Bahama Mama cocktail recipe

When it comes to tropical rum-based cocktails, you’ve got a lot of options. There’s the Daiquiri (and all its fruity variants), the Air Mail, the Mai Tai and, of course, the Piña Colada. In fact, if you’ve already snuck a peek at the Bahama Mama’s ingredient list – coconut, pineapple, rum – then you might be thinking, ‘This sounds like a Piña Colada.’ Right track, wrong country. Piña Colada is the national drink of Puerto Rico, while the Bahama Mama is arguably the national cocktail of, you guessed it, The Bahamas.

The Bahama Mama trades the Piña Colada’s coconut cream for coconut liqueur and leans into the fresh juice elements to produce a zippier take on the classic flavour profile. Here at Dan’s Daily we’re curious about the little details, and the Bahama Mama includes a plot twist. Two words. Coffee. Liqueur. Its depth and richness blend with the Jamaican and coconut rums to elevate this beyond your garden-variety ‘tropical fruit with rum’ affair.

Oswald “Slade” Greenslade claims to have invented the Bahama Mama (the coffee-infused version, at least) in the early ’60s while tending bar at the Nassau Beach Hotel. However, the cocktail is known to have been popular since the early ’50s, with some sources suggesting that it dates to Prohibition times when Caribbean rum was being smuggled into Florida. All we know for sure is that the Bahama Mama is a must-try for fans of tropical, tiki-style tipples.

We wonder where we’d be if Rupert Holmes had sung about this dreamy island drink instead…

This Bahama Mama recipe has been optimised to strike the perfect balance between simple and delicious, however, feel free to experiment with rums (aged, spiced, dark, light) and juices (lime, orange). If you forgo the coffee liqueur and swap lemon juice for lime then you’ll start wandering toward Piña Colada territory.

For an added twist, and some visual flair, try adding a dash of grenadine. The hints of berry and vanilla play wonderfully with the core Bahama Mama flavours while the vivid red colour hints toward sunset. This is, coincidentally, the time of day we’d recommend mixing up this drink.

Finally, when a cocktail calls for fruit juice, remember the maxim: fresh is best. Trust us, our team of experts have done the comparisons and in the case of the Bahama Mama, fresh pineapple juice really does make a difference.