Highland Diver Recipe
Blended Scotch dressed for the tropics: pineapple, lemon, coconut cream, honey and a touch of cinnamon over crushed ice.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Hurricane glass
- ABV: 15%
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
- Scotch whisky60 ml (2 oz)
- Pineapple juice15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Fresh lemon juice15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Cream of coconut15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Honey15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Cinnamon syrup7.5 ml (0.3 oz)
How to Make It
- Loosen the honey with the lemon juice in the shaker so it dissolves.
- Add the remaining ingredients and a small scoop of crushed ice; shake briefly.
- Pour into a tiki mug or tall glass and top up with crushed ice.
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge and grate nutmeg over the top.
Garnish
Fresh pineapple wedge and grated nutmeg
What it tastes like
Fruit notes come forward, there is pineapple and passion fruit in it and smoke dominates the nose.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
The curved, tall hurricane glass. Tiki and tropical drinks often run past 200 ml, and this is the shape that holds that volume along with the ice.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Scotch whisky
- Scotch. Blends are soft and grainy, single malts have more character. Unless the recipe says Islay, picking a smoky bottle will throw the drink out of balance.
- Pineapple juice
- Pineapple juice. It foams on its own when shaken — that creamy head on a tiki drink comes from the pineapple, not from egg white.
- Fresh lemon juice
- Freshly squeezed lemon; one lemon gives 30-40 ml. It can swap with lime, but lemon is softer and less aromatic, so use a touch more.
- Cinnamon syrup
- Made by steeping cinnamon sticks in simple syrup. Ground cinnamon clouds the drink and settles at the bottom, which is why it is sticks, steeped and strained.
The Story
A recent tiki-style recipe, published in 2025, that shows how malt and gentle smoke can stand in for rum in a coconut-and-spice build.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Highland Diver mixed?
- It is shaken and served in a hurricane glass.
- How strong is a Highland Diver?
- Roughly 15% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Highland Diver be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Highland Diver hard to make?
- Moderate. A shaker or mixing glass plus a strainer covers it.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.