TIKI CULTURE

Painkiller Cocktail Recipe - Your Weekend Tiki Drink

The Painkiller

As far as exotic cocktails go, The Painkiller ranks as one of the most famous…and most ordered…at the Tiki Bar. Along with the Navy Grog, Zombie, and of course the Mai Tai, The Painkiller has become one of the drinks most closely associated with Tiki. Kind of funny, when you realize the drink wasn’t concocted until the early 1970s…a time when the Tiki Bar craze was already beginning to fade.

Before the recipe I have to make a note that Pusser’s Rum, a brand that’s only been around for about 30 years, claimed and trademarked the cocktail “Painkiller”, claiming it was originally created using their rum. Uh…well, the Tiki community takes issue with that claim, but Pusser’s does own the trademark. Whatever…use any rum you want at home. I prefer Meyers for this blend.

The Painkiller Cocktail Recipe

2 oz dark rum
1 oz cream of coconut
4 oz pineapple juice
1 oz orange juice

Shake all ingredients in a shaker until nice and frothy. Strain over crushed ice in a Tiki mug or Collins glass and garnish with a chunk of fresh pineapple…an orange wheel and cherry are nice with it, too.

Painkiller Tiki Bar, NYC

Many of have probably heard of this drink in the last year as it, and an NYC Tiki Bar that went by the same name, made minor headlines when Pusser’s sued the New York City Tiki bar “Painkiller” over rights to the name. It seems what Pusser’s was really pussed-off about was that they weren’t using their brand of rum…again, whatever. The bar had to comply with Pusser’s demands, and is now called PKNY. The REAL news to this story is that…hey! Another Tiki Bar opened in New York City! From what I’ve read it’s not a traditional Tiki Bar, but is still keeping the spirit alive.

Weekend Tiki Cocktail: Singapore Sling; Wreck Bar Tonight

Another great summer drink for your Tiki Bar is an old favorite…

The Singapore Sling

Even the name of this bright red cocktail evokes the essence of exotic, taking you to mysterious, far-away places without leaving your bar stool. Developed at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore around the turn of the century, a modified version of the original is still served there today.

Here’s the old fashioned version of the recipe, from back in the days when sophisticated cocktails meant sophisticated ingredients:

2 oz gin
3/4 oz Cherry Heering
2 tsp Benedictine
2 tsp Cointreau
2 oz pineapple juice
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
2 dashes pomegranate grenadine
1 dash Angostura bitters
Soda water
Maraschino cherry
Pineapple wedge
Orange wheel

Throw together everything except the soda and garnish in a shaker. (If you’re not sure which ingredients are the garnish, please put down the shaker and ask an adult to supervise.) Shake it up,and strain into a hurricane or highball glass with a few rocks of ice. Top it off with a splash soda water. Garnish with a cherry, a pineapple slice, and orange skewered on one of those little plastic pirate swords.

The Raffels Hotel in Singapore, Birthplace of the Singapore Sling

This less interesting but still very groovy tasting alternative is much more popular today, and a hell of a lot easier to concoct. Generally if you order a sling today, you’ll get a nice red gin drink. It’s good stuff.

1 dash  Cherry Liqueur
4 oz  Club Soda
1 oz  Gin
0.5 oz  Grenadine
0  cracked Ice
0  cubes Ice
2 oz  bottled Sour mix

Toss everything into the shaker except the soda and ice cubes and shake, shake, shake Senora. Strain over the rocks in a hurricane glass and ad the soda. Then garnish as above. Make sure you use the pirate sword or it’s not a sling. A little plastic monkey or mermaid on the side of the glass is an added bonus.

Speaking of Mermaids…

Mermaids at the Wreck Bar Tonight, 6:15pm, Fort Lauderdale Yankee Clipper Hotel

Mermaids at the Wreck Bar, Yankee Clipper

We’ll be sipping Singapore Slings at the Wreck Bar tonight as we watch the enchanting Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid and her pod of sea lovelies swimming it up in the hotel pool. It’s always fun to watch the mermaids do their underwater antics. If you’re Fort Lauderdale, stop on by!

-Tiki Chris Pinto reporting from behind the bar at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, in the kool little corner of my lanai.