Initially created within the early Seventies on the British Virgin Islands’ Soggy Greenback bar—reachable solely by sea—the Painkiller is a textbook boat drink. A mix of rum, pineapple and orange juices (each usually from a can) and coconut cream, it places refreshment above complexity, inviting bartenders to strive their hand at steadiness in a cocktail that by no means had it within the first place. “There’s no acidity,” notes rum knowledgeable Paul McGee, of the usually cloying mixture of elements. “It simply begins off with a horrible recipe.”
However judging by a current tasting of 10 recipes submitted by bartenders throughout the nation, the Painkiller shouldn’t be a misplaced trigger. Although some pulled the formulation too far into Critical Cocktail territory, with unorthodox additions similar to Pedro Ximénez sherry and cold-brew focus, those who succeeded managed to honor the uncomplicated nature of the unique, calling for considerate adjustments that made the holiday drink really feel worthy of a spot on any up to date cocktail menu.
Among the many commonest points plaguing the entries was a bent for overdilution. The quantity of the drink is massive to start with—eight and a half ounces, of which 5 are juice. Add to that the dilution from shaking with ice cubes, or buzzing the drink with pebble ice in a stand-up mixer, and it may well shortly change into a watery mess. Different widespread faults had been an absence of acid, an excessive amount of rum or too little rum.
On that final level, regardless of the cocktail’s trademark being owned by Pusser’s Rum (who, it must be identified, didn’t even create the recipe), few of the submitted Painkillers referred to as for the model. In nearly each recipe, Jamaican rum made an look as a part of the base-spirit mix, a variety that the judges (myself, McGee, Sunken Harbor Membership’s St. John Frizell and Punch editor-in-chief, Talia Baiocchi) discovered favorable for its capacity to spice up the tropical banana and pineapple notes.
Taking prime honors was Matthew Belanger, of Dying & Co. Los Angeles. His interpretation of the Painkiller leans on a mix of Smith & Cross Jamaican rum, El Dorado 15-year Guyanese rum and Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum for the bottom, with solely an oz and a half of pineapple juice (in comparison with 4 ounces within the authentic spec) alongside an oz of Coco Lopez and three-quarters of an oz of orange juice. It was among the many most rum-forward of the bunch, and the judges unanimously loved the unorthodox garnish of a lavish mint plume alongside the requisite freshly grated nutmeg. Frizell famous that the drink’s spirit-forward development could be “an excessive amount of of factor,” however praised the drink for its refreshing qualities and lengthy end.
Second place went to Jelani Johnson, assistant distiller at Nice Jones Distilling Co. The judges shortly picked up a further supply of acid, on this case lemon juice, and likewise discovered the rum to shine by means of due to 4 totally different expressions, led by Coruba Jamaican rum alongside Plantation O.F.T.D., El Dorado 12-year and a teaspoon of Rum Hearth. The judges thought the nutmeg was notably nicely built-in due to Johnson’s resolution to shake the drink with grated nutmeg, relatively than merely dusting it atop the completed drink. Johnson’s was additionally the one drink served on Kold-Draft ice cubes relatively than with pebble ice, making it learn extra like a standard cocktail than a colada. As McGee noticed, “It tastes like a Painkiller you’ll get at a cocktail bar.”
Third place went to Chris Coy, of the Inferno Room in Indianapolis, whose recipe equally referred to as on a break up rum base of 4 expressions in equal half-ounce measures: Bounty Darkish Rum and Bounty Spiced Rum from St. Lucia, pot-still Jamaican rum Worthy Park 109 and the Guyanese Hamilton Demerara rum. To that, he added three ounces of pineapple juice, two ounces of store-bought toasted coconut syrup and one ounce of orange juice, all flash-blended and topped with a formidable association of a pineapple fan, pineapple fronds, an orange wedge and an orchid. The coconut and rum harmonized nicely in nearly Piña Colada–like vogue. As any Painkiller must be, Frizell dubbed it “a crowd-pleaser.”
