Goombay Smash

A clean white for the base and a Jamaican or Barbadian dark on top. The white keeps it drinkable, the dark supplies the molasses and funk that stop it tasting like fruit punch. Overproof works too, but drop it to 15 ml and expect a short evening.

Depends who you ask. Plenty of bars in the Bahamas and Florida use coconut rum, and some add apricot brandy on top of that. This build leaves both out, which keeps the pineapple sharper. Add 15 ml of coconut rum if you want the softer, resort-style version.

Body, and it comes from the juice. Concentrate is thin and over-sweet, with none of the weight needed to carry 60 ml of rum. Not-from-concentrate in a chilled carton is the easy fix. Blended and strained fresh pineapple is better still, and it leaves a soft head at the top of the glass.

Dark alone works and gives you a heavier, more molasses-driven glass. White alone leaves it tasting like tinned fruit. Since nobody outside Green Turtle Cay knows the original proportions, the split is a judgment call rather than a rule. Thirty and thirty is a good place to start arguing from.

A classic Goombay Smash calls for 30 ml (1 oz) White rum, 30 ml (1 oz) Dark rum, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Triple sec / Cointreau, 60 ml (2 oz) Pineapple juice, 30 ml (1 oz) Orange juice. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Goombay Smash is roughly 17% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it about as strong as a glass of wine.

A Goombay Smash is stirred, not shaken. It contains no citrus juice, so stirring keeps it crystal clear and silky instead of cloudy and aerated.