Name: Bacardi Special
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Light white rum; 22.5 ml Gin; 15 ml Lime juice; 7.5 ml Grenadine syrup; 5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 10 ml Chilled water

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

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

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

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

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.

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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

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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 21 comments for Bacardi Special.
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Terry Wattley

14th June at 19:26

It's on the sweeter side, but that shouldn't be a surprise with the strength and taste guide and the ingredients.

I loved it though, an easy drink that at first seems simple and fruity but actually has quite a bit going on.

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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!

Calvin Grant

19th July 2024 at 03:47

Was just as good with Bacardi Black.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Beverly Stanton

4th February 2023 at 23:04

Liked this as is. On the sweet side but I think it works.

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