Name: Mary Pickford Cocktail
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Light gold rum 1-3yo; 45 ml Pineapple juice; 5 ml Maraschino liqueur; 5 ml Grenadine syrup

Ingredients

2 fl oz

Light gold rum (1-3 year old molasses column)

1 1/2 fl oz

Pineapple juice

1/6 fl oz

Luxardo Maraschino liqueur

1/6 fl oz

Monin Grenadine Syrup

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Method

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

Garnish with maraschino cherry.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Mary Pickford Cocktail contains 180 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
16.37% alc./vol. (32.74° proof)
20.2 grams of pure alcohol

History

Created in the 1920s (during Prohibition) by Fred Kaufman at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, for the silent movie star and wife of Douglas Fairbanks. Mary was in Cuba filming a movie with her husband and his best friend, Charlie Chaplin. This is recounted on page 40 of Basil Woon's 1928 book When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba, "The Mary Pickford, invented during a visit to Havana of the screen favourite by Fred Kaufman, is two-thirds pineapple-juice and one-third Bacardi, with a dash of grenadine. Both cocktails [The Presidenté is also mentioned] are sweetish and should be well shaken. The pineapple juice must be fresh-squeezed." Thus, it would appear that the dash of maraschino liqueur, now viewed as an essential ingredient, is a later addition to the Mary Pickford.

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Comments & Discussion

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Marek Vranka 1y

made it for my wife based on the original ratio from Woon's book; 60 ml pineapple to 30 ml rum, with tsp marchino and grenadine each, and it turned out wonderfully!

Albert Markiewicz 1y

I used freshly squeezed pineapple juice of a quite ripe pineapple and the cocktail came out much sweeter than I expected. 1/3 shot of the lime juice made it perfect though

Joel Tunnah 2y

I normally tinker with recipes to suit my tastes, but this was perfect as is. Wonderful fresh flavour and beautiful pink color (using Rose's Grendine syrup).

Peter M Premium Member 2y

Made this with SelvaRey White Rum & Luxardo Maraschino. Very nice. Pineapple is subtle and maraschino adds some spice/interest/complexity while still letting the rum come through. Grenadine is basically just for color. Curious to try this with different rums...

Giles Alexander 2y

A delicious favourite. I prefer it with an aged rum, eg. 7yo Havana Club is great: it’s more mellow and forgiving of ratios.

John Hinojos Premium Member 2y

Wonderful. Love the prohibition era cocktails of Cuba. They are different from the Tiki cocktails of the 1950s and 1960s. Tropical, but a bit different. Very well balanced.

Elijah Clark-Ginsberg 2y

Hard to be mad at rum and pineapple, but I was definitely missing a bit of lime juice or something for a touch more acidity. I also certainly didn't get a pink color—pale or otherwise.

C.A. Mat 3y

Rum-forward in a good way. It's got a lot in common with a tiki drink but without the sour element to disguise the richness of the rum. I agree that the choice of rum matters here. I used a less-sweet-than-usual homemade grenadine and still found it quite sweet.

Chris Dimal 3y

Was disappointed. First of all, no colour change was observed (was yellow). Secondly, I just think I'm not a fan of Maraschino and what it did. I used homemade grenadine, but it normally gives off a satisfying pink. Any potential reason why it didn't work?

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 3y

Homemade grenadine lacks the added colouring of commercial grenadines so always produces a much paler cocktail. While the colour may disappoint, the flavour of grenadine made with freshly pressed pomegranate is hard to beat.