Bacardi Cocktail
A Bacardi Cocktail is 50ml of Bacardi Carta Blanca, 20ml of fresh lime juice, 10ml of grenadine and 5ml of sugar syrup, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a lime wheel. About 1.9 UK units. It is a daiquiri coloured and partly sweetened with grenadine. The name is tied to a trade mark. Bacardi took the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel and the Wivel restaurant in New York to court over Bacardi Cocktails made with other rums, and on 28 April 1936 the New York Supreme Court ruled that a drink sold under that name must be made with Bacardi rum. By most accounts the Cuban original was rum, lime and sugar, close to a plain daiquiri, and the pink version took hold in the United States. A grenadine made from pomegranate keeps it tart.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime wheel
Ingredients
50ml
At 37.5% ABV, as sold in the UK. The 1936 ruling ties the name to Bacardi rum when the drink is sold; at home, the same build with another Cuban-style white rum is a grenadine daiquiri.
20ml
Squeezed the same day, ideally within a few hours. Lime juice goes flat as it stands, and at 20ml it is the drink’s only acid.
10ml
Pomegranate syrup, for the pink colour and a tart fruit note. Commercial red syrups add sweetness and colour only.
5ml
Five millilitres, to round the lime once the grenadine has done most of the sweetening.
Instructions
Chill a coupe.
Add the rum, lime juice, grenadine and sugar syrup to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe.
Garnish with a lime wheel.
Our version
The name belongs to Bacardi: under a 1936 New York ruling, a drink sold as a Bacardi Cocktail must be made with Bacardi rum. The measures are ours: 50ml of rum and 20ml of lime, with the sweetening split between 10ml of grenadine and 5ml of syrup so it stays a daiquiri.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Use a grenadine made from pomegranate. At 10ml it supplies the colour and most of the sweetness, and real pomegranate brings a tart edge that meets the lime. Bright red syrups are sugar and colouring, and they turn the drink into a sweet cordial. Keep the split at ten and five. The grenadine does most of the sweetening and the syrup corrects the lime. Push the grenadine up and it stops tasting like a daiquiri. To make grenadine, warm equal weights of pomegranate juice and sugar until the sugar dissolves, without letting it boil. It keeps for about two weeks in the fridge.
Behind the Bacardi Cocktail
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
By most accounts the Bacardi company’s own early recipe, in Cuba, was rum, lime and sugar, much like a daiquiri. The version coloured with grenadine took hold in the United States. Who first added the grenadine is not recorded.
The 1936 Ruling
In the Depression years some New York bars served Bacardi Cocktails made with cheaper rums. Bacardi sued two of them, the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel and the Wivel restaurant on West 54th Street, to protect its trade mark, and members of the company travelled from Cuba to give evidence.
On 28 April 1936 Justice John L. Walsh of the New York Supreme Court, the state’s trial court, ruled that a drink sold as a Bacardi Cocktail must be made with Bacardi rum. The ruling governs what a bar may sell under the name. It does not reach a home kitchen.
The Grenadine Split
Ten millilitres of grenadine and five of plain syrup share the sweetening. The grenadine brings the colour and a tart pomegranate note; the syrup rounds the lime without adding more fruit.
Push the grenadine to 15ml and drop the syrup, and the pomegranate takes over. It stops tasting like a daiquiri with colour and becomes a fruit drink with rum in it.
Why the Grenadine Has to Be Real
Much of what is sold as grenadine is sugar syrup with acid and red colouring. Against lime and white rum it adds sweetness and nothing to answer the lime.
Real pomegranate syrup is sharp and slightly astringent, so the two fruits pull against each other as the recipe intends.
Three Havana Sours
The Bacardi Cocktail beside two daiquiris
Bacardi Cocktail
- Rum
- 50ml Bacardi Carta Blanca
- Lime
- 20ml
- Sweetener
- 10ml grenadine, 5ml syrup
- Method
- Shaken, served up
- UK units
- About 1.9
Daiquiri (IBA)
- Rum
- 60ml white rum
- Lime
- 20ml
- Sweetener
- Two bar spoons caster sugar
- Method
- Shaken, served up
- UK units
- About 2.4
El Floridita Daiquiri
- Rum
- 60ml white rum
- Lime
- 15ml
- Sweetener
- 10ml syrup, 5ml maraschino
- Method
- Flash blended with crushed ice
- UK units
- About 2.6
| Drink | Rum | Lime | Sweetener | Method | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bacardi Cocktail | 50ml Bacardi Carta Blanca | 20ml | 10ml grenadine, 5ml syrup | Shaken, served up | About 1.9 |
| Daiquiri (IBA) | 60ml white rum | 20ml | Two bar spoons caster sugar | Shaken, served up | About 2.4 |
| El Floridita Daiquiri | 60ml white rum | 15ml | 10ml syrup, 5ml maraschino | Flash blended with crushed ice | About 2.6 |
How to Serve It
Shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds, double strained into a chilled coupe and served with a lime wheel, while the colour is bright and the drink at its coldest.
For the plain version, make a Daiquiri; for the frozen Havana version with maraschino, an El Floridita Daiquiri.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Bacardi Carta BlancaBacardi Carta Blanca is Bacardi's light white rum, sold in the UK at 37.5% ABV; elsewhere the same rum is often labelled Superior. It is aged in oak and charcoal-filtered, and it is the rum a New York court tied to the Bacardi Cocktail in 1936, which is why our recipe names it.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Bacardi Cocktail?
Does a Bacardi Cocktail legally require Bacardi?
How is it different from a daiquiri?
Was the original made with grenadine?
Why does the grenadine have to be real?
Are other cocktail names tied to a brand?
How strong is a Bacardi Cocktail?
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Daiquiri
A Daiquiri is 60ml white rum, 20ml fresh lime juice and two bar spoons of caster sugar. Stir the sugar into the rum and lime in the shaker until it dissolves, then add ice, shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strain into a chilled coupe. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and its method dissolves the sugar first too. The name belongs to Daiquirí, an iron-mining district and beach near Santiago de Cuba. The drink is usually credited to Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer in Cuba around the Spanish-American War of 1898. Constantino Ribalaigua Vert later refined and popularised it in Havana at El Floridita. With three ingredients and no liqueur or bitters, the Daiquiri hides nothing. A flat rum, tired lime or undissolved sugar shows in the first sip.
El Floridita Daiquiri
An El Floridita Daiquiri is 60ml of white rum, 15ml of fresh lime juice, 5ml of maraschino and 10ml of sugar syrup, flash blended with fine crushed ice for five to ten seconds and heaped into a chilled coupe as soft snow, with a short straw. About 2.6 UK units. Its home is Havana’s El Floridita, owned from 1918 by Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, whose bar called itself la cuna del daiquiri. He is credited with the frozen daiquiri in the early 1930s, and he is reported to have called this one his Daiquiri No. 4. The maraschino lifts the lime without tasting of cherry, and the shaved ice makes it a frappé rather than a slush.
Hemingway Daiquiri
A Hemingway Daiquiri is 60ml white rum, 40ml fresh grapefruit juice, 15ml fresh lime juice and 15ml maraschino liqueur, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a lime wheel. The measures follow the IBA, which lists it as the Hemingway Special. There is no sugar syrup: the maraschino is the only sweetness. About 2.9 UK units. It comes from El Floridita in Havana, the bar Constantino Ribalaigua owned from 1918. Hemingway, who kept a room in Havana from 1932, is said to have asked for the house daiquiri without sugar and with double the rum, and the bar called that the Papa Doble. Grapefruit and maraschino came later and gave the drink its present form. It is drier and more bitter than a classic Daiquiri, and the grapefruit decides how it tastes.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026