By Timo Torner/ Last updated on August 19, 2023
The Zombie is a fun and a quite complex Tiki co*cktail. This drink contains a variety of different rums, juices, syrups, and a number of other ingredients.
Created by famous bartender Donn Beach, the Zombie co*cktail is one hell of a drink: Ten ingredients, six of which are alcoholic. Beach also added one of his signature ingredients,Donn's Mix. The amount of components is intimidating. The fact that Beach kept his recipe secret and occasionally changed it doesn't make things easier, but we want to help you to get this tiki classic right. Read on when you want to learn more about Donn Beach's unique ingredients and how he invented the Zombie co*cktail. Table of Contents show The Zombie is a crazy rum-based co*cktail created by Donn Beach. Based on three different types of Rum, this co*cktail will get your groove on. Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate Recipe Prep Time: 3 minutes minutes Course: Drinks Cuisine: American Keyword: falernum, grenadine, lime, pineapple, rum, Rum co*cktail Servings: 1 Calories: 308kcal Cost: $4.20 1 Jigger 1 Blender The Zombie is a blended co*cktail. That means, pour all ingredients except the Angostura bitters in your blender with 6 oz of crushed ice. 1.5 oz Havana Club 3-year-old Rum, 1 oz Overproof pot still Rum, 0.75 oz 151 Rum, 0.5 oz Falernum, 1 bsp Pernod, 1 oz Pineapple juice, 0.5 oz Lime juice, 0.5 oz Donn's Mix, 1 bsp Grenadine Blend shortly (4-6 seconds) at high speed. Pour the drink into your favorite Tiki mug over ice and garnish with a fresh mint sprig. Add two dashes of Angostura bitters and enjoy your Zombie. 2 dashes Angostura bitters Serving: 6.25ozCalories: 308kcalCarbohydrates: 27.86gProtein: 0.2gFat: 0.05gSodium: 5.08mgPotassium: 73.32mgSugar: 26.46gVitamin C: 11.5mgCalcium: 8.96mgIron: 0.25mg Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was! For our recipe, you need a total of ten components, some of these not exactly what everyone has in their home bar. So, here are our recommendations that help you write your shopping list. Note:In general, the types of rum vary from recipe to recipe. It could be overproof, spiced, Jamaican and Puerto Rican Rum, white Cuban Rum, and the list goes on... The above is our favorite combination. Donn Beach made a habit of keeping the recipes for his co*cktails a secret. He sometimes even used cryptic references for some ingredients, so only he knew what exactly went into his shaker. Luckily, there are curious and persistent people like JeffBeachbumBerry. He published a book calledSippin' Safari,containing many recipes for Tiki co*cktails. Berry did quite some research for this, interviewing countless bartenders fromDon the Beachcomberand many other famous Tiki places. As a result, his gem of a book also shows the development of the Zombie co*cktail over time as it contains three different recipes created between 1934 and 1956. The original recipe contained the following: three different kinds of rum, lime juice,Angostura bitters, Falernum, Pernod, grenadine, and -of course- Donn's Mix. Our recipe also calls for the addition of pineapple juice. Often it happens that somebody doesn't have all the necessary ingredients at hand, this drink has countless riffs and variations. Amongst those are versions of bartending legends likeTrader Vic,creator of theMai Tai, and JeffBeachbumBerry. Trader Vic's Zombie Recipecalls for the following: And for Zombie co*cktailmade like Beachbum Berry, you need: You can also find recipes using absinthe instead of Pernod, different rums, grapefruit juice, non-alcoholic falernum, etc., etc. What all have in common is that these are very, very boozy concoctions. As you can see in our quick facts above, our Zombie recipe has an alcohol content of about 26%. The exact number depends on your choice of products, of course. That is high, but not nearly as much as you get in many vintage drinks. Here the ABV often surpasses 30%. However, these vintage co*cktails come in small doses so that your alcohol intake stays firmly below 30 grams. Not so for a Zombie. That is a long drink with a crazy 45 grams of pure alcohol per serving. For comparison, a Long Island Iced Tea has 24 grams. Thus, this co*cktail will very quickly make you drunk. We suggest you drink it slowly and responsibly. Donn Beach invented the Zombie co*cktail in the 1930s at his legendary bar -Don the Beachcomber. Beach served many rum-based drinks and kicked off what we know now as modern Tiki co*cktail culture. Apparently, Beach created this complex concoction with the purpose of curing a hangover, just like others did with theCorpse Reviverand the Suffering Bastard. The story goes that Donn Beach mixed it for a hungover customer helping him to get through an important business meeting. Obviously, Beach overdid it with the alcohol levels because his customer allegedly pointed out that the drink was so strong that he somehow felt like a Zombie. But at least it seems he managed to get through the meeting, even though probably not as well as he hoped. Beach, too, was aware of how potent his creation was. Therefore, he limited the number of the co*cktail, now called Zombie, to two per customer per day in his bar. He explained that one more would make you "like the walking dead." What's also worth mentioning is that he used his legendary secret formula - the so-called Donn's Mix - to enrich the flavors of the Zombie co*cktail. So let's look a little closer at the ingredients. Donn's Mix is a syrup made with cinnamon and grapefruit juice that you can easily make at home. All you have to do is make a cinnamon-flavoredsimple syrupand then mix it with grapefruit juice: Step 1:Use one cup of sugar, one cup of water, and three cinnamon sticks. Bring everything to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Then remove from heat and let the syrup cool down. Step 2:Now, you need to mix your cinnamon syrup with fresh grapefruit juice. For this, use one part syrup and two parts grapefruit juice. Et voila, you just createdDonn's Mix. If you are looking for more crazy, tropical co*cktails to serve for your next summer party or tiki fete, we recommend these: To view the entire list, head to our overview of favorite Tiki co*cktails.Quick Facts Zombie co*cktail
Zombie Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition
Ingredients with Recommendations
First, the alcoholic
Now, to the non-alcoholic elements
The Original Zombie Recipe by Donn Beach
Variations
How Much Alcohol Is In a Zombie co*cktail?
History of the Zombie co*cktail
How to make Donn's Mix
More Favorite Tiki Recipes
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2 comments on “The Zombie co*cktail Recipe”
Grenadine is made pomegranate (the French word for pomegranate is Grenadine) not cranberry. You can make your own with 2 cups sugar and 1 cup pomegranate juice
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Hi Jeff, thanks a lot for pointing that out. Don’t know how cranberry ended up in here, we must have had a short blackout 😅
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