To Serve Man
Rum

Q.B. Cooler

Glass
Double Rocks

Donn Beach's three-rum honey-and-ginger cooler, widely cited as a Mai Tai precursor.

rum tiki tropical mid-century blended falernum jamaican
Scale
Print

Ingredients

  • soda water (1 oz)
  • fresh orange juice (1 oz)
  • fresh lime juice (0.5 oz)
  • honey mix (0.5 oz)
  • falernum (0.25 oz)
  • ginger syrup (0.5 tsp)
  • Angostura bitters (2 dashes)
  • light Puerto Rican rum (1 oz)
  • gold Jamaican rum (1 oz)
  • Demerara rum (0.5 oz)
  • mint sprigs (1)

Instructions

  1. Add soda water, fresh orange juice, fresh lime juice, honey mix (1:1 honey to water), falernum, ginger syrup, Angostura bitters, light Puerto Rican rum, gold Jamaican rum, and Demerara rum to a blender.
  2. Add 12 oz of crushed ice and flash blend at high speed for 5 seconds.
  3. Pour unstrained into a double old fashioned glass or tall tiki mug.
  4. Top with additional crushed ice and garnish with several mint sprigs.

Sources

  1. "Q.B. Cooler." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q.B._Cooler (accessed 2026-05-03), sources the Quiet Birdmen WWI-aviator-fraternity naming, attributes the drink to Donn Beach with the "two per customer" house limit, and quotes Beachcomber-staffer Mick Brownlee's claim that Vic created the Mai Tai trying to emulate the Q.B. Cooler. ↩
  2. Berry, Sippin' Safari (2017 ed.), Q.B. Cooler entry; Beachbum Berry Remixed (2010), the canonical reconstruction of the 1937 Donn-era spec from the Hollywood Don the Beachcomber bar archive; identifies the Q.B. Cooler as a structural Mai Tai precursor. ↩
  3. Berry, Beachbum Berry Remixed (2010), Donn Beach catalog, published the modern three-rum-split-and-honey-mix reconstruction this file's measurements follow.