Planter's Punch Cocktail Recipe
A long dark-rum punch balancing tart citrus, tropical juice and just enough sweetness over ice.
- Category: The Unforgettables
- Glass: Highball glass
- ABV: 10%
- Difficulty: Easy
- Prep time: ~4 min
Ingredients
- Dark Jamaican rum45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Fresh orange juice35 ml (1.2 oz)
- Pineapple juice35 ml (1.2 oz)
- Fresh lemon juice20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Grenadine10 ml (0.3 oz)
- Simple syrup1 tsp
- Angostura bitters3 dash
How to Make It
- Fill a highball glass to the top with ice.
- Shake the rum, the juices, the grenadine and the sugar syrup hard with ice.
- Strain into the glass over the fresh ice.
- Top with the dashes of Angostura bitters and garnish.
Garnish
An orange slice and a maraschino cherry.
What it tastes like
It smells of lemon and lime peel and there is pineapple and passion fruit in it.
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
A tall, narrow highball. The narrowness does real work — less surface area means the carbonation lasts longer and the ice melts more slowly.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Dark Jamaican rum
- Jamaican rum is set apart by the banana-and-pineapple note called funk, which comes from long fermentation and cannot be faked with another rum. It is where tiki drinks get their character.
- Fresh orange juice
- Fresh orange juice. Carton juice is sugar-adjusted, so it sweetens the drink and drops its acidity; when you squeeze your own, pull back a little on the syrup.
- 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.
- Grenadine
- Pomegranate syrup. Most supermarket bottles are dyed corn syrup with no pomegranate in them; reducing pomegranate juice with an equal weight of sugar takes ten minutes and changes the drink completely.
- Simple syrup
- One part sugar to one part water, stirred until it dissolves — no need to boil it. Keeps a month in the fridge. No syrup? Use the same amount of honey, loosened with a little water.
- Angostura bitters
- The salt of the cocktail world. Measured in dashes, not millilitres: a few of them cut the sweetness and add spice. One bottle lasts years.
The Story
A rum punch long associated with Jamaica, built on the old Caribbean rhyme of one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak. Recipes have been printed for well over a century and its exact origin is still debated.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Planter's Punch mixed?
- It is shaken and served in a highball glass.
- How strong is a Planter's Punch?
- Roughly 10% ABV as served — lighter than a beer — a long-conversation drink that takes a second round.
- Can a Planter's Punch 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 Planter's Punch hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
759 recipes in your pocket
Cocktails and mocktails from 55 countries — ingredients, steps and the story behind each drink. Works offline too.
Similar recipes
Collections
Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.