Name: Painkiller
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Navy rum (ideally circa 55% alc./vol.); 90 ml Pineapple juice; 22.5 ml Orange juice; 15 ml Cream of coconut; 4 drop Daiquiri bitters

Ingredients

1 ¹⁄₂ fl oz

Navy rum (ideally circa 55% alc./vol.)

3 fl oz

Pineapple juice

³⁄₄ fl oz

Orange juice (freshly squeezed)

¹⁄₂ fl oz

Cream of coconut (e.g. Coco Lopez, Re'al etc.)

4 drop

Difford's Daiquiri Bitters (optional)

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Painkiller contains 252 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
10.69% alc./vol. (21.39° proof)
19.8 grams of pure alcohol

History

From the Soggy Dollar bar on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. The bar's name is logical, as most of the clientele are sailors and there is no dock. Hence they have to swim ashore, often paying for drinks with wet dollars.

A variation on the classic Pina Colada. See our main Piña Colada page for the story behind the classic and for links to numerous other variations.

Gallery

Comments & Discussion

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James Kittock Premium Member 28w

Made one this evening using 1/2 oz each of Smith & Cross, Hamilton 86, and Clement VSOP. Added a couple drops (not dashes) of Scrappy’s orange bitter and Ango. Delicious.

James Brooke Premium Member 29w

According to Beach Bum Berry’s book ‘Grog Log’, the recipe for the Painkiller is
120 ml unsweetened pineapple juice
30 ml orange juice
30 ml Lopez coconut cream
75 ml navy rum or dark jamaican rum
Shake juices, Lopez, and rum with plenty of crushed ice. Pour unstrained into a tall glass or Tiki mug. Dust with cinnamon and nutmeg. Garnish with a pineapple stick, cinnamon stick, and orange wheel.

Malcom Fitzcarraldo Premium Member 30w

Confidential to everyone: you can sub in Planteray Cut & Dry for part of the rum and drop the cream of coconut entirely. My current take on this (which I'm calling the Anodyne) is: 3/4 oz Planteray Cut & Dry, 3/4 oz Smith & Cross, 3/4 oz Lemon Hart 151, 3 oz pineapple, 1 oz orange, 1/2 oz lime, 4 drops Elemakule Tiki bitters (Bob's Bitters are hard to come by in the US); I whip shake and pour over crushed ice, then garnish

Albert Markiewicz 1y

I just calculated that if you mix equal parts of 40% ABV rum with 69% ABV rum, you get exactly to 54,5% ABV. Not sure if this repliates the flavour well, but if you want to try the cocktail and you don't have the navy rum in your bar, you can try this instead

Henry Tran 2y

Tried with this recipe and it was really good

i. The Original Painkiller
1) 60ml orange juice
2) 30ml cream of coconut
3) 30ml pineapple juice
4) 30ml Smith & Cross
5) 30ml El Dorado

Matt Premium Member 2y

A delicious tiki-style drink - pineapple forward, but also get some great flavor notes from the rum and coconut. OJ flavors are lost (to me, at least), but it is critical to diluting the pineapple a bit, and stretching the volume. I like a simple 4/2/1/1 (pineapple/rum/OJ/coconut cream) ratio, but this one is also very good.

Robert Spain 2y

Excelent and very different to a piña colada. The proportions, the orange juice, and, specially, Smith and Cross, make a great difference.

Miguel Perales Premium Member 3y

I really liked this cocktail. I also really liked John's idea of an overproof floater, maybe he can call it the "Extra-strength Painkiller" :) Very simple to make and very refreshing.

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 3y

I love both the idea and the name.

Simon Sedgley Premium Member 1y

Or maybe just call it "The Morphine".

Nathalie O Flynn Premium Member 3y

Made this a couple of times before but this time took the tip below about adding an overproof rum float so added Goslings 151. It was not only fantastic but looked really good with the colour separation. We'll probably need a corpse reviver tomorrow with all the Easter partying we're doing.

Melissa Nelson 4y

I have a theory about the Painkiller.

Given the limitations of the Soggy Dollar's island location in the 1970s, I am certain this drink was developed with standard bar ingredients of the time, including canned pineapple and orange juice.

Fresh juice is too sweet and lacks thrust. You need the acidic bite of the canned juice in order to cut through the sweet coconut. The acid is the tip of the marlin spike, to use a naval metaphor.

Try it both ways, I think you'll agree.

Brian Flanagan 4y

So I've made this with fresh juices, and I've made it with store-bought juices. IMO, the store bought was a superior drink. No idea if the story behind your theory is true, but you're definitely onto something.

Chris Dimal 3y

Could be true, but I think raw but fresh pineapple juice can do the trick as well. Our pineapples were tart and they nicely balanced the drink. Good pungent rum notes with fruitiness from the orange and pineapple, ending with a coconut sweetness. Good drink. Used Old Monk, as we don't have Navy style rum here.

Brian Flanagan 3y

@Chris Dimal

Okay so this is interesting. I haven't had Old Monk before, but I imagine its flavor profile is not nearly as intense as Navy Rum. That could explain why you enjoyed the fresh juice over story bought.

With Navy Rum, the added zing from store brought will help to pop through.

But with a less intense rum, the more delicate flavor profile of fresh juices could play nicely.

Cocktails are fun.