Rum

Skull and Bones

Name: Skull and Bones
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Skull Mug

Donn Beach's elaborate skull-mug original, the more ornate predecessor of the Shrunken Skull.

rum tiki tropical mid-century shaken passion-fruit lime

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (0.75 oz)
grenadine (0.5 oz)
passion fruit syrup (0.5 oz)
Angostura bitters (1 dash)
absinthe (6 drops)
Puerto Rican rum (0.5 oz)
151-proof Demerara rum (1.5 oz)
mint sprig (1)

Beachbum Berry first revealed this Donn Beach original in the 2017 10th anniversary edition of Sippin' Safari.¹ The recipe was preserved by Tony Ramos, a Don the Beachcomber bartender from the Hollywood flagship in the 1980s.² This is the more elaborate predecessor that the simpler Shrunken Skull (#68) descends from, passion fruit, absinthe, and a 151 backbone make it the ornate parent of that streamlined four-ingredient version.³

Brand recommendations. Best: Hamilton 151 Demerara, Don Q Anejo or Bacardi 8 for the Puerto Rican, BG Reynolds passion fruit syrup, Liber & Co. grenadine, Pernod Absinthe Superieure or St. George Absinthe Verte. Economical: Lemon Hart 151 for the Demerara, Bacardi Gold for the Puerto Rican, Liber & Co. or homemade passion fruit syrup, homemade pomegranate grenadine, Pernod Absinthe.

Instructions

Add fresh lime juice, grenadine, passion fruit syrup, Angostura bitters, absinthe, Puerto Rican rum, and 151-proof Demerara rum to a cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
Shake hard.
Strain into a skull mug or double old fashioned glass with crushed ice.
Garnish with a mint sprig.

Sources

Berry, Sippin' Safari (2017 ed., 10th anniversary), Skull and Bones entry, Berry's first publication of this Donn Beach original after the recipe surfaced from Tony Ramos's archive. ↩
Berry, Sippin' Safari (2017 ed.), Tony Ramos provenance note, documents Ramos as a Don the Beachcomber bartender (Palm Springs, San Diego, The Luau, China Trader Burbank, NOT the Hollywood flagship) and the source of the surviving Skull and Bones spec. ↩
This corpus, recipe #68 (Shrunken Skull), the simpler four-ingredient descendant of Skull and Bones; the Skull and Bones is the more elaborate Donn-era predecessor with passion fruit, absinthe, and a 151 backbone. ↩
Anatomy of a Drink, "Skull and Bones." https://www.threads.com/@anatomyofadrink/post/DBscgFsR4l1 (accessed 2026-05-03), modern published transcription of the Berry 2017 spec consistent with this file's measurement bill.