Pearl Diver
A Pearl Diver is 45ml of gold Puerto Rican rum, 22.5ml of Demerara rum, 15ml of gold Jamaican rum, 30ml of fresh orange juice, 22.5ml of fresh lime juice, 22.5ml of gardenia mix and 5ml of falernum, blended with crushed ice for 15 seconds, strained through a sieve into a tall glass and topped with fresh crushed ice. About 3.4 UK units. Gardenia mix is made with butter, so the drink contains milk. VinePair says Donn Beach created it in 1937 at his Don the Beachcomber bar in Hollywood, where it was called the Pearl Diver’s Punch. Beach never publicly revealed his recipes, and Punch reports that Jeff Berry worked out gardenia mix from a coded notebook kept by Dick Santiago, who had worked for Don. Berry published the drink in Sippin’ Safari in 2007, VinePair says, and these are his measures. Gardenia mix is butter and honey melted together with cinnamon syrup, vanilla syrup and allspice dram. Blended hard with three rums and two citrus juices, it gives the drink a soft, round body, a cold cousin of the Hot Buttered Rum.
Glassware: Zombie Glass
Garnish: Orchid (optional)
Ingredients
45ml
A lightly aged Puerto Rican rum at 40% ABV. Half the rum in the glass, and the lightest of it: the dry base the other two build on.
22.5ml
Rum from Guyana, dark and rich with burnt sugar and a little smoke. Hamilton 86 or El Dorado’s eight-year-old are the usual choices. It gives the drink its depth.
15ml
A lightly aged Jamaican rum for ripe fruit and funk. Fifteen millilitres is enough; more and Jamaica takes over the drink.
30ml
Squeezed the same day. It softens the lime and gives the drink its golden colour.
22.5ml
Squeezed the same day. It is the acid that stops butter and honey making the drink heavy.
22.5ml
Made ahead to Berry’s batch: equal volumes of unsalted butter and honey, melted with a little cinnamon syrup, vanilla syrup and allspice dram. The butter means the drink contains milk.
5ml
A teaspoon of falernum: Velvet Falernum, the common bottle, is 11% ABV on LWC’s UK trade listing; a falernum syrup works too. Many falernums are flavoured with almond, so check the label for anyone with a nut allergy.
Instructions
Make the gardenia mix ahead and let it soften at room temperature.
Squeeze the orange and lime juice the same day.
Add the three rums, both juices, the gardenia mix and the falernum to a blender with about 180ml of crushed ice.
Blend on high for 15 seconds.
Strain through a sieve into a Pearl Diver or zombie glass, pressing gently on the solids.
Fill the glass with fresh crushed ice.
Garnish with an orchid, if you have one.
Source: Beachbum Berry's reconstructions (Sippin’ Safari, 2007; measures as Berry’s recipe is published by PUNCH and VinePair). Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Make the gardenia mix on the day. Warm equal volumes of unsalted butter and honey over a low heat and whisk in a little cinnamon syrup, vanilla syrup and allspice dram. Keep it covered at room temperature so it stays pourable; from the fridge it sets in flecks against the ice. Blend for 15 seconds on high and stop. The blender is there to break the butter into the drink and chill it fast. Run it longer and the ice turns to slush and waters the drink down. Strain through a sieve, pressing gently on what it catches, then fill the glass with fresh crushed ice. The sieve holds back ice shards and any butter that has set, so the drink in the glass is smooth.
Behind the Pearl Diver
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Beach never publicly revealed his recipes, VinePair says. Jeff Berry found the recipe in a handwritten notebook kept by Dick Santiago, who had worked for Beach, written in code to stop employees copying the recipes. It called only for “mix”: Berry worked out over some years, with help from a veteran tiki bartender, that this was honey, butter, cinnamon syrup, vanilla syrup and allspice dram, and printed the drink in Sippin’ Safari in 2007.
What Gardenia Mix Does
It is equal parts butter and honey, melted with small amounts of cinnamon syrup, vanilla syrup and allspice dram. In one measure it sweetens, spices and thickens the drink.
The butter is the surprise. Blended hard with citrus and ice, it spreads through the drink and gives it a body that sugar syrup cannot. The idea is the Hot Buttered Rum’s, served cold.
Three Rums, Three Jobs
Gold Puerto Rican rum is the base: light, dry and lightly aged. Demerara rum from Guyana adds burnt sugar and weight, and a little gold Jamaican rum brings ripe fruit and funk.
No one bottle does all three things at once. The gardenia mix needs a strong frame, and the three rums together carry it.
The Rums by Measure
Where the alcohol in a Pearl Diver comes from; the rums are at our working figure of 40%, falernum at 11% on LWC’s UK trade listing, and the units are our calculation
Gold Puerto Rican rum
- Measure
- 45ml
- ABV taken
- 40%
- What it adds
- The light, dry base
- UK units
- 1.8
Demerara rum
- Measure
- 22.5ml
- ABV taken
- 40%
- What it adds
- Burnt sugar and weight
- UK units
- 0.9
Gold Jamaican rum
- Measure
- 15ml
- ABV taken
- 40%
- What it adds
- Ripe fruit and funk
- UK units
- 0.6
Falernum
- Measure
- 5ml
- ABV taken
- About 11%
- What it adds
- Lime, clove and ginger
- UK units
- Under 0.1
Gardenia mix
- Measure
- 22.5ml
- ABV taken
- A trace, from the allspice dram
- What it adds
- Butter, honey and spice
- UK units
- Under 0.1
Total
- Measure
- ABV taken
- What it adds
- UK units
- About 3.4
| Ingredient | Measure | ABV taken | What it adds | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Puerto Rican rum | 45ml | 40% | The light, dry base | 1.8 |
| Demerara rum | 22.5ml | 40% | Burnt sugar and weight | 0.9 |
| Gold Jamaican rum | 15ml | 40% | Ripe fruit and funk | 0.6 |
| Falernum | 5ml | About 11% | Lime, clove and ginger | Under 0.1 |
| Gardenia mix | 22.5ml | A trace, from the allspice dram | Butter, honey and spice | Under 0.1 |
| Total | About 3.4 |
The Blend
Fifteen seconds on high with about 180ml of crushed ice. The blender breaks the butter into the drink and chills it at once. The sieve then holds back the ice shards, and fresh crushed ice in the glass keeps it cold.
The Glass
The glass that carries the drink’s name is the traditional serve, and Cocktail Kingdom began manufacturing a reproduction in 2014, Punch reports. A zombie glass or a tall highball holds the same drink and ice.
For hot butter and rum, make a Hot Buttered Rum; for another Don the Beachcomber drink with honey, falernum and allspice, Three Dots and a Dash.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Gold RumGold rum is a lightly aged rum, normally 40% ABV, mostly from column stills in the Spanish Caribbean, with a pale amber colour from its time in oak. Our recipes ask for gold Puerto Rican rum, which, Rums of Puerto Rico says, Puerto Rican law ages for at least a year in white oak, to fill the middle of a three-rum tiki drink.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Pearl Diver?
What is gardenia mix?
Does the Pearl Diver really contain butter?
Who created the Pearl Diver?
Can I make it without a blender?
Can I use one rum instead of three?
How strong is a Pearl Diver?
Sources.
Correct as of 18 October 2026.
- VinePair, “The Story Behind The Pearl Diver” (1937, Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood, Pearl Diver’s Punch; the pearl legend; Santiago’s 1948 recipe book; Berry’s Sippin’ Safari, 2007).
- Punch, “Mastering the Pearl Diver” (Berry and Santiago’s coded notebook; the “mix” worked out as honey, butter, cinnamon and vanilla syrups and allspice dram; Cocktail Kingdom glass, 2014).
- LWC, “Taylors Velvet Falernum 70cl” (UK wholesaler listing: 11% ABV).
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 18 October 2026