Cruise passengers want tropical drinks. Many associate cruising with Pina Coladas, mojitos, margaritas, and daiquiris. Every cruise line makes plenty of those classics, but they also want to come up with beverages that riff on that theme.
Drinks like Royal Caribbean's Coco Loco, which is only served on its Perfect Day at CocoCay private island, and Carnival's Red Rum Treasure, which is only offered at its RedFrog Rum Bar, give cruisers something special to try.
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That has become a growing trend as both Royal Caribbean and Carnival have made offering unique beverage offerings a key part of their newest cruise ships. Royal Caribbean's new Utopia of the Seas, offers some custom gin and tonic offerings in its pub and a whole new tropical drink menu in the first-of-its-kind Pesky Parrot bar.
MSC Cruises has its own lineup of signature beverages including the rum-based "Purple Rain. Dennis Post worked with Rose from the Philippines, who acted as the camera person and AD from Bali to show you how the Purple Rain gets made.
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Meet the Purple Rain
In an iced, tall glass AD started by adding half an ounce of grenadine. He followed that with three-second pouring of sweet and sour mix. AD then adds a half ounce of rum, a half ounce of vodka, and a half ounce of gin to a metal cocktail shaker.
He then poured more of the sweet and sour mix into the cocktail shaker and added a 1/2 ounce of peach schnapps. That gets quickly mixed by a blender-style device before being strained into the original glass where it's topped with a half ounce of Blue Curacao.
The drink is then garnished with a cherry and a lime slice.
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Purple Rain recipe:
- 1/2 ounce Bacardi Superior white rum
- 1/2 ounce Finlandia vodka
- 1/2 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin,
- 1/2 ounce peach schnapps
- 1/2 ounce blue curacao
- Sweet & sour mix
- Grenadine
The finished product, it should be noted has hints of red along with the blue from the blue curacao making its name a bit of a mystery.
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