Sick Of Rum? These Tropical Cocktails Are Worth Ordering Instead

A lot of people think tropical and tiki cocktails always feature rum. The Caribbean origins of these drinks often default to using the sugar cane-derived spirit, and many tropical rum drinks from around the world also exist, but if you're tired of always relying on rum, don't worry. There are plenty of modern-day cocktails that mix mezcal, gin, vodka, or bourbon with liqueurs and fruit juice to conjure the vibe of the tropics. These alternatives highlight different flavor profiles without sacrificing the vibrant, summery taste that colorful rum drinks are known for.

"Rum is obviously the king of the tropical cocktail world, but it does not own the entire island,"  said Justin Lavenue, the Austin, Texas-based master mixologist and co-owner of The Roosevelt Room, and owner/operator of The Eleanor and RoadHaus Mobile Cocktails. When Tasting Table spoke with Lavenue to get his thoughts on tropical drinks that are just as good without rum, he told us, "The common thread is that all of these drinks still deliver the tropical fundamentals: brightness, aromatics, texture, spice, fruit, and refreshment. They just do it without reaching for rum every time like it's the only shirt in the closet." 

Read on to hear Lavenue's suggestions for four tropical drinks that swap rum for other spirits (and what else goes in them). These creative libations may give you something new to try at your favorite watering hole, or taste just as good in your home bar. 

Famed California bartender J. "Popo" Galsini created the Saturn cocktail (named for the launch device that sent the first Apollo flight to space) for the 1967 International Bartender's Association World Championship. The Saturn won, cementing the drink in the roster of modern tropical cocktails. 

"A Saturn is one of my favorite rum-free tropical drinks because it uses gin with passion fruit, orgeat, falernum, and citrus. It has all the lush, juicy, spiced, vacation-in-a-glass energy people want from a tropical drink, but the gin gives it a botanical snap that keeps it from becoming one long syrupy hammock nap," mixologist Justin Lavenue explains.

Though it sounds more like something you should drink based on your zodiac sign than a tiki drink, the Saturn is actually a prime example of a tropical cocktail's capacity for range. The gin's herbaceous layer and orgeat's almond essence bring dimension to the passion fruit syrup's sweetness. A splash of falernum, a spiced syrup liqueur your tropical cocktail has been missing from Barbados, adds clove and ginger notes, resulting in a finished product that's beachy yet elevated. A Saturn can be shaken and poured over crushed ice, or blended into a slushy consistency. It should be garnished with a speared Luxardo cherry and lemon peel wrapped around it to resemble the ringed planet.

Chemist-turned-bartender Joe Scialom found himself working at the Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo in 1942. The hotel bar was a favorite haunt of British officers and journalists. Scialom was featured in many news articles: Not only was he a skilled bartender who could remember people's names and their favorite drinks, but he was also an Egyptian-Jewish polyglot. He created the Suffering Ba**ard as a "hair of the dog" hangover cure that called for both gin and brandy. One could say its cultural mark on mixology puts it on par with the Egyptian dishes you need to try at least once. The Shepheard Hotel was destroyed in a riot in 1952, and Scialom was imprisoned on suspicion of espionage and later exiled. Hotelier Conrad Hilton hired him to bartend at a new property in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and later, Havana, Cuba.

"The Suffering Ba**ard is another great example, especially the classic gin-and-brandy version with lime, bitters, and ginger beer," says Juston Lavenue. "It is refreshing, spicy, bright, and dangerously easy to drink." Served in a double rocks glass over ice, the Suffering Ba**ard combines brandy (or bourbon), gin, lime juice, Angostura bitters (which has a different flavor than Peychaud's), and ginger beer. It's garnished with a sprig of mint and a slice of orange.

When the Raffles Hotel opened in Singapore in 1887, its Long Bar quickly became a popular spot for travelers and expats alike. The origin of the Singapore Sling cocktail dates back more than a century: In the early 1900s, women drinking alcohol in public was verboten, so bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created a cocktail cleverly disguised as fruit juice. Shortly after Long Bar started serving the punchy drink circa 1915, it was making so many Singapore Slings that a machine was created to shake multiple cocktails at once.

"The Singapore Sling further proves that gin can absolutely hang in a tropical format when it is supported by citrus, cherry, herbal liqueur, pineapple, and bitters," notes Justin Lavenue. A Singapore Sling is a variation on the Gin Sling, which blends gin, Grand Marnier, cherry liqueur, Benedictine or a similar herbal liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice, bitters, and a float of club soda. It's garnished with a pineapple wedge or orange slice and a Maraschino cherry and is served in a highball glass. 

The drink fell out of popularity in the 1970s and 80s, when the fresh juices in the recipe were replaced with pre-made sour mix and artificial grenadine, making it an overly saccharine cocktail instead of a refreshing tropical gin drink. To get the most out of the Singapore Sling, skip the overly sweet, pre-mixed stuff and stick with quality ingredients.

Brooklyn bartender Ivy Mix, co-owner of wine bar Whoopsie Daisy, is credited with creating a riff on the classic Mai Tai that swaps rum for an agave spirit like mezcal or tequila. (If you're curious, the difference between tequila and mezcal is how the agave plant's piña is prepared before distillation.) Mix's Tia Mia cocktail combines lime, curaçao, orgeat, mezcal, and rum — ingredients that are adjacent to the elements of the original Mai Tai cocktail, but give agave the starring role.

Mix began experimenting with mezcal-infused tropical cocktails while working at Manhattan tiki bar Lani Kai, owned by her mentor-turned-business partner, Julie Reiner. Mix and Reiner put the Tia Mia on the menu at their Latin-inspired wine bar Leyenda, which opened in 2015 and closed a decade later.

"Agave spirits bring earth, minerality, salinity, smoke, pepper, and vegetal complexity that play surprisingly well with lime and orgeat," expert mixologist Justin Lavenue tells us. "In a classic Mai Tai, aged rum gives you richness, body, and sometimes funk. In an agave version, you are trading some of that molasses and tropical fruit character for something more savory and earthy. It is not better or worse; it is just a different kind of delicious."