Name: Goombay Smash
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Aged Jamaican rum; 30 ml Coconut rum liqueur; 15 ml Apricot liqueur; 45 ml Pineapple juice; 30 ml Orange juice; 10 ml Lime juice; 2 dash Aromatic bitters

Goombay Smash
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Photographed in an Urban Bar Sling 11.5oz / 33cl

Ingredients:
1 oz	Jamaican aged blended rum with funk
1 oz	Coconut rum liqueur (35-40% alc./vol.)
¹⁄₂ oz	Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Pineapple juice
1 oz	Orange juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₃ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
2 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Sling glass.
Prepare garnish of pineapple wedge & orange slice wheel.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

The classic pineapple and coconut combo with a touch of rum funk and subdued apricot.

Smashes are usually short drinks that include muddled mint. Strictly according to cocktail family rules, this drink might be misnamed, but like all the miss-named fruit "Martinis" that are not actually Martinis, it's tasty and has mass-market appeal.

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History:

Created by Emily Cooper, better known as "Miss Emily" at the Blue Bee Bar in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas. Miss Emily passed away in 1977 but her daughter Violet Smith continues to run the now-famous bar and serve the infamous Smash to visitors from the world over.

Incredibly, while Miss Emily Cooper is the undisputed creator of a contemporary classic cocktail that appears on bar menus through the Bahamas and the wider world, she never sipped an alcoholic beverage during her entire life and was allergic to pineapples. so had two reasons never to sample her own invention. The rainy day she created her now famous cocktail she relied on men playing dominoes in the yard outside to gauge the success of her concoction and was told, "that is very good." So popular did her cocktail become that she experimented with ever quicker ways of making ever-larger batches, ending up mixing it in a gallon bottle. The method still employed in the bar to this day.

Miss Emily created her potent cocktail around the time that the annual Goombay Summer Festival hits the Bahamas, so inspiring the name.

The original recipe remains a secret but at Blue Bee Bar the coconut run of choice is Rico Bay Coconut Rum which is a full 40% (80° proof) so a low alc./vol. sweet coconut liqueur will not do for this cocktail. Miss Emily used "dirty rum", so obviously a dark characterful rum rather than charcoal filtered lighter style rum. The other known ingredients are apricot brandy and pineapple juice, although orange juice is also common to pretty much all recreations of the original. There is apparently a "secret ingredient" but being the Caribbean there's a good chance that's a couple of dashes of bitters.

Nutrition:

One serving of Goombay Smash contains 194 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
12.83% alc./vol. (12.83° proof)
20.6 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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Jose Cruz

30th May 2024 at 04:00

Surprisingly good drink, thats very high praise from me given that there is no orgeat/ SS / Falernum on this for extra sweetness. I did do 20ml apricot and i have no regreats, next time will do 15 ml dram for a even better drink im sure.

Chris Dimal

25th January 2024 at 06:42

Nice, tropical, delightful. Did not have a 40% ABV rum unfortunately, so I did 40ml of my coconut rum liqueur. Still tasted really nice, if a bit towards the sweet side. I also made one before with orange-pineapple juice (from concentrate) and of course, it was mediocre. Everything just comes out more with fresh pineapple and orange. I also just used Appleton Estate Signature with some Old Monk mixed in.

Miguel Perales

10th June 2023 at 23:04

I don't know if my pineapple and orange juice were not overly sweet because this did not come across as a very sweet cocktail. I do agree that an overproof rum is needed, as I mixed it as posted and then with Lemon Heart & Son 151 and I enjoyed the 151 version better. In my case the lime citrus and rum were the predominant flavors with the apricot brandy not being noticeable.

John Hinojos

25th May 2021 at 20:12

From the comments, used an overproof spiced rum. I think I would have added a little overproof Navy Rum or 151 also. It was very good how we made it, but just a little sweet. Feel that the higher proof may cut the sweetness.

Sally Morgan

20th December 2020 at 20:17

Dialled down the juices and used grapefruit bitters instead and served straight up - a very nice cocktail

Nathalie O'Flynn

16th August 2020 at 13:02

Sipping this right now but used the recipe before it was changed on here (i have the Bible book so can always reference back) as I had defrosted the pineapple juice already and won’t keep. Served them in tall tiki clear glasses. Very nice indeed, smash being the operative word :). Next week will try the new recipe. I think this could work well with passion fruit purée too as a substitute for orange juice.

Simon Difford

16th August 2020 at 15:09

This newer recipe is truer to what I understand of the original but I also liked my previous version. You could click "Add your own version of this recipe" to note your own preferences, perhaps with passion fruit puree. Many thanks for your feedback.