The Painkiller...
Everything you'll ever need to know about this Caribbean classic
Imagine the scene… your boat, a light skiff barely held together by gaffa tape and good will, has pulled in to White Bay on the Island of Jost van Dyke. There’s no quay and you’re not making it ashore without a light dip in the sparkling blue Caribbean Sea. On a day like today, it’s no bad thing.
Clambering up onto the white sands you’re greeted with the sight of the Soggy Dollar Bar, whilst inside awaits the promise of a rich and fruity tropical drink with your name on. The Painkiller. (Not that that’s your name, just… you know what I mean!).
Shop our exclusive designs on Red Bubble
Painkiller - The ‘Original’ Recipe
Created in the '70’s at the Soggy Dollar Bar and later trademarked by Pusser’s Rum (their signature drink), it’s a Pina Colada style drink that typically calls for 'Navy Strength’ rum. As with all good tiki drinks, it comes with its fair share of mystery, intrigue and dispute… for the juicy details read about its origins below, but for now, let’s dive into this rum-tastic classic.
Servings 1
Ingredients
- 2 oz Navy or Dark Rum
- 1 oz Orange Juice
- 4 oz Pineapple Juice
- 1 oz Cream of Coconut
- 1 Pineapple Wedge
- Nutmeg, freshly grated
Method
- Pour all ingredients into a shaker, then add enough crushed ice to show above the surface of the liquid.
- Shake vigorously for around 15-20 seconds and pour straight into a chilled Hurricane or Highball glass - no need to strain. Top up with crushed ice if needed.
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a healthy dash of nutmeg.
Notes
If you’re holding a party and want to create this smooth tropical drink at scale (and who wouldn’t!), take a look at our article on how to batch Tiki drinks for a crowd. When you’re working with ingredients like juices and creams there are certain tricks that will make it easier when prepping them in advance.
Now the garnish we’ve used is pretty standard for this type of drink, but if you want to make it closer to the ‘original’, add in some grated cinnamon along with the nutmeg, insert one or two cinnamon sticks into the drink and include an orange wheel alongside the pineapple wedge. Perfecto!
Photo of White Bay by Deanna Keahey
Variations
Here are a few options that tweak both the volume and the type of rum used:- The ‘original’ recipe called for a mix of both Mount Gay and Cruzan dark rums - although for a more refreshing taste you could go straight Cruzan.
- Pusser’s Painkiller calls for (you guessed it) Pusser’s Rum - also known as 'Nelson’s Blood’ - at 75% ABV it packs a bit of a punch but cuts nicely through the sweetness of the juices and the cream.
- Pusser’s Painkiller #2 calls for two shots of rum, #3 for three… and their #4 is (I kid yea not!) only for kings, captains and apparently not for women!!
Origin
This is where the fun starts. Well hopefully it started after you made the above drink, but hey, the non-alcoholic gossipy kind of fun at least. George and Marie Myrick both chartered boats professionally in the Bahamas, before settling on an uninhabited island named Little Thatch (BVI) and starting a hotel. 6 years later they left and bought a beautiful beachfront property on Jost van Dyke (also in the British Virgin Islands) where they built the Sandcastle Hotel and the Soggy Dollar Bar. It was around this time (1970-71) that they created the ‘original’ version of the Painkiller, using a mix of Mount Gay and Cruzan dark rums. Now the name may come from the ‘relief’ of pain that it brings you (until the next day at least), but it’s also believed that it was inspired by a number of plants growing on the property, that had pain relieving characteristics (I wouldn't mind getting a few of those bad boys into the mix!).
Photo of White Bay by Deanna Keahey
New Owners
By the end of the decade, George and Marie had sold the Soggy Dollar to an English bartender named Daphne Henderson and it’s here that most stories pick up the thread. Under her ownership, the reputation of the Painkiller became widely known, yet the recipe was still a closely guarded secret. People would travel from all over the islands to visit Daphne’s beachfront bar, one of those being Charles Tobias, the founder of Pusser’s Rum. ‘Pusser’s' (a derivation of the maritime role 'Ship’s Purser’), was an overproof naval rum that had been around for hundreds of years, with commercial rights being made available to Charles in 1979. Although Daphne and Charles became great friends she would never reveal her secret (she was really a Cthulhian Elder God charged with reviving a flagging tiki scene to the early 80’s masses… err.. no, not that secret, the one about the ingredients being used in this now infamous cocktail).A Secret... Revealed
After many years, Charles managed to get one of the drinks through the surf, onto his boat and back to his home on Tortola. Here he deconstructed the (soon to be) libellous libation and hit upon the 4:1:1 ratio of Pineapple to Orange to Coconut Cream (with rum poured to taste) that we all know today. After announcing to the patrons of the Soggy Dollar Bar that he’d cracked the secret, he arranged a blind taste-off with the locals - his version vs. Daphne’s. Who won? Well actually, although there was only a slight difference between them, many thought Charles’s drink was tastier, as the Pusser’s Rum he used took the edge off of the creamy sweetness. Shortly after, Charles began serving the Painkiller at his own bar in Tortola, and it’s here you’d think the story would end...A Whole New World of Pain
2010, Giuseppe Gonzalez and Richard Boccato open the Painkiller tiki bar in Lower East Side NY. The house Painkiller they were serving used a different type of rum than the slightly funky ‘Pusser's’. Nothing wrong with that you'd think... in fact, pretty standard going for a tiki drink. Pusser’s, however, had trademarked both the name and the recipe and in an unprecedented legal move, the rum owner’s then requested that the bar’s name and drink be changed in line with the trademark. After Gonzalez and Boccato declined, Pusser’s filed suit… and won. With the outcome being a changing of the bar’s name to PKNY, their web address being handed over to Pusser’s and all reference to the drink removed from their materials. There was an uproar in the bartending and tiki communities - how can you copyright a cocktail!?! With groups calling for boycotts of Pusser’s rum and bars around the world posting pictures of their own ‘Painkillers’ in an online challenge, daring Pussers to sue them all!Fast Forward to Today
No doubt this protest affected Pusser's but all things settle over time. And these days Gonzalez and Boccatto have gone on to become heavyweights in their own rights, influencing both the tiki scene and the wider drinks industry with their many endeavours. When you come down to it, is the Painkiller still as tasty as it ever was? Oh yes, with nails on. The Soggy Dollar Bar even runs a ‘pay it forwards’ scheme where you can buy someone a drink before they get to the bar. Each day there are anywhere between several hundred to a few thousand Painkillers on pre-order. How cool is that? Imagine dragging yourself out of that beautiful sea-green surf, making it to the bar and literally finding your name… on a drink 😉We put a whole lotta love, lime and rum into our work, so if you think your friends would find this article useful, we’d be thrilled if you could share it with them!
Thank you. Mahalo.
Facebook
Pinterest
