Rum

Cobra's Kiss

Name: Cobra's Kiss
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Double Rocks

Mariano Licudine's polished Mai-Kai variant of Donn Beach's Cobra's Fang, lifted with Pernod.

rum tiki tropical mid-century blended falernum jamaican

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (0.75 oz)
fresh orange juice (1 oz)
falernum (0.75 oz)
grenadine (0.25 oz)
Angostura bitters (2 dashes)
fassionola (0.5 oz)
Pernod (0.25 tsp)
dark Jamaican rum (1 oz)
Demerara rum (1 oz)
cinnamon stick (1)

Often misattributed to Donn Beach, this is actually Mariano Licudine's polished Mai-Kai variant of Donn's Cobra's Fang, distinguished by the addition of Pernod, which lifts the falernum and Demerara base into something brighter.¹^,² Fassionola brand matters: formulations diverge sharply across Jonathan English Hibiscus Hurricane, BG Reynolds, and homemade versions, so the syrup is essentially meaningless without a brand call.

Brand recommendations. Best: El Dorado 12 for the Demerara, Smith & Cross or Hamilton Pot Still Black for the dark Jamaican, BG Reynolds Fassionola, Velvet Falernum (Velier or John D. Taylor's), Liber & Co. or BG Reynolds grenadine, Pernod Absinthe Superieure. Economical: Hamilton Guyana 86 for the Demerara, Coruba or Myers's for the Jamaican, Yacht Club Fassionola (the traditional bottling), John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum, Rose's grenadine spiked with pomegranate molasses or homemade, Pernod Anise.

Instructions

Add fresh lime juice, fresh orange juice, falernum, grenadine, Angostura bitters, fassionola, Pernod, dark Jamaican rum, and Demerara rum to a blender.
Add 1 cup of crushed ice and flash blend for 5 seconds.
Pour unstrained into a goblet or double old fashioned glass.
Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Sources

Hurricane Hayward, "Mai-Kai cocktail review: Cobra Kiss is an exotic taste explosion." The Atomic Grog. https://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/11/20/mai-kai-cocktail-review-cobra-kiss-is-an-exotic-taste-explosion-guaranteed-to-strike-your-fancy/ (accessed 2026-05-03), documents the drink as Licudine's 1956 Mai-Kai adaptation of Donn Beach's Cobra's Fang with Pernod as the key addition; the source for this file's measurement bill. ↩
Berry, Sippin' Safari (2017 ed.), Mai-Kai chapter, Berry's research on Licudine's Mai-Kai recipes and the Cobra's Fang ancestor underlying the Atomic Grog reconstruction. ↩