IBA Tiki
The IBA Tiki is 30ml each of Havana Club Profundo and Havana Club Smoky, 15ml of amaretto, 5ml of Frangelico, five drops of maraschino, 30ml of passion fruit purée, 90ml of fresh pineapple juice and 30ml of fresh lime juice, shaken over a muddled slice of fresh ginger. It is strained into a chilled tiki mug of pebble ice and garnished with citrus and a dried pineapple slice. About 2.9 UK units. Amaretto and Frangelico mean nuts: almond or apricot kernel, and hazelnut. The measures are the IBA’s. Diosmel Mendoza Medrano, a Cuban bartender, created it for the IBA World Cocktail Championship held in Varadero in 2022, and the IBA added it to its official list in 2024. Nine ingredients sound like too many. They work because each does a separate job, and the ginger, the only thing pulling against the sugar, keeps the rest from tasting like fruit punch.
Glassware: Tiki Mug
Garnish: Pineapple slice dehydrated, at the rim and Lime wheel
Ingredients
30ml
Havana Club’s deep, aged Cuban rum, taken at 40% ABV. It gives body and dried fruit. Another aged Spanish-style rum with real weight can stand in.
30ml
Havana Club’s smoky expression, unusual for a Cuban rum. The smoke sits under the ginger. Without it, use a heavier, funkier rum rather than a second bottle of the first.
15ml
Almond and marzipan, around 28% ABV, the larger of the two nut liqueurs. Amaretto is made from almonds or apricot kernels; treat it as a nut ingredient.
5ml
Hazelnut liqueur at 20% ABV, measured at 5ml, a bar spoon. It fills the gap between the amaretto and the fruit. Contains hazelnut, a tree nut.
5 drops
Five drops of Luxardo, as the IBA names. Maraschino is intense, so drops rather than millilitres: a cherry and bitter almond note under the rest.
30ml
Sharp and tropical as well as sweet, so it acts partly as a second citrus. Purée rather than juice, for body over pebble ice.
90ml
Fresh, the largest measure and the reason the drink is long. Cartoned juice tastes cooked, and at 90ml there is nowhere for that to hide.
30ml
Squeezed the same day, and the drink’s one true acid against two nut liqueurs and two fruits, so measure the full 30ml.
1 thin slice
A thin slice of fresh ginger, muddled first. Ginger syrup adds sugar the drink does not need, and ground ginger tastes dusty.
Instructions
Juice the pineapple and squeeze the lime the same day.
Chill a tiki mug of 450ml or more and fill it with pebble ice.
Muddle a thin slice of fresh ginger firmly in the base of a shaker.
Add both rums, the amaretto, Frangelico, maraschino, passion fruit purée, pineapple juice and lime juice.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Strain into the tiki mug.
Garnish with a dried pineapple slice and citrus, and serve with a straw.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification (New Era); method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Muddle the ginger first, in the empty shaker. Two or three firm presses on a thin slice release its heat; grinding drags bitterness out of the skin. It is the only ingredient working against the sweetness, so do not skip it. Measure the small pours. Five millilitres of Frangelico and five drops of maraschino look like nothing beside 90ml of pineapple, and poured by eye they become the loudest things in the glass. Strain, do not dump. The ginger and the passion fruit seeds belong in the tin, not in the straw.
Behind the IBA Tiki
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Diosmel Mendoza Medrano, a Cuban bartender, created the IBA Tiki for the IBA’s World Cocktail Championship, held in Varadero in November 2022. It was created at El Polinesio, the tiki bar in the Habana Libre hotel in Havana, which Trader Vic’s once ran.
The IBA added it to its official list in March 2024. Its specification names two Havana Club rums, which ties it to Cuba.
Nine Ingredients, Nine Jobs
Long lists are the standing complaint against tiki, and often a fair one. A long list works only when each ingredient does a different job.
Here the rums give depth and smoke, amaretto gives almond, Frangelico rounds the gap to the fruit, maraschino adds cherry, passion fruit and pineapple give two kinds of tropical sweetness, lime gives the acid, and ginger cuts through the lot.
Where the alcohol in an IBA Tiki comes from
Havana Club Profundo
- Measure
- 30ml
- ABV
- 40%
- UK units
- 1.2
Havana Club Smoky
- Measure
- 30ml
- ABV
- 40%
- UK units
- 1.2
Amaretto
- Measure
- 15ml
- ABV
- 28%
- UK units
- 0.4
Frangelico
- Measure
- 5ml
- ABV
- 20%
- UK units
- 0.1
Maraschino
- Measure
- Five drops
- ABV
- 32%
- UK units
- Negligible
Passion fruit, pineapple, lime
- Measure
- 150ml
- ABV
- None
- UK units
- 0
Total
- Measure
- About 230ml before dilution
- ABV
- About 14%
- UK units
- 2.9
| Ingredient | Measure | ABV | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Havana Club Profundo | 30ml | 40% | 1.2 |
| Havana Club Smoky | 30ml | 40% | 1.2 |
| Amaretto | 15ml | 28% | 0.4 |
| Frangelico | 5ml | 20% | 0.1 |
| Maraschino | Five drops | 32% | Negligible |
| Passion fruit, pineapple, lime | 150ml | None | 0 |
| Total | About 230ml before dilution | About 14% | 2.9 |
The Ginger
A thin slice, muddled before anything else goes in. It takes ten seconds and decides the drink.
Pressing ruptures the cells and releases the compounds that give ginger its heat. Against passion fruit, pineapple and two nut liqueurs, that heat is the only thing pulling the other way. Press firmly two or three times; grinding drags bitterness from the skin.
Two Rums, Two Jobs
The specification names two Havana Club rums, and the principle travels: one deep, one smoky.
Profundo brings body and dried fruit. Smoky brings a note rare in Cuban rum, which sits under the ginger and against the amaretto. Without those bottles, an aged Spanish-style rum and a heavier, funkier one make a recognisable drink.
How to Serve It
Strained into a chilled tiki mug packed with pebble ice, garnished at the rim with a dried pineapple slice and citrus, straw alongside. The IBA garnishes with citrus and dehydrated pineapple.
Pebble ice packs tight and keeps the drink cold from top to bottom. The garnish sits by the straw, so pineapple and citrus reach the nose before each sip.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Aged RumAged rum is rum that has spent years in oak casks, usually ex-bourbon barrels, and taken on vanilla, caramel and dried fruit; most is bottled at 40 to 46% ABV. In our recipes it is the rum for drinks where you should taste the spirit: the Old Cuban, the Mai Tai, the Rum Sour and the punch bowl.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in an IBA Tiki?
Who created the IBA Tiki?
Can I substitute the Havana Club rums?
Why is there ginger in the IBA Tiki?
Does the IBA Tiki contain nuts?
How strong is an IBA Tiki?
What is pebble ice?
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 11 October 2026