Coconut Rum Cocktails

140 recipes. Malibu and its relatives, and how to keep them from being dessert.

Coconut rum is a flavoured liqueur rather than a rum: typically around 20% ABV, already sweetened, and doing the work of both the spirit and the syrup in whatever you put it in.

That is why so many coconut drinks end up cloying. The fix is acid. Pineapple and lime are the two that reliably rescue it, which is exactly what a Piña Colada gets right and what a coconut-and-cola gets wrong.

If a recipe calls for both coconut rum and simple syrup, trust the coconut rum and leave the syrup out until you have tasted it.