Painkiller Cocktail

By: Darcy O'Neil

The spirit that most people associate with warm weather is rum. Anyone who has taken a vacation in the Caribbean will instantly flash back to sitting around the pool / beach drink a rum based cocktail.

A popular rum cocktail is the Painkiller which is one of those branded cocktails that wasn’t created by the rum company originally, but by Daphne Henderson who operated the Soggy Dollar in the British Virgin Islands. The original cocktail recipe is still “secret” but was reverse engineered to what we taste today, by Charles Tobias, Pussers modern founder.

The Painkiller is a drink similar in nature to a Pina Colada or a Goombay Smash. They are all based on rum, with flavours of pineapple and coconut. But, each one is different, with the Pina Colada being the basic rum, pineapple and coconut drink and the Painkiller adding some orange juice and mixing up the ratio’s a bit, but not much. The difference is the addition of cream to the Pina Colada and the absence of cream in the Painkiller, but added orange juice. The Painkiller also gets a nutmeg dusting.

Painkiller Cocktail Recipe

• 2 oz Dark Rum
• 3 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1 oz Cream of Coconut

Shake all ingredients with ice and stain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a pineapple wedge.

This is a good drink for people who like tropical rum cocktails, but don’t want to order a Pinà Colada because it is passe or girly. The Painkiller isn’t thick and creamy, so you won’t feel bloated after a couple, and Painkiller’s have lots of juice so they might appeal to health conscience people. The coconut cream plays a background role that is appealing and the orange juice stands out more than you think it would, it tempers the sweetness of the pineapple juice. The one thing that is mandatory in this drink is nutmeg, without it, it would be just another mixed juice and rum drink. The nutmeg gives it that something extra.

As for the rum, the dark rum makes this drink really smooth and gives it some rum character. Using a rum that is too light might make the rum flavour disappear completely, but because dark rum has a lot of flavour it comes through. This drink could easily handle 3oz of rum, without being overpowering.

	Drink Spotlights Many great cocktails have great soirees. Read the history and learn the recipe for great cocktails, including: Mai tai Singapore Sling

Darcy O'Neil is a bartender with a formal education in chemistry. His motive for becoming a bartender was, part by chance, and partially to fulfill his culinary desires. Darcy feels that in life, food and drink are too important to take short cuts, so he quickly became an advocate for making great cocktails. Darcy currently works as a bartender in London, Ontario and spends his time writing about his mixology and bartending experiences on his website, The Art of Drink>.