Mary Pickford
A Mary Pickford is 45ml of white rum, 45ml of fresh pineapple juice, 7.5ml of maraschino liqueur and 5ml of grenadine, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a cherry; the measures are the IBA’s. About 2.0 UK units. It is named for Mary Pickford, the Canadian-born silent film star, and the story is that it was mixed for her in Havana in the 1920s, on a trip with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin while the United States was under Prohibition. The bartender is given as Eddie Woelke or Fred Kaufmann; the accounts differ. Half the drink is pineapple, so the juice decides it. Fresh juice shakes up with a fine pale foam and a sharper edge; carton juice gives a flat, sweet drink. The maraschino and grenadine are small measures with clear jobs: depth and colour.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
45ml
A light white rum at around 40% ABV, in the Cuban style the drink comes from. An aged rum competes with the fruit rather than carrying it.
45ml
Fresh, pressed or blended the same day. At 45ml it is half the drink, and it gives the foam that carton juice cannot.
5ml
Real grenadine, made from pomegranate. At 5ml it tints the drink pink and adds a little tartness; the bright red bottles of coloured syrup add only sugar.
7.5ml
Clear maraschino at around 32% ABV, made from marasca cherries, stones and all. At 7.5ml it gives a faintly bitter depth that keeps the drink from tasting only of fruit.
Instructions
Chill a coupe in the freezer.
Add the rum, pineapple juice, maraschino and grenadine to a shaker with cubed ice.
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe.
Drop in a cherry.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; a cherry where the IBA gives no garnish; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Use fresh pineapple juice. Half the drink is pineapple, and fresh juice shakes to a fine foam with a sharpness that carton juice, heated for shelf life, has lost. Press or blend it the same day and shake to order. Keep the small measures small. Grenadine at 5ml gives colour and a little tartness; maraschino at 7.5ml gives depth. Double either and the drink tips: too much grenadine and it is fruit punch, too much maraschino and its bitter edge covers the pineapple. Double strain. Fresh pineapple carries fibre, and the drink should reach the glass smooth.
Behind the Mary Pickford
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Through Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, Havana was a short crossing from a dry United States, and American visitors, film stars among them, drank there.
The Mary Pickford is said to have been made for the actress in the 1920s, when she visited Havana with Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. The bartender is given as Eddie Woelke or Fred Kaufmann, and the hotel varies with the telling, so the attribution is best held loosely.
The Two Seasonings
Grenadine and maraschino are small measures with opposite jobs. Grenadine, at 5ml, is colour and a little tartness. Maraschino, at 7.5ml, is depth: faintly bitter, landing under the fruit rather than on top of it.
Leave either out and the gap shows. Without grenadine the drink is pale and plainer. Without maraschino it is pretty and hollow, sweet at the front with nothing holding the finish.
The Pineapple Standard
Fresh pineapple juice is sharper, more perfumed and less sweet than carton juice, which is heated for shelf life and tastes of it.
It also carries proteins that whip into a fine, stable foam under a hard shake, a pale collar on a pink drink. Carton juice gives a thin layer of bubbles that is gone before the glass reaches the table.
Where We Follow the IBA
The Mary Pickford, IBA and house side by side
White rum
- IBA
- 45ml
- Ours
- 45ml
Fresh pineapple juice
- IBA
- 45ml
- Ours
- 45ml, pressed or blended the same day
Maraschino liqueur
- IBA
- 7.5ml Luxardo
- Ours
- 7.5ml
Grenadine
- IBA
- 5ml
- Ours
- 5ml, made from pomegranate
Method
- IBA
- Shaken with ice, strained
- Ours
- Shaken hard 10 to 12 seconds, double strained
Glass
- IBA
- Chilled cocktail glass
- Ours
- Chilled coupe
Garnish
- IBA
- None
- Ours
- A cherry
UK units
- IBA
- About 2.0
- Ours
- About 2.0
| Element | IBA | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| White rum | 45ml | 45ml |
| Fresh pineapple juice | 45ml | 45ml, pressed or blended the same day |
| Maraschino liqueur | 7.5ml Luxardo | 7.5ml |
| Grenadine | 5ml | 5ml, made from pomegranate |
| Method | Shaken with ice, strained | Shaken hard 10 to 12 seconds, double strained |
| Glass | Chilled cocktail glass | Chilled coupe |
| Garnish | None | A cherry |
| UK units | About 2.0 | About 2.0 |
Against the Hotel Nacional
The Hotel Nacional is the closest relation: white rum and pineapple again, with apricot brandy and lime in the supporting seat.
That makes the Nacional sharper and more obviously a sour, and the Pickford rounder. Made side by side, the two show how far the second fruit moves a drink.
For apricot and lime with the same rum and pineapple, see the Hotel Nacional; for white rum stirred with vermouth and curaçao, the El Presidente.
How to Serve It
Up, in a chilled coupe, double strained, with a cherry. Drink it while the foam stands.
For a group, press or blend the pineapple ahead but shake each drink to order; juice that has stood for an hour has lost its foam.
Make it at home
The Spirit
White RumWhite rum is clear rum, usually bottled at 40% ABV, either unaged or rested in oak and then charcoal-filtered back to clear. It is the light, dry rum of the Daiquiri, the Mojito and the Cuba Libre, and the rum most of our recipes mean when they want rum that sits under lime rather than over it.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the Mary Pickford cocktail named after?
Is a Mary Pickford sweet?
What is the difference from a Hotel Nacional?
Does the grenadine really matter?
Is the Mary Pickford an IBA cocktail?
Which cherry should I use?
How strong is a Mary Pickford?
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Hotel Nacional
A Hotel Nacional is 45ml of white rum, 30ml of fresh pineapple juice, 15ml of fresh lime juice, 10ml of apricot brandy and 5ml of simple syrup, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a pineapple wedge. About 2.0 UK units. It is a pineapple daiquiri with stone fruit underneath. The apricot brandy, a sweet liqueur despite its name, runs a kernel note under the pineapple and gives the drink a finish that fruit and rum alone do not have. The lime keeps it a sour rather than a fruit cup. The name is the Hotel Nacional de Cuba’s, which opened in Havana in 1930, and the drink is often listed as the Hotel Nacional Special. Charles H. Baker credited it to Wil P. Taylor, the hotel’s manager in the early 1930s, though two other bartenders of the period are credited too.
El Presidente
El Presidente is a stirred Cuban rum drink: 45ml white rum, 22.5ml dry vermouth, 10ml orange curaçao and 7.5ml grenadine, stirred for 20 to 30 seconds over ice and strained into a chilled coupe, finished with an expressed orange peel. It drinks like a light rum Manhattan, dry and aromatic, with a pale pink colour from the grenadine. It made its name in Havana from the 1920s, during American Prohibition. Who created it and which president it honours are both disputed: Mario García Menocal, president from 1913 to 1921, and Gerardo Machado, president from 1925 to 1933, each have a claim. Older recipes use blanc vermouth, sweeter than dry, in equal measure with the rum. Ours uses dry at two to one with a little more curaçao. Each one comes to about 2.6 UK units.
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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026