Pearl Diver
Pearl Diver: Don the Beachcomber's Buttered Rum Innovation
When Donn Beach created this cocktail at his Don the Beachcomber Bar in Hollywood, Calif., it was called the Pearl Diver's Punch. Legend has it that Beach would put a real pearl in one out of 10 Pearl Diver's Punches he put out, leaving a prize for the lucky 10th customer VinePair. By the time he had opened up his Waikiki outpost 10 years later, the drink had gone through some recipe tweaks and was redubbed "the Pearl Diver" VinePair.
A Hot Buttered Rum is lovely. But an Iced Buttered Rum is genius. That he did this in 1937, over 60 years before the advent of molecular mixology, makes his Pearl Diver even more of a marvel Beachbumberry. The secret ingredient is Don's Gardenia Mix, a spiced honey-butter compound. His lucky break came in the form of a handwritten recipe taken from a notebook belonging to Dick Santiago, an original Beachcomber Maitre d'. Written in code, the notebook had been gifted to Berry by Santiago's daughter, Jennifer, after her father's death PUNCH. Berry published the decoded recipe in his 2007 book Sippin' Safari.
RECIPE:
½ oz lime juice
½ oz orange juice
½ oz Don's Gardenia Mix
1½ oz gold Puerto Rican rum
½ oz Demerara rum
Dash Angostura bitters
Method:
Combine all ingredients in blender with ½ cup crushed ice
Blend 20 seconds
Strain through fine mesh into Pearl Diver glass
Top with crushed ice
Garnish with orchid