Bacardi Special

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (459 ratings)
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    Bacardi Special

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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 1⁄2 oz Light white rum (charcoal-filtered 1-4 years old)
3⁄4 oz Hayman's London Dry Gin
1⁄2 oz Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
1⁄4 oz Monin Grenadine Syrup
1⁄6 oz Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
1⁄3 oz Chilled water omit if using wet ice
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of skewered Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
  3. SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Garnish with skewered cherry.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 6/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 4/10
More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Hit the perfect proportions and you will strike a wondrous balance of flavoursome rum, gin botanicals, limey sourness and fruity sweetness.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Bacardi Cocktail

History:

This vintage adaptation of the Bacardi Cocktail was first published in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book were he says it was "Made famous by Karl K. Kitchen, the well-known New York Newspaper Columnist."

BACARDI SPECIAL COCKTAIL*
1 Teaspoon Grenadine.
1/3 Burrough's Beefeater Gin.
2/3 Bacardi Rum.
The Juice of ½ Lime.
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

*Made famous by Karl K. Kitchen, the well-known New York Newspaper Columnist.

Harry Craddock, 1930
More cocktails by Harry Craddock

Nutrition:

One serving of Bacardi Special contains 185 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.4 standard drinks
  • 19.1% alc./vol. (19.1° proof)
  • 20.1 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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Ruth Harvey’s Avatar Ruth Harvey
11th December 2024 at 17:57
So true about tasting, sweetness, botanicals, sour & fruit. Ingredients were standard so a will become a classic go to for me.
1
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Shannon Brown’s Avatar Shannon Brown
30th September 2024 at 23:35
Too sweet for my liking. The grenadine over powers everything. I added 1/2 oz of grapefruit juice and it was still too sweet. I would have chosen lemon juice, but I didn’t want to squeeze a lemon just to try to make it drinkable. It definitely needs some tartness to balance it out.
1
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Florian Ruf’s Avatar Florian Ruf
25th August 2024 at 15:16
Maybe I had a weak grenadine, but 2 drops each of saline solution and Chartreuse Elixir gave this cocktail a backbone.
1
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Charlie Forbes’ Avatar Charlie Forbes
24th August 2024 at 20:53
When I saw that the recipe called for both Grendine AND simple syrup, I thought, "Let's just go w/ more Grenadine" as a plus up. In fact, it was a plus down. The recipe as stated is better and will be my way to make a BS from this point forward. :)
2
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Susie Bright’s Avatar Susie Bright
24th August 2024 at 22:20
Absolutely right. This recipe is perfect to the drop. I, too, was tempted to skimp on the sugar syrup, but disciplined myself just in time!
2
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Calvin Grant’s Avatar Calvin Grant
19th July 2024 at 03:47
Was just as good with Bacardi Black.
1
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Hunter Newsome’s Avatar Hunter Newsome
24th August 2023 at 02:07
The review is true. Made with homemade grenadine and a more robust, fruity Plantation 3 Star white rum. This was delicious. The floral and fruity notes of the ingredients were very pronounced, but ultimately no one ingredient distinctly stands out on its own. My formulation was a little on the boozy side, so I'll try adding an extra 2.5ml of sugar syrup to balance it.
2
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Chris Dimal’s Avatar Chris Dimal
1st June 2023 at 16:45
More like a Havana Club Special, where I used Havana Club 3. It was delicious, nevertheless, with generous fruity sweetness, esters of the rum (which is why I don't feel so bad using Bacardi Carta Blanca anyway), and botanicals of the gin. The lime's citrus sourness balances everything.
2
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Helge Syversen’s Avatar Helge Syversen
26th October 2024 at 17:12
I totally agree. In my cocktail I used Tanquerey Rangpur Lime Gin and skipped all sugar sirup.
1
reply
Niccolò Murtas’ Avatar Niccolò Murtas
21st May 2023 at 19:22
To me is too sweet, but a Kazakistan girl said it reminds her of the evening sun in the Kajaki steppes. Which, she confessed once pressed from me for more universally-comprehensive terms, is a 4 out of 5.
8
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Beverly Stanton’s Avatar Beverly Stanton
4th February 2023 at 23:04
Liked this as is. On the sweet side but I think it works.
1
reply
David h’s Avatar David h
17th September 2022 at 15:36
Bit too much grenadine for our taste so will consider dialling it back a bit next time.
1
reply
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