Planters Punch Cocktail ~ a Caribbean Rum Punch with Hibiscus Syrup & Sparkling Wine

Planters Punch is a world famous rum punch cocktail with delicious tropical flavors.  This is our planters punch recipe with a crazy good bubbly twist and tips on how to easily make it for a party!

Planters Punch is one of the worlds most famous cocktails.  The first time I had a planters punch was at a roof top bar at the Hilton hotel in Nairobi, kenya.  I had a few more that trip, on Diani beach, at the Lepoard hotel just outside of Mombassa.  Since then I have had them all over the Caribbean and Mexico, but they are on a lot of menus in North America as well.

There’s a good reason, for this rum punch is as delicious as it is famous.

What is Planters Punch?

Planters punch is a rum cocktail made with tropical flavors of orange, pineapple, lemon, lime and grenadine.  Its an International Bartenders Association (IBA) Original Cocktail that originated in Jamaica.

According to Wikipedia, the first known written recipe for the rum punch cocktail was printed in the September 1878 issue of the London magazine Fun listed the recipe as follows:

Of rum then three wine glasses add,
And four of cold water please take. A
Drink then you’ll have that’s not bad—
At least, so they say in Jamaica.

That’s a pretty interesting way to write a cocktail recipe don’t you think?

The Original Recipe

Since the recipe above is pretty crazy difficult to figure out, the IBA has printed their official planters punch recipe which is a little easier to follow:

• 4.5 cl Dark rum
• 3.5 cl Fresh orange juice
• 3.5 cl Fresh pineapple juice
• 2 cl Fresh lemon juice
• 1 cl Grenadine
• 1 cl Sugar syrup
• 3 to 4 dashes Angostura bitters

Pour all ingredients, except the bitters, into shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Pour into large glass, filled with ice. Add Angostura bitters, “on top”. Garnish with cocktail cherry and pineapple.

Side note: The measurement “cl” means centiliters which translates to .34 fl oz.  I’m not sure why they use the term cl over oz, but they do…

Ingredients in Our Version

We have mostly stuck to the proper planters punch ingredients for our cocktail, but instead of grenadine, we used the hibiscus syrup that we posted on the blog a little while ago.  We think that it kicks grenadine’s ass, frankly.  And if the original creators had tried it with hibiscus, they would have thought so too.  It also fits with the Caribbean theme of the cocktail.

We finished off our rum punch with a splash of sparkling wine.  Why?  Because we feel like punch should be sparkly.  And because it tastes so damn good.

With our version, you will want to either add sparkling wine or at least some club soda.  Other wise it will be too sweet.

How to make Planter’s Punch

• First make your pitcher of juice.  Squeeze the oranges, lemons and limes with a citrus juicer and add it to your pitcher.  Then pour in your pineapple juice.  We love these weck jar pitchers, but one like this also works great.
• Then add your rum and hibiscus syrup.  Check out this post to see how to make hibiscus syrup, but its very easy.  Just dried hibiscus flowers, sugar and water.
• Add a few slices of orange, lemon or lime to your cocktail glasses and then fill them half full with the juice and rum mixture.
• Top with the bubbly and serve unmixed.  Serve them with a little stir stick or straw if you like so you can stir them before drinking.  Or just drink them as is…

For serving these with a little Caribbean flair, we absolutely love these gold pineapple hurricane cocktail glasses from Williams-Sonoma!  They are going on my list…  But any hurricane or cocktail glass will do, of course.  Even just a classic highball glass.

Now if you can make this rum punch recipe with freshly squeezed citrus juice like we did, then you are in for a serious treat.  As mentioned above, this citrus juicer or this citrus squeezer, makes juicing your own fruit really easy.

However, if you go with store bought juices, try to stick with the better quality (organic) ones with no added sugar or flavor.

Santa Cruz Lemon and Lime juices are really great options for store bought juices.  Grocery stores these days often have a “natural” section and you can usually find organic juice in glass jars.  Try to use those ones.

Pitcher recipe for a party!

This rum punch cocktail is so easy to make for a party because its already made in a pitcher to start with.   We would just double the recipe in a large pitcher and keep it handy in an ice bucket beside the sparkling wine.  Then your guests can help themselves.

Tips:

• A large ice bucket that can fit both the punch pitcher and the sparkling wine is great for presentation.  Here are a couple good options:
  • Rustic Metal Ice Bucket – you can even have this one personalized
  • Beautiful Dark Copper Ice Bucket
  • Shiny Copper Ice Bucket
  • Stainless Steel Ice Bucket
• Using a pitcher without a handle, like this weck pitcher that we LOVE, will make it easy to fit the pitcher and the sparkling wine in the same ice bucket.
• Have a second pitcher (or as many as you think you will need) of the planters punch mix ready to go in the fridge along with some more sparkling wine.  This makes it really easy to just switch out the pitchers when your friends are finished with the first one.

Other rum cocktails you might like:

• dark ‘n’ stormy cocktail
• rum and ginger
• homemade eggnog with rum and kahlua
• hot buttered rum
• hot buttered rum with apple cider
• spiked citrus iced tea slush with rum
• pineapple and coconut rum drinks

If you’ve tried this Planters Punch recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let us know how it turned out in the comments below.  We love hearing from you!

We love to see your creations!  Tag @Cookswithcocktails if you post a picture of this recipe on INSTAGRAM