Rumba

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (23 ratings)

Serve in a Double old-fashioned

Ingredients:
1 oz Hayman's London Dry Gin
34 oz White overproof rum (unaged Jamaican/funky)
1 oz Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
12 oz Monin Grenadine Syrup
14 oz Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
12 oz Chilled water omit if using wet ice
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select a Double old-fashioned glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of lime wedge.
  3. SHAKE all ingredients.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Serve with straws.
  6. Garnish with lime wedge.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 8/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 7/10

Review:

To quote Embury, "Whoever thought up this snootful of liquid dynamite certainly liked his liquor hard!"

View readers' comments

History:

Recipe adapted from David Embury's classic book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

Nutrition:

One serving of Rumba contains 189 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.4 standard drinks
  • 16.26% alc./vol. (16.26° proof)
  • 19.5 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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fred88’s Avatar fred88
1st May 2024 at 17:01
Quite sweet and boozy, yet it is a well balanced drink and I liked it. I shaked with crush ice to have more dilution, added a dash of saline solution, and used Martin Miller Gin and Rhum agricole overproof. Great, but I will try next time with Jamaican overproof rum.
15th July 2023 at 00:37
I didn't have any grenadine to hand, so increased the syrup to 10 ml and used 30 ml pineapple juice with non-wet ice.
This created a truly dangerous cocktail that I allowed the funk to shine with depth brought by the gin, all brought together with the pineapple. The head from the pineapple made it quite an attractive serve and I will certainly be making more of this riff as well as trying the original recipe when I have grenadine again.
John Hinojos’ Avatar John Hinojos
29th April 2021 at 04:15
This is wonderful. Well balanced with sweet and sour while being able to taste the rum and gin.