The recipe is credited to the Ronrico rum brand, which supplied its dark, high-proof "Red" expression as the original base spirit, muddled with fresh pineapple, lime juice, green Chartreuse, and white crème de cacao. The drink predates the postwar tiki boom, and later modern versions swapped in pineapple juice for the muddled fruit and lightened the rum, though bartenders such as Paul McGee have argued the muddled original and the juiced modern version are effectively different drinks.
The name refers to Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, but the cocktail's creation is unconnected to any actual visit there; it is one of several exotic-sounding tropical names common to the era's rum drinks. A separate and unrelated tiki drink also called Pago Pago, served at the Pago Pago Lounge in Tucson, Arizona after that bar opened in 1947, is documented from around 1963 and uses a different recipe; the two share only a name and are often confused. The 1940 Ronrico-linked cocktail was largely forgotten until it was revived through Jeff Berry's tiki-cocktail research and republished in his Beachbum Berry Remixed.
