Rum

Pago Pago Cocktail

Name: Pago Pago Cocktail
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Coupe

A pre-Donn daiquiri variant with green Chartreuse and white crème de cacao, the bare-bones precursor to the muddled-pineapple Pago Pago of 1940.

rum pre-tiki cuban caribbean shaken lime daiquiri-variant

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (0.75 oz)
simple syrup (0.25 oz)
white creme de cacao (0.25 oz)
green Chartreuse (0.5 oz)
white Cuban-style rum (1.5 oz)
lime twist (1)

No pre-1940 "Pago Pago Cocktail" spec is documented in available sources. The earliest documented Pago Pago is the 1940 Hyman Gale and Gerald Marco The How and When version (corpus #54), which calls for muddled pineapple over gold Puerto Rican (Ronrico Red) rum. The bare-bones form below (rum, lime, sugar, green Chartreuse, white crème de cacao, no pineapple) is a modern simplification or reconstruction rather than a verifiable pre-1940 original.¹^,² The structural bones map onto the Cuban daiquiri template, Constantino Ribalaigua Vert's Floridita rum-lime-sugar build, with green Chartreuse and crème de cacao layered on top as a French liqueur garnish.³

Brand recommendations. Best: Caña Brava or Havana Club Añejo Blanco for the white Cuban-style rum, genuine green Chartreuse, Tempus Fugit or Marie Brizard white crème de cacao. Economical: Bacardi Superior or Don Q Cristal, green Chartreuse (no real substitute, Dolin Génépy can stand in at lower complexity), DeKuyper white crème de cacao.

Instructions

In a shaker combine fresh lime juice, simple syrup, white creme de cacao, green Chartreuse, and white Cuban-style rum.
Add ice and shake until well chilled.
Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with a lime twist.

Sources

Baker, The Gentleman's Companion, Vol. II (1939), sometimes invoked as a no-pineapple Pago Pago source, but no specific Pago Pago entry in Baker has been located in available sources. The drink's earliest documented printing remains the 1940 Gale & Marco How and When version with muddled pineapple. ↩
This corpus, recipe #54 (Pago Pago), the muddled-pineapple Hyman Gale and Gerald Marco 1940 version published in The How and When; this entry (#109) preserves the earlier no-pineapple form for disambiguation. ↩
Berry, Potions of the Caribbean (2014), Cuban daiquiri lineage chapters, frames the Floridita-template (Ribalaigua Vert's rum-lime-sugar) as the structural frame the Pago Pago Cocktail layers French liqueurs over. ↩
"Pago Pago Cocktail." Difford's Guide. https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/1453/pago-pago-cocktail (accessed 2026-05-03), modern published spec consistent with this file's measurements.