Ranglum
A Ranglum is 40ml of heavy-bodied rum, 10ml of overproof rum, 15ml of falernum and 10ml of fresh lime juice, shaken and strained into an ice-filled rocks glass, with a lime wedge. About 2.4 UK units, counting both rums at the strengths on our pages. Punch says the Berlin bartender Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro invented it in the 2000s. The measures are Punch’s, converted from ounces and fixed where Punch gives a range. It is a short, dark rum sour with clove, lime and a hot edge from the overproof.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Lime wedge set on the rim
Ingredients
40ml
Punch prints a scant 1 1/2 ounces, with El Dorado 12, Hampden Estate or Goslings Black as examples. Counted at 40% ABV.
10ml
Punch prints a heavy 1/4 ounce, with Wray & Nephew as its example. Counted at 63% ABV.
10ml
Punch prints 1/4 to 1/2 ounce, to taste. This is our middle, set against the sweetness of the falernum.
Instructions
Chill a rocks glass and fill it with ice.
Squeeze the lime the day you serve it.
Add the heavy-bodied rum, overproof rum, falernum and lime juice to a shaker with ice.
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Strain into the ice-filled glass.
Set a lime wedge on the rim.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Taste the falernum before you pour the lime. Brands differ in sweetness, and the lime has to answer it. Measure the overproof exactly. Ten millilitres is already a quarter of the alcohol, and a second splash tips the drink. Use good ice. The glass is full of it, and it carries the dilution.
Behind the Ranglum
Flavour Profile
A Berlin invention
Punch says Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro invented the Ranglum in Berlin in the 2000s, and that it has since become familiar at cocktail bars across Germany. It calls the drink a rarity in the United States. Monteiro’s own summary, as Punch gives it, is that a few simple ingredients need to be in balance. Punch names no bar and no year, so we name none.
Two rums and a spiced sweetener
The base is a heavy-bodied rum. Punch gives El Dorado 12, Hampden Estate and Goslings Black as examples, and leaves the term undefined. Our guides to El Dorado and Hampden Estate cover two of them.
Only 10ml of overproof rum goes in, with Wray & Nephew as Punch’s example. At 63% ABV on our page it still supplies about a quarter of the alcohol in the glass.
Falernum brings sugar, lime zest and clove in one pour, so the drink needs no separate syrup. Punch gives the lime as a range, a quarter to half an ounce, and asks you to set it by the sweetness of the falernum. We use 10ml and taste.
The Ranglum beside three falernum rum drinks
Ranglum
- Rum
- 40ml heavy-bodied, 10ml overproof
- Falernum
- 15ml
- Other
- 10ml lime
Corn n’ Oil
- Rum
- 60ml blackstrap
- Falernum
- 15ml
- Other
- Lime wedge, 2 dashes Angostura
Nuclear Daiquiri
- Rum
- 25ml overproof
- Falernum
- 10ml
- Other
- 25ml lime, 20ml Green Chartreuse
Rum Swizzle
- Rum
- 60ml Gosling’s Black Seal
- Falernum
- 15ml
- Other
- Pineapple, orange and lime juice, Angostura
| Drink | Rum | Falernum | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranglum | 40ml heavy-bodied, 10ml overproof | 15ml | 10ml lime |
| Corn n’ Oil | 60ml blackstrap | 15ml | Lime wedge, 2 dashes Angostura |
| Nuclear Daiquiri | 25ml overproof | 10ml | 25ml lime, 20ml Green Chartreuse |
| Rum Swizzle | 60ml Gosling’s Black Seal | 15ml | Pineapple, orange and lime juice, Angostura |
The Corn n’ Oil is the nearest relative. The Nuclear Daiquiri puts the same falernum with overproof rum and a herbal liqueur.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Dark RumDark rum is a heavy, deep-coloured rum, counted at 40% ABV in our recipes, whose colour may come from years in oak, from blending or from added caramel, which Regulation (EC) 110/2008 allows. It brings weight and a burnt-sugar note to punches, hot drinks and tiki builds: the Rum Runner, the Hurricane and the Planter’s Punch.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Ranglum?
Who invented the Ranglum?
What counts as a heavy-bodied rum?
How strong is a Ranglum?
Why so little overproof rum?
How much lime should I use?
Can I leave out the overproof rum?
Can I batch it?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Punch, “Ranglum Cocktail Recipe” (recipe and origin: invented by Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro in Berlin in the 2000s; scant 1 1/2 oz heavy-bodied rum, heavy 1/4 oz overproof rum, 1/2 oz falernum, 1/4 to 1/2 oz lime juice, shaken, ice-filled rocks glass, lime wedge).
- NHS, “Calculating alcohol units” (the 14-units-a-week guidance and the units calculation).
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Corn n’ Oil
A Corn n’ Oil is 15ml of falernum over crushed ice in a rocks glass, with 60ml of blackstrap rum floated on top, two dashes of Angostura and a squeeze of lime, served unstirred. About 2.6 UK units. The Oxford Companion says almonds are sometimes added to falernum, so treat the drink as containing nuts. Difford’s Guide calls the Corn ’n’ Oil a traditional Barbadian planters’ drink, authentic with a Bajan rum and no oil-slick float. The blackstrap version, with near-black rum sitting on top of the falernum, is a later bar reading: bar-vademecum credits Murray Stenson of the Zig Zag Café in Seattle with the version made with Cruzan Black Strap. Ours is that blackstrap version. The rum is dark, heavy and slightly bitter; the falernum brings lime, clove and sugar; and the lime and bitters keep the two from turning sweet.
Nuclear Daiquiri
A Nuclear Daiquiri is a daiquiri built on two strong spirits: 25ml Jamaican overproof rum, 20ml green Chartreuse, 10ml falernum and 25ml fresh lime juice, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe with no garnish. There is no sugar syrup: falernum alone sweetens it, bringing clove and ginger with its sugar. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says Gregor de Gruyther created it at LAB bar in London in 2005. The name is a fair description: Wray & Nephew’s own page gives its White Overproof at 63% ABV and Chartreuse’s own page gives Green at 55%, and what pours from the shaker is a pale, warning-sign green. Taking those strengths, one glass holds about 2.8 UK units, more than our 60ml Daiquiri at 2.4. The lime and falernum keep it bright enough to hide that, so one is usually plenty.
Rum Swizzle
A Rum Swizzle is 60ml of black rum, 15ml of falernum, 45ml each of fresh pineapple and orange juice, 22.5ml of fresh lime juice and two dashes of Angostura, swizzled over crushed ice in a highball until the glass frosts, then topped with more crushed ice and finished with an orange slice and a cherry. About 2.6 UK units. It is Bermuda’s swizzle, often called the island’s national drink. The Swizzle Inn, which dates the drink to 1932 by its own account, is the bar most tied to it, and on the island it is usually mixed by the jug. Ours is a single glass on Gosling’s Black Seal, the Bermudian black rum. Where Trinidad’s Queen’s Park Swizzle is mint, bitters and rum, Bermuda’s is fruit: pineapple and orange folded through dark rum, with the falernum’s clove and lime holding the juices together.
Jet Pilot
A Jet Pilot is 30ml of Jamaican dark rum, 22.5ml of gold Puerto Rican rum and 22.5ml of demerara overproof rum, with 15ml each of fresh lime juice, grapefruit juice, cinnamon syrup and falernum, a dash of Angostura and six drops of Pernod. Blend it with crushed ice for no more than five seconds, or shake it hard over crushed ice, and pour it unstrained into a double rocks glass. About 4.0 UK units, with the demerara overproof at 75.5% ABV. It comes from the Luau, Steve Crane’s tiki restaurant in Beverly Hills, and is dated to about 1958, by Difford’s Guide’s account. It is a stronger, spicier relative of the Test Pilot, which Jeff Berry’s Remixed dates to Don the Beachcomber around 1941, as Distiller’s reprint records. Jeff Berry printed the Luau recipe in his book Sippin’ Safari, as the Cold Glass blog’s reprint records, and the measures here are his. Most falernum contains almond; read the bottle if anyone avoids nuts.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 1 November 2026