Queen's Park Swizzle Cocktail Recipe
A tall, frost-covered swizzle of dark rum, lime and mint under a heavy cap of aromatic bitters.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Highball glass
- ABV: 16%
- Difficulty: Medium
- Prep time: ~4 min
Ingredients
- Dark rum60 ml (2 oz)
- Fresh lime juice20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Simple syrup15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Fresh mint leaves10 piece
- Angostura bitters6 dash
How to Make It
- Press the mint leaves gently against the bottom of a highball glass with the lime juice and sugar syrup.
- Fill the glass with crushed ice and pour in the rum.
- Swizzle with a bar spoon or swizzle stick until the outside of the glass frosts over.
- Top with more crushed ice, float the Angostura bitters on the surface and garnish.
Garnish
A mint sprig and a lime wheel.
What it tastes like
Mint leaves a cooling finish and it drinks cool and easy.
The technique
Muddling. Fruit, herbs or sugar get pressed at the bottom of the glass. With leaves like mint the goal is to press, not to shred: two or three pushes is plenty, more releases chlorophyll and turns the drink grassy and bitter. Sugar and firm fruit, on the other hand, really do get crushed.
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 rum
- Barrel-aged dark rum, with molasses, vanilla and treacle in it. Swap in white rum and the drink loses its body, so reach for gold rum instead.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- 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.
- Fresh mint leaves
- The stem is bitter, so use the leaves. One clap between your palms before it goes in releases the oils and gives you the aroma without bruising it.
- 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
Named after the Queen's Park Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where it was served to guests. Swizzling a drink with a wooden swizzle stick is a long-standing Caribbean technique.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Queen's Park Swizzle mixed?
- It is muddled and served in a highball glass.
- How strong is a Queen's Park Swizzle?
- Roughly 16% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Queen's Park Swizzle 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 Queen's Park Swizzle 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.