Rum Runner
A fruity and sweet cocktail ∙ Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 11.9% ABV ∙
The Rum Runner is a shaken tiki drink of two rums, banana and blackberry liqueurs, pineapple and lime juice, and grenadine, served over crushed ice.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Jamaican aged rum 30 mlLight gold rum 30 mlBanana liqueur 30 mlCrème de Mûre liqueur 15 mlPineapple juice 60 mlLime juice 30 mlGrenadine syrup 10 ml
- Strain into the glass filled with crushed ice
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry
Tips
- Keep the grenadine to 10 ml; it colors and sweetens the whole drink, and any more turns it candied.
History
The Rum Runner is a tiki-style cocktail credited to "Tiki John" Ebert, a bartender at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada, in the Florida Keys. Some accounts place its creation in the 1950s, but the bar did not open until 1969, and the Holiday Isle resort's own account dates the drink to 1972. By most tellings, Ebert was asked to invent a beach cocktail that would use up the bar's surplus and slow-moving stock of rum, banana liqueur, blackberry liqueur, and grenadine. The result, originally a frozen blend, became the bar's signature drink before spreading to other bars across Key West and the wider Keys.
The name nods to Prohibition-era rum smugglers who ran illicit Caribbean liquor into Florida through waters known as Rum Row. Some drink historians note that a cocktail called the Rum Runner had already appeared decades earlier, in Stanley Arthur's 1937 book Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em. That earlier version was built with a single rum, pineapple and lime juice, bitters, and sugar, making it closer to a Daiquiri than to the fruit-and-liqueur-laden drink later popularized in the Keys.
FAQ
What is a Rum Runner made of?
Two rums, 30 ml each of Jamaican aged and light gold. With them go 30 ml banana liqueur, 15 ml crème de mûre (blackberry liqueur), 60 ml pineapple juice, 30 ml fresh lime juice, and 10 ml grenadine.
What is the difference between a Rum Runner and a Hurricane?
The fruit. A Hurricane is typically rum with passion fruit and lime. The Rum Runner adds banana liqueur, blackberry liqueur, and pineapple juice to two rums, so it is sweeter and fruitier. Both are served in a hurricane glass.
How do you make the best Rum Runner?
Shake both rums, the banana and blackberry liqueurs, pineapple juice, lime juice, and grenadine hard with ice, then strain over crushed ice in a hurricane glass. Measure the grenadine carefully: 10 ml is enough to color and sweeten the drink, and more makes it candy-sweet. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry.
Is a Rum Runner a strong drink?
Not very: about 11.9% ABV. The pineapple and lime juice stretch the two rums and the liqueurs into an easy-drinking tropical drink.
