The Painkiller
From The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
(sometimes Pain Killer) is a mixed drink, loosely in the tiki mode, made with Pusser’s aged rum, orange and pineapple juices, and cream of coconut. It is served on crushed ice and garnished with freshly grated nutmeg. It was created at the Soggy Dollar Bar at the Sandcastle, a tiny, casual resort compound on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.
The bar got its name because when it was built, there were no roads or docks leading to the beach. Therefore, it became commonplace for boats to anchor close to shore and for bar patrons to swim to land, where they would pay for their drinks with wet currency—for which there is a designated clothesline where the soggy dollars are hung up to dry behind the bar.
There is some debate as to when the drink was created and by whom. According to the Pusser’s Rum Company (who owns the trademark for the Pusser’s Painkiller cocktail), their version of the drink was created in the early 1980s at the Soggy Dollar by Daphne Henderson, and the trademarked recipe was a version that Pusser’s owner, Charles Tobias, adapted from Henderson’s. Henderson, however, bought the Sandcastle in 1980 from George and Marie Myrick, who built it in 1970 and ran it until then. The Myricks claim they came up with the Painkiller in 1971. It first turns up in print ten years later. In the absence of further evidence, the question of its parentage must remain open.
Recipe (Pusser’s Painkiller): Dry shake 45 ml Pusser’s dark rum, 45 ml pineapple juice, 22 ml cream of coconut, and 15 ml fresh orange juice. Pour into large snifter, fill with crushed ice, swizzle well, top up with more ice, and generously grate nutmeg over the top.See also swizzle, tiki.
Berry, Jeff, and Annene Kaye. Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log. San Jose, CA: SLG, 1998.
Brown, Doug. “Sailin’ Along.” Baltimore Evening Sun, February 12, 1981, GS 7.
Hamilton, Edward. The Complete Guide to Rum. Chicago: Triumph, 1997.
“Pusser’s Painkiller.” Pusser’s Rum Ltd. http://pussersrum.com/the-painkiller/ (accessed March 5, 2021).
Sherwood, John. “Seclusion of Sandcastle.” Washington Times, February 28, 1983, 50.
By: Richard Boccato
This definition is from The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich (Editor-in-Chief) and Noah Rothbaum (Associate Editor).