TABLE OF CONTENTS
Best Caribbean Cocktail Types
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Coquito is a traditional cocktail similar to eggnog. It is typically prepared and consumed during the festive Christmas season. The cocktail is made with a combination of coconut milk, rum, condensed milk, and vanilla, although every family has their own variation.
In order to prepare it, all ingredients should be blended, then chilled and served in small glasses. It is recommended to garnish coquito with nutmeg on top. The name of this drink means little coconut. In Cuba, they serve it with scoops of coconut ice cream, while the Spanish people serve it with turron.
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Sugary, refreshing, and herbaceous, Mojito is a traditional cocktail based on rum as the key ingredient. It has a relatively low alcohol content (about 10%). Although Havana is considered its birthplace, the origin of this simple cocktail is still disputed.
The original Cuban cocktail recipe includes white rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water, and spearmint yerba buena that grows on the island, but almost every mint variety can be used in the mix if yerba buena is not available. The components of the cocktail are added in a particular order: sugar and lime juice are gently mashed before mint and rum are added to the combination; the cocktail is then briefly stirred and topped with ice and sparkling soda water.
VARIATIONS OF Mojito
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Daiquiri is a group of cocktails prepared with rum, fresh lime juice, and sugar as the key ingredients. Supposedly, it was invented in the late 19th century by Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer who was staying in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
The cocktail was named after the beach and an iron mine near Santiago de Cuba. The drink was probably introduced to high-class New Yorkers in 1902 by a US congressman who purchased the Santiago iron mines, but it gained fame during World War II when trade and travel relations with Latin America opened up due to Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy, so Latin America became fashionable.
VARIATIONS OF Daiquiri
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Rum Punch is a classic Caribbean cocktail made with rum, fruit juice, sugar syrup, and water. To prepare it, all you need to do is remember this Caribbean saying: “One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, and four of weak.” A shot of fruit juice, two shots of sugar syrup, three shots of rum, and four shots of water are combined in a big glass or a jug, then poured into a glass over ice.
It is recommended to add a few drops of bitters or some freshly grated nutmeg to elevate the flavors even further. Garnish it with a pineapple wedge for the best possible experience.
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Frozen daiquiri is a variation of a classic shaken daiquiri, which typically incorporates rum, fresh lime juice, and sugar. This frozen version is mostly blended and usually includes pulverized ice and frozen fruit to mix, creating a sweet slurry with a texture similar to a slushie.
Frozen daiquiris probably first appeared at the legendary El Floridita in Havana, sometime around the time of Prohibition. They were initially made with crushed ice and electric blenders, but their popularity skyrocketed in the second half of the 20th century after the invention of commercial machines.
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Cuba Libre is a Cuban cocktail based on rum, with the addition of cola and lime. In Spanish, its name means Free Cuba, and although the exact origin of this cocktail is still a mystery, it was probably first mixed in Havana in August 1900, after the Spanish-American war, when Coca-Cola was available in Cuba.
In the past, the cocktail was viewed as exotic, but nowadays it is popular throughout the world, and it is often referred to as Rum and Coke. A common way to serve it is on the rocks with a lime wheel, but some variations (such as Rum and Coke) exclude the lime wheel or substitute white rum with golden or dark rum.
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Piña Colada is a sweet and creamy tropical cocktail that has been celebrated as the national drink of Puerto Rico since 1978. It is a simple but delicious mixture of rum, pineapple juice, coconut milk, and coconut cream, often shaken or blended with ice, served in a chilled glass, then garnished with a piece of pineapple or a cherry on top.
The cocktail can be made with different types of rum or different proportions of ingredients than those used in the original recipe, but it can also be served frozen. Regarding the cocktail's origins, a bartender named Ramón "Monchito" Marrero Pérez made this cocktail in 1954 at the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan, which is now considered a birthplace of the Piña Colada.
VARIATIONS OF Piña Colada
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Hemingway Special is a Cuban cocktail made with a combination of white rum, maraschino, grapefruit juice, and fresh lime juice. To prepare it, all ingredients are shaken with ice, then strained into a double cocktail glass. This Daiquiri variety was one of the favorite cocktails of Ernest Hemingway, who used to regularly order it at El Floridita bar in Havana, hence the name of the drink.
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Bahama Mama is a fruity Tiki cocktail that consists of white rum, coconut rum, grenadine, cherry juice, lemon juice, orange juice, and pineapple juice. The cocktail is prepared by shaking or blending the ingredients with crushed ice until the consistency becomes slushy.
It is typically served at summer parties to invoke the atmosphere of a tropical beach, in a hurricane glass filled with cracked ice, with a cherry and an orange slice as garnishes.
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Planter’s Punch is a popular cocktail made with dark Caribbean rum, grenadine, sugar syrup, and fresh juice from oranges, pineapples, and lemons. All ingredients are shaken with ice, then poured into a large glass. The cocktail is topped with Angostura bitters and garnished with a pineapple wedge and a cocktail cherry.
There are two theories about its origin – some say it was invented at the Planter’s Hotel in St. Louis, while others say it was made by a Jamaican planter’s wife who made it to cool down the workers. Regardless of these claims, the first written recipe for Planter’s Punch can be traced back to the 1908 article in the New York Times.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 37 Caribbean Cocktails” list until March 24, 2025, 1,316 ratings were recorded, of which 1,077 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.