Skip to main content

Queens Park Swizzle

Layered drink with mint rum lime juice and bitters on top in a tall glass.
Photo by Andy Sewell
  • Active Time

    2 minutes

  • Total Time

    2 minutes

If you like mojitos, you’ll like this minty swizzle from the Queen’s Park Hotel in Trinidad. The swizzle is a category of cocktails named for the special bar tool used to mix all crushed-ice cocktails in the days before blenders. A swizzle stick is a long stick made with three to five forked branches originally made from the allspice bush. If you don’t have one, though, you can use a bar spoon to churn the drink with a similar motion, rotating the stick by rubbing your hands back and forth against each other with the stick between them. 

Feel free to try subbing in aged rum for the white rum (or a mix of both) for more complexity in this easy cocktail, or try two dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters instead of four dashes of the Angostura.

Ingredients

Makes 1 cocktail

8–10 mint leaves
¾ oz. (22 ml) 1:1 simple syrup
2 oz. (60 ml) white rum
1 oz. (30 ml) fresh lime juice
4 dashes Angostura bitters
Mint sprig, to garnish
  1. Step 1

    Combine the mint leaves and simple syrup in a Collins glass and muddle gently.

    Step 2

    Add rum and lime juice, fill the glass two-thirds full with crushed ice and swizzle until the glass is frosted.

    Step 3

    Add the bitters and top off with more crushed ice to fill the glass. Garnish with a mint sprig.

The cover of the cookbook Spirited by Adrienne Stillman
Reprinted from Spirited: Cocktails from Around the World, by Adrienne Stillman. © 2020 Phaidon Press Buy the full book from Amazon.
Sign In or Subscribe
to leave a Rating or Review

How would you rate Queens Park Swizzle?

Leave a Review

See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips

Read More
Rum Club Daiquiri
The house daiquiri at Rum Club in Portland, Oregon is an exceptionally delicious rum cocktail.
Hot Buttered Rum Pie
This boozy pie tastes like a Hallmark Christmas movie—you know, in the best way.
Shrimp Cocktail
This homemade shrimp cocktail gets dressed up with classic cocktail sauce—plus two other optional sauces that'll really make it a party.
Classic Cocktail Sauce
While many cocktail sauce recipes call for chili sauce, ketchup lets you add your desired level of spice to tailor it to your exact taste.
Last Word Cocktail
The Last Word, a classic gin cocktail, balances nutty, herbaceous, sweet, and tart flavors. It’s one of the most successful examples of the equal parts game.
Easy Green Cocktail Sauce
For this green cocktail sauce recipe, salsa verde gets amped up with fresh cilantro, lime juice, green hot sauce, and horseradish to embolden its color and add a bright, herby flavor. 
Vuelve a la Vida (“Come Back to Life” Seafood Cocktail)
This Mexican seafood cocktail gets its name because it is tossed with a bracing mix of tart, pungent, and spicy ingredients.
Ceviche Verde With Pepitas
In this ceviche verde, halibut or sea bass is dressed with fresh lime juice blended with cilantro, mint, and pepitas.