Name: Nuclear Banana Daiquiri
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml White overproof rum; 20 ml Chartreuse Yellow; 20 ml Falernum liqueur; 20 ml Lime juice; 1&frasl;2 fresh Banana; 1&frasl;4 barspoon Xanthan gum (E415)

Nuclear Banana Daiquiri
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Glass:

Photographed in a Libbey Hurricane 13.25oz

Ingredients:
1 fl oz	Overproof white rum (unaged Jamaican/funky)
²⁄₃ fl oz	Yellow Chartreuse (or génépy liqueur)
²⁄₃ fl oz	Difford's Falernum liqueur
²⁄₃ fl oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₂ fresh	Banana (preferably overripe)
¹⁄₄ barspoon	Xanthan gum (E415)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a POCO GRANDE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of banana slice, star anise and mint sprig.

How to make:

DRY BLEND (without ice) first 5 ingredients on slow setting and then gradually add Xanthan gum while continuing to blend.
Add 7oz scoop of crushed ice and BLEND some more.
POUR into chilled glass.
Serve with straws.

Garnish:

Garnish with banana slice on rim, star anise and mint sprig bouquet.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

10th April 2026 is The day Bananas debuted

Review:

To quote our friends at Hawksmoor, where we discovered this delicious and indulgent cocktail, "Our take on a drink that doesn't take itself too seriously by the late, great Gregor de Gruyther. We've just added half a banana and blitzed it. Silly, but tasty."

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Variations/similar cocktails:

Banana Daiquiri; Banana Daiquiri (shaken)

History:

Adapted from a riff on the Nuclear Daiquiri discovered in 2013 at Hawksmoor, Spitalfields, London, England.

Alcohol content:

We don't have enough information to calculate the alc./vol., but based on known ingredients, this recipe contains at least:

24.5 grams of pure alcohol

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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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Showing 10 of 17 comments for Nuclear Banana Daiquiri.
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Chris Brislawn

10th April at 04:09

Using a primary shot of overproof white rum makes it a nuclear daiquiri, adding a Smith & Cross secondary makes it thermonuclear. No idea why this was originally made with Yellow Chartreuse; just because it 's yellow (Strega??) it doesn't necessarily belong in a banana daiquiri. As others have noted, Creme de Banane (I had Tempus Fugit) works much better. I also think splitting the citrus between lime & lemon works better, and I didn't miss the Xanthan gum. I did add a couple dashes of pimento dram, though. Finally, this clearly belongs in a tiki mug.

Rob de Santos

9th April at 20:17

I didn't happen to have any bananas on hand but adding a bit of Pinang Ambon green banana liqueur made for an excellent drink. Next time, I'll try it with a ripe banana.

Jacques Merley

27th August 2025 at 18:52

What is the amount needed of xantham gum?

Benjamin Kay

27th March at 10:14

I use about 1/3 of a 1/4 teaspoon, Might be my barspoon size but I was over doing it with what was recommended.

Simon Difford

28th August 2025 at 06:58

Quarter of a barspoon is plenty, A little goes a long way.

T M

14th February 2025 at 16:53

As others have commented, the drink is much elevated by the addition of 15ml of banana liqueur (giffard here)

Simon Sedgley

27th February at 14:27

Well, by doing that one is pushing it towards the Banana Daiquiri. Here, we think, the emphasis is rightly on the "Nuclear" rather than on the "Banana", as the name suggests.

Matt

16th August 2024 at 01:38

Live a little, and use the whole banana! Nice looking frozen drink - I used Smith & Cross, but likely could have used a 80 proof white rum and it would have been fine. A nice poolside/hot weather drink.

Sebastian C

8th April 2024 at 00:54

Delicious. Although we thought we secured an overripe enough banana, apparently it was not up to the task so we followed others’ guidance and added 20 ml of banana liqueur total (we had two drinks). Additionally, feeling it might need just a bit something extra, we added to each drink 3 drops of sea salt solution (4 water : 1 sea salt; (first tried 2 then went for one more). Additionally, we didn’t have yellow chartreuse so used Genepy le Chamois.

Jose Cruz

17th March 2024 at 03:22

6.5 oz WEIGHTED ice for me. yield was 12 oz. it was great but something seems to be missing... added 20ml banana liquor.

Niccolò Murtas

17th February 2024 at 11:36

I have tried to sub the yellow chartreuse with Strega liqueur (two thirds cheaper here in Italy) and at the moment I am not seen much of a difference, though If I were a billionaire I'd probably stick to the Yellow chartreuse to be fair.

John Champion

1st May 2024 at 16:17

Strega is my go to sub for yellow if I can't find it. Does great in most drinks.

Hansie

27th December 2023 at 20:51

10-15ml crème de banane (not some old bottom shelf banana liqueur, but something proper like Giffard) is an excellent addition.

Subbing the lime for ~30ml lemon also fits the flavor profile rather well

Sebastian C

8th April 2024 at 01:44

The lemon in lieu of lime definitely changed things up, and, in my opinion, made it even more tasty. The lemon really brings out the banana flavour.

Morten Hansen

21st July 2023 at 16:00

I was out of falernum but tried to approximate it with orgeat, a couple of dashes of Bittermens Emakulele Tiki bitters and a couple of dashes of Dr Adam Elmegirab’s Dead Rabbit Orinoco Bitters and the result turned out to be very tasty indeed.

As a side note, I also added a small amount of xanthan gum to help keep the emulsion stable for longer (as generally recommended for blended drinks by The Educated Barfly YouTube channel).

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