Name: Queen's Park Swizzle
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients: 2 oz Demerara rum (El Dorado 12-Year, Banks 5 Island, or Banks 7 Golden Age); ¾ oz Fresh lime juice; ½ oz Simple syrup; 6–8 Fresh mint leaves; 2 dashes Angostura bitters; 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters (the pink bitters — essential for the visual effect)

Ingredients

2 oz Demerara rum (El Dorado 12-Year, Banks 5 Island, or Banks 7 Golden Age)
¾ oz Fresh lime juice
½ oz Simple syrup
6–8 Fresh mint leaves
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters (the pink bitters — essential for the visual effect)

Method

1

Muddle mintAdd mint leaves and simple syrup to a highball glass. Muddle gently — press and rotate without shredding.
2

Add lime juicePour in the fresh lime juice.
3

Pack with crushed iceFill the glass almost to the top with crushed ice.
4

Add rumPour the Demerara rum over the ice.
5

SwizzleInsert a swizzle stick (or bar spoon) between your palms and rotate rapidly to swizzle the drink — the friction chills the glass and creates a frost on the outside. Swizzle for 15–20 seconds.
6

Top with ice and bittersAdd more crushed ice to mound above the rim. Dash Angostura bitters on one side of the ice mound and Peychaud's on the other. The two bitters bleed down through the ice in red and orange streams — the most dramatic visual in cocktail making.

Trinidad, 1920 and the Swizzle Stick

The Queen's Park Swizzle was created at the Queen's Park Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad around 1920. The swizzle stick — a branch from the Quararibea turbinata tree, which grows naturally with perpendicular branches that act as whisks — originates in the Caribbean, where it was used to mix rum drinks long before the cocktail shaker existed.

The dual-bitters presentation is the drink's defining visual: Angostura (dark red, made in Trinidad) on one side and Peychaud's (bright pink, made in New Orleans) on the other. They bleed through the crushed ice in opposite colours. The Angostura comes from the same island as the cocktail — using Trinidad's own bitters to garnish Trinidad's own cocktail is a nice symmetry.

Variations

🏝️ Tiki Swizzle

Add ½ oz falernum and ½ oz Velvet Falernum to the base. Replace Demerara with a Jamaican dark rum. More tropical and layered.

🍹 Planter's Punch Swizzle

Split the rum between 1 oz Demerara and 1 oz Jamaican dark rum. Add ½ oz grenadine alongside the simple syrup. Sweeter and more tropical.

🌿 Cucumber Swizzle

Add 3 thin cucumber slices to the muddle alongside the mint. The cucumber freshness cuts through the rum's richness beautifully.

🌿 Queen's Park Swizzle

Trinidad, 1920 and the Swizzle Stick

🏝️ Tiki Swizzle

🍹 Planter's Punch Swizzle

🌿 Cucumber Swizzle