Panty Ripper

Ingredients

Cocktail

• 60 mlBelizean coconut rum (Traveller’s Crystal or Caribbean Coconut Rum)
• 120 mlchilled pineapple juice, preferably fresh
• ice cubes, to fill

To finish

• 1pineapple wedge
• 1lime wedge (optional)

Directions

1. Chill a highball or tumbler and fill it to the top with ice cubes. The drink is built in the glass — there is no shaking and no blender involved in the standard Belizean serve.
2. Pour the coconut rum straight over the ice.
3. Top with the cold pineapple juice, leaving a centimetre of headroom.
4. Stir gently with a bar spoon, three or four turns only, just enough to marry the two and chill the whole glass without knocking the air out of the juice.
5. Taste it: the proportions are conventionally one part rum to two parts juice, but Belizeans commonly pour it stronger, closer to one to one.
6. Squeeze in a lime wedge if the pineapple is very sweet — it sharpens the drink and stops it tasting like a dessert.
7. Garnish with the pineapple wedge on the rim and serve immediately, while the ice is still fresh and the drink is very cold.

Technique

• This is Belize’s unofficial national cocktail, poured everywhere from beach bars on Caye Caulker to bus-station cantinas, and its appeal is that it takes ten seconds to make.
• The rum is the whole drink. Traveller’s Liquors in Belize City makes the coconut rum most commonly used, and it is drier and less syrupy than mass-market coconut liqueurs.
• Use fresh or good chilled pineapple juice and keep it cold. Warm juice over ice dilutes the drink to nothing within two minutes.

Substitutions

• No Belizean coconut rum: use 45 ml of a light white rum plus 15 ml of coconut liqueur, and cut the pineapple juice to 100 ml so it does not turn sweet.
• Tinned pineapple juice works but choose an unsweetened one, then add a squeeze of lime.

Variations

• Blended with a cup of ice into a frozen slush, the version sold on the cayes to tourists.
• A splash of dark Belizean rum floated on top gives the ‘dirty’ Panty Ripper poured in Placencia.

History

Belize’s unofficial national cocktail, named with characteristic bluntness and served at every beach bar in the country.

Frequently asked questions

What is Panty Ripper?

Panty Ripper is a cocktail from Belize: coconut rum poured over ice with pineapple juice. Belize’s unofficial national cocktail, named with characteristic bluntness and served at every beach bar in the country.

How long does Panty Ripper take to make?

Panty Ripper takes 3 min of preparation and 0 min of cooking. The recipe makes 1 cocktail. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Panty Ripper?

Yes, within limits. No Belizean coconut rum: use 45 ml of a light white rum plus 15 ml of coconut liqueur, and cut the pineapple juice to 100 ml so it does not turn sweet. Tinned pineapple juice works but choose an unsweetened one, then add a squeeze of lime.

What is the most important thing to get right in Panty Ripper?

Stir gently with a bar spoon, three or four turns only, just enough to marry the two and chill the whole glass without knocking the air out of the juice.