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.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Orange slice and Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
60ml
Bermuda’s own black rum, 40% ABV. Its dark, heavy character keeps the fruit from taking over. Another rich dark rum works; a light rum turns the drink into fruit cup.
15ml
A Caribbean syrup or low-strength rum-based bottle of lime, clove and spice; Velvet Falernum, the common bottle, is 11% ABV on LWC’s UK listing. Many contain almond, which matters to anyone with a nut allergy.
45ml
Fresh, or a good cold-pressed juice from the chiller. The swizzle dilutes hard, and thin tinned juice disappears under it.
22.5ml
Squeezed the same day. The only sharp juice in the glass, and it has to survive a lot of melted ice.
2 dashes
Two dashes, the only bitter element in a drink of rum and juice. Without them it tastes flat.
Instructions
Squeeze the pineapple, orange and lime juice the same day.
Fill a highball glass two-thirds with crushed ice.
Add the rum, falernum, pineapple juice, orange juice, lime juice and bitters.
Swizzle: spin a swizzle stick between your palms while moving it up and down through the ice, until the outside of the glass frosts.
Top with more crushed ice.
Garnish with the orange slice and cherry, and serve with a straw.
Our version
Bermuda’s jug versions, the Swizzle Inn’s among them, often blend two rums and use lemon. Ours is a single glass: 60ml of Gosling’s Black Seal, 15ml of falernum, 45ml each of pineapple and orange, 22.5ml of lime and two dashes of Angostura.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Swizzle rather than stir. Set the stick upright in the glass, rub your flat palms back and forth so it spins, and lift and lower it through the crushed ice as you go. Stop once the glass clouds with frost, usually after 15 to 20 seconds. Keep the falernum in. Fifteen millilitres of clove, lime and spice is what makes this a swizzle rather than rum punch. Many falernums are flavoured with almond, so read the label if anyone drinking has a nut allergy. For a jug, multiply every measure by the number of glasses, swizzle in the jug until it sweats, and pour over fresh crushed ice in each glass.
Behind the Rum Swizzle
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Swizzling, churning a drink over crushed ice with a pronged stick, is a Caribbean technique older than any one recipe. Bermuda made its own version with fruit juices and dark rum, and the drink is often called the island’s national cocktail, a title the Dark ’n’ Stormy also claims.
The Swizzle Inn, which dates the drink to 1932 and calls itself Bermuda’s oldest pub, by its own account, is the bar most tied to it. Recipes from the island are often made by the jug and blend two rums; ours is a single glass on Gosling’s Black Seal.
The Technique
Hold the stick upright in the glass between flat palms and rub them back and forth so it spins, lifting and lowering it through the ice. The prongs churn the crushed ice through the liquid, chilling and diluting it in seconds.
Stop once the glass frosts over, then pack more crushed ice on top. The traditional stick is cut from a Caribbean tree whose branches end in a whorl of stiff prongs; wooden and steel copies do the same job.
A bar spoon spun between the palms is a slower substitute. Stirring in circles with one hand chills the drink without churning the ice, and the glass never frosts.
Rum and Falernum
Black rum carries the fruit. Its weight and dark sugar notes sit under the pineapple and orange, so the drink still tastes of rum after the ice has melted. Falernum is the quiet part, clove and lime threading through the juices; take it out and the glass tastes like punch.
Bermuda Against Trinidad
Trinidad and Bermuda both claim a swizzle, and the two share nothing but the method.
The Queen’s Park Swizzle is Demerara rum, lime, demerara syrup and mint under a heavy cap of Angostura: dry, aromatic and made one glass at a time. Bermuda’s is pineapple, orange and lime folded through black rum with falernum, sweet and long, and made by the jug.
Three swizzles, one technique; units take the rums at 40% ABV, our working figure, and Velvet Falernum at the 11% on LWC’s UK listing
Rum Swizzle (ours)
- Base
- 60ml black rum
- Sweetener
- 15ml falernum
- Juice
- 45ml pineapple, 45ml orange, 22.5ml lime
- Bitters and herbs
- Two dashes Angostura
- UK units
- About 2.6
Queen’s Park Swizzle
- Base
- 60ml Demerara rum
- Sweetener
- 15ml demerara syrup
- Juice
- 22.5ml lime
- Bitters and herbs
- Eight mint leaves, four dashes Angostura
- UK units
- About 2.5
Chartreuse Swizzle (IBA)
- Base
- 45ml green Chartreuse
- Sweetener
- 15ml falernum
- Juice
- 30ml pineapple, 22.5ml lime
- Bitters and herbs
- Mint and nutmeg to garnish
- UK units
- About 2.6
| Drink | Base | Sweetener | Juice | Bitters and herbs | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rum Swizzle (ours) | 60ml black rum | 15ml falernum | 45ml pineapple, 45ml orange, 22.5ml lime | Two dashes Angostura | About 2.6 |
| Queen’s Park Swizzle | 60ml Demerara rum | 15ml demerara syrup | 22.5ml lime | Eight mint leaves, four dashes Angostura | About 2.5 |
| Chartreuse Swizzle (IBA) | 45ml green Chartreuse | 15ml falernum | 30ml pineapple, 22.5ml lime | Mint and nutmeg to garnish | About 2.6 |
Make a Queen’s Park Swizzle beside it to taste how far one method stretches; the Chartreuse Swizzle swaps the rum for a herbal liqueur.
How to Serve It
In a highball heaped with crushed ice, with an orange slice, a cherry and a straw that reaches the bottom. For more than two people, swizzle it in a jug and pour over fresh crushed ice in each glass.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Gosling’s Black Seal RumGosling's Black Seal is a black rum from Bermuda at 40% ABV, heavy with molasses and burnt caramel, blended by the Gosling family firm. Gosling’s own site calls it the essential ingredient of its Dark ‘n Stormy ®, and our Dark ’n’ Stormy and Rum Swizzle both use it.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Rum Swizzle or Queen’s Park Swizzle: what is the difference?
Do I need a swizzle stick?
Which rum should I use?
What is falernum?
How do I make a Rum Swizzle for a group?
How strong is a Rum Swizzle?
Sources.
Correct as of 18 October 2026.
- Swizzle Inn, “The Swizzle Inn” (“Bermuda’s oldest pub”; “Our national drink created at the Swizzle Inn in 1932”).
- LWC, “Taylor’s Velvet Falernum 70cl” (UK trade listing: 11%).
You Might Also Like
Queen’s Park Swizzle
A Queen’s Park Swizzle is 60ml of Demerara rum, 22.5ml of fresh lime juice and 15ml of demerara syrup over eight pressed mint leaves, swizzled with crushed ice in a highball until the glass frosts, then topped with more ice, four dashes of Angostura and a mint bouquet. About 2.5 UK units. It takes its name from the Queen’s Park Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The Oxford Companion says it first saw print in the 1946 Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink as a drink from the Queen’s Park Hotel in Trinidad, and that its creation was likely between 1933 and 1938. No bartender is named with it. Difford’s Guide says Trader Vic called it, in that book, “the most delightful form of anesthesia given out today”. The bitters go on last and are left alone. Drunk through a straw from the bottom of the glass, it opens on lime, mint and rum and closes on the Angostura as the bitters work down through the ice.
Dark ’n’ Stormy
A Dark ’n’ Stormy is 60ml of Gosling’s Black Seal rum floated over 100ml of ginger beer in a highball full of ice, with a lime wedge. About 2.4 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and the name is a Gosling Brothers trade mark tied to Black Seal. The Oxford Companion says the drink purportedly originated among British sailors on shore leave in Bermuda after the First World War, though another origin story places it earlier, in the nineteenth century. Gosling’s own page puts ginger beer from a Royal Navy officers’ club with the local Black Seal rum, and a sailor is said to have called the colour that of a cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under. The Oxford Companion says the Gosling family claimed a trademark for the cocktail’s recipe in 1991 and has repeatedly turned to the US Patent and Trademark Office to protect it, and Gosling’s own page writes the name with the registered symbol. The same build with another dark rum is a rum and ginger beer, and a sound one. The same build with another dark rum is a rum and ginger beer, and a sound one.
Rum Punch
Rum Punch follows the old rhyme, one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak, and ours keeps it to the letter in 15ml parts: 15ml fresh lime juice; 15ml grenadine and 15ml demerara syrup; 30ml aged rum and 15ml dark rum; 30ml each of fresh orange and pineapple juice. Two dashes of Angostura go in as well. Shake it hard and pour it over fresh ice in a highball, then top it with an orange slice and grated nutmeg. Punch began as a drink the English made in India, and the word first appears in an East India Company letter of 1632, by the Oxford Companion’s account. The rhyme has more than one printed form. Read it as a ratio: islands, bars and families fill each part differently, and the weak part can be juice, tea or plain water. Multiply the parts by the number of guests and the same proportions fill a bowl. A glass holds about 1.9 UK units.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 18 October 2026