Franklin & Sons Pineapple & Almond Soda
Pineapple, lime and almond over sparkling water, which is a tiki drink with the rum missing. Pineapple and almond is one of the oldest pairings behind a bar, and having it ready-mixed does a surprising amount of work.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Pineapple first and quite sweet, with the almond arriving underneath as a soft nuttiness and the lime keeping the finish from turning syrupy.
Storage & Handling
Cool and sealed. Cold for service.
Usage
Around 100ml to 130ml over 40ml of rum, which is close to a long Pina Colada without the cream. It also lengthens gin and works with sherry, where the nuttiness meets the wine head on.
Why Pineapple and Almond
The pairing is everywhere in tiki because it solves a problem. Rum and pineapple alone is sweet and one-dimensional; almond adds a fatty, rounded quality that gives the drink body without adding more sugar.
Orgeat — a sweetened almond syrup, usually with a little orange flower water — is how bars do it. This is the same combination arriving pre-diluted and carbonated, which is a genuine shortcut rather than a compromise.
Treat It as a Syrup, Not a Mixer
The useful mental adjustment is that this is not a neutral length like soda or a bitter length like tonic. It is a sweetening, flavouring component that happens to be long.
That changes what else belongs in the glass. A build with this in it wants acid and bitterness on top — lime, a dash of bitters, an amaro — rather than another liqueur. Two sweet components and no sharp one is how a tiki drink turns into a dessert.
What to Pour Into It
Aged rum is the natural partner. Molasses weight and barrel spice both sit well against almond, and the pineapple is sweet enough to need something with character opposite it.
Sherry is the less obvious and more interesting option. An amontillado brings its own nuttiness and a dry finish, and the two nut characters compound rather than compete.
Gin works if the gin is assertive. Juniper against pineapple is a sharper contrast than it sounds and the almond softens the join.
Serving It
Over plenty of cubed ice, or crushed if the drink is leaning tiki. Crushed dilutes faster, which suits a sweet build better than it suits a dry one.
A mint sprig clapped and dropped on top is worth the effort. Tiki drinks lean on aroma to carry sweetness, and mint over a pineapple drink does most of that job on its own.
Pro Tip
Treat it as orgeat that is already diluted rather than as a fruit soda. It brings sweetness and nut character to the drink, so anything you add on top should be sharp or bitter rather than sweeter.
Top Tips
- Add lime even though there is lime in it. Tiki builds run on acid and this is not sharp enough on its own to carry a full measure of rum.
- Aged rum over white. The molasses and barrel weight meet the almond; a light rum leaves the drink tasting mostly of pineapple.
- A dash of bitters transforms it. Angostura or Peychaud’s gives the sweetness an edge to push against.
Possible Substitutions
- Pineapple juice with a bar spoon of orgeat and soda water: the same idea, built by hand
- Fever-Tree Pineapple Soda: pineapple alone, without the almond
History & Context
Almond and pineapple sit at the centre of mid-century tiki, where orgeat and pineapple juice appear together in drink after drink. The pairing is older than that — almond milk and orchard fruit go back to medieval European cooking — but it was Californian tiki bars in the 1930s and 1940s that fixed it as a flavour of rum drinking.
Common Questions
Can I use it instead of orgeat?
In a long drink, largely yes — it brings the same almond and sweetness already diluted and carbonated. It will not work in a shaken build like a Mai Tai, where orgeat is providing texture as well as flavour.
Which rum suits it best?
An aged one. Molasses weight and barrel spice meet the almond, where a light white rum leaves the drink tasting mostly of pineapple.
Is it very sweet?
Sweeter than a tonic or a soda, yes. Treat it as a sweetening component rather than a neutral length, and add lime or bitters on top rather than another liqueur.
Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits