Islamorada, Florida Keys · 1972
Rum Runner
Invented to empty a shelf, in our own home waters.
- Created by
- "Tiki John" Ebert, Holiday Isle Tiki Bar
- Tastes like
- Banana and blackberry over a heavy rum base
- Glass
- Hurricane glass
- Garnish
- Orange wheel and a cherry
Ingredients
- 1 ozlight rum
- 1 ozdark rum
- 1/2 ozblackberry liqueur
- 1/2 ozbanana liqueur
- 1 ozfresh lime juice
- 2 ozpineapple or orange juice
- 1/2 ozgrenadine
- 1/2 oz151-proof rum, floated (traditional, optional)
Method
- 1.Blend with crushed ice, or shake hard and pour over crushed ice if you want it less dessert-like.
- 2.Pour into a hurricane glass.
- 3.Float the 151 across the back of a bar spoon if you are being faithful to the original.
This is the Florida one. In 1972 the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada had a back bar crowded with blackberry and banana liqueur it needed gone before a new delivery arrived, and bartender "Tiki John" Ebert cleared the shelf into a glass.
He named it for the Prohibition-era smugglers who ran liquor up through the Keys from Cuba and the Bahamas — a trade the Keys have never entirely stopped being proud of.
It became the signature drink of the Upper Keys and it still is. Every bar between Key Largo and Key West has a version, and no two of them agree on the proportions.
Thatch note
This one is home water for us. If a room in Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, or St. Augustine builds a genuinely good Rum Runner with fresh lime instead of premix, that is a room we want on the Mixer list.