Rum

Tahitian Pearl

Name: Tahitian Pearl
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Cocktail

Trader Vic's lean rum-lime-maraschino sour, a tropical riff on the fancy daiquiri served on shaved ice.

rum tiki mid-century shaken lime maraschino

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (1 oz)
bar syrup (0.5 oz)
maraschino liqueur (0.25 oz)
white rum (1 oz)
gardenia petal (1)

The Tahitian Pearl is a lean Trader Vic creation from the Bartender's Guide era, essentially a fancy daiquiri given a Polynesian Pop ribbon: equal parts white rum and lime, sweetened down with bar syrup, with a quarter-ounce of maraschino lending the signature pearly note.¹ Vic served it in a cocktail glass packed with shaved ice, garnished with a literal pearl on a gardenia petal, a piece of mid-century theater whose ingredient discipline (clean rum, fresh lime, no piled-on syrups) anticipates the modern revivalist read of his lighter cocktails.²

Brand recommendations. Best: Caña Brava or Plantation 3 Stars for the white rum; Luxardo Maraschino; freshly cut lime. Economical: Bacardi Superior or Don Q Cristal for the white rum; Maraska maraschino. Sourcing note: this drink survives largely through Vic's published guides and tiki blog reconstructions; the spec varies by source between 0.5–0.75 oz lime, with 1:1 rum-to-lime being the most consistently cited build.

Instructions

In a shaker combine fresh lime juice, bar syrup, maraschino liqueur, and white rum.
Add cracked ice and shake hard for .
Strain into a cocktail glass half-filled with shaved ice.
Garnish with a single pearl set on a gardenia petal.

Sources

Bergeron, Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, Revised (1972), p. 185, Tahitian Pearl entry: juice of 1 lime, 1 dash rock candy syrup, 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur, 1 ounce light Puerto Rican rum, shaken, served with small ice cubes in a tiki stem champagne compote, decorated with a pearl on a gardenia petal. ↩
"Trader Vic Tiki Cocktails." RecipeReminiscing. https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/tiki-cocktails-from-trader-vic/ (accessed 2026-05-03), modern compilation cross-referencing Vic's published guides; the source for this file's lime-and-bar-syrup measurement bill, which sits at the larger end of the documented spec range. ↩