Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The 11 best banana liqueur cocktails for a taste of the tropics

You and banana liqueur ought to know each other better. Get close with these great cocktail recipes

Mark Stock
Sam Slaughter
By and
banana liqueur in two glasses with banana
Chatham172/Shutterstock

Banana may not jump to mind when you think of the best cocktails, but perhaps it should. With the right liqueur at your side, you can whip something that tastes like a warm breeze in palm tree country. The very best of the bunch play off of complementary spirits like rum and like-minded ingredients like coconut and orgeat.

Of the many lesser-known liqueurs out there, the banana options don’t always get the hype they deserve. Used wisely, this blast of tropical booze can turn a regular drink into one of the best tiki cocktails out there. The unique flavor of banana, falling somewhere between melon, honey, and clove, can instantly inject some personality into a cocktail, especially come summertime when we crave those flavors most.

Recommended Videos

What is the best banana liqueur?

That’s a great question and we’re not entirely sure, as it depends on taste and the drink at hand. There are a few, however, we can wholeheartedly recommend. The option from Creme de Banane from Fugit Spirits stands out, bursting with flavor while balanced. Giffard also makes another stellar, higher-end option, crafted from Brazilian-grown bananas. It tastes a bit caramelized, with woodsy hints of oak that match the robust banana flavor. For something a little more straightforward, albeit a bit sweet, 99 Bananas gets the job done.

Related

Don’t forget that there are great aged spirits, too. When it comes to banana, these usually come in rum form, and the they’re worth playing around with as you dial in your drinks and preferences.

Below, you’ll find banana liqueur cocktails from some of the best bartenders around the world. One thing you’ll notice is that a little goes a long way. What does that mean for you? It means that you should stock up on the other ingredients and try multiple of the drinks below!

Here are the 11 best banana liqueur cocktails to try your hand at this summer.

Banana pool lounge cocktail

Banana

(Created by Thomas Waugh, The Pool Lounge, New York City)

Ingredients

  • 3 ounces banana mix*
  • 3/4 ounce lime juice
  • 1/2 ounce ginger syrup
  • Angostura bitters
  • Banana to garnish

*Banana mix

  • 1 ounce reposado tequila
  • 1 ounce Amontillado Sherry
  • 1 ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil

Method

  1. Short shake with three Kold Draft cubes.
  2. Strain into a Collins glass with pebble ice.
  3. Top with Angostura bitters and garnish with a baby banana.
Bowie intro banana cocktail

Bowie Intro

(Created by Chaim Dauermann, The Up & Up, New York City)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 ounces Suntory Toki
  • 1/2 ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil
  • 1/4 ounce Krogstad Aquavit
  • 3/4 ounce lemon juice
  • 1/2 ounce demerara syrup (2:1)
  • 2 Luxardo cherries

Method

  1. Muddle the cocktail cherries in the bottom of a cocktail tin.
  2. Add wet ingredients and shake with two ice cubes.
  3. Double-strain into a chilled Collins glass.
  4. Fill with pebble ice (or crushed ice) and garnish with cherry or lemon bulls-eye.
traveling banana cocktail

The Traveling Banana

(Created by  Sam Treadway, Back Bar, Boston)

Ingredients

Method

  1. Build all ingredients over one large piece of ice in a rocks glass.
  2. Briefly stir and then garnish with a lime twirl.
Bananas foster cocktail
FOHNYC

Bananas Foster Cocktail

(Created by Johnny Swet, JIMMY at the James, New York City)

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces aged rum
  • 1 ounce banana liqueur
  • 1/2 ounce lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 2 thick banana chunks

Method

  1. Muddle the banana chunks with the brown sugar.
  2. Add the remaining ingredients and shake with ice until cold.
  3. Strain into a rocks glass with ice.
  4. Garnish with a thick banana slice that has been sprinkled with sugar and caramelized with a torch.
Cachaca me if you can banana cocktail

Cachaça Me If You Can

(Created at Arbella, Chicago)

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce Espirito barrel-rested Cachaca
  • 3/4 ounce Noilly Pratt Ambre
  • 1/2 ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil
  • 1/4 ounce Amaro Sybilla
  • 1/4 ounce Bitter Truth falernum
  • 1/4 ounce Gran Classico

Method

  1. Stir with a large cube in a mixing glass.
  2. Strain into a coupe glass.
Banana snowman cocktail

Banana Snowman

Ingredients

Method

  1. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice, shake, and strain into a martini glass.
  2. Garnish with grated nutmeg and a skewer of banana chunks and salted caramel pieces.
Backseat bingo banana cocktail

Backseat Bingo

(Created by Blake Pope, Hello Sailor, Cornelius, North Carolina)

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces Bacardi Silver
  • 1 1/2 ounces 99 Bananas
  • 3/4 ounce Zucca
  • 1 ounce orgeat
  • 3/4 ounces demerara syrup
  • 3 ounces coconut cream
  • 1 1/2 ounces lime juice

Garnishes

  • 2 bendy straws (or one, no judgment)
  • Cinnamon “sprank”
  • Half-banana dolphin (with clove and cherry)

Method

  1. Build ingredients into good shaker tin.
  2. Add 12 oz scoop of pebble ice.
  3. Quick shake in tin and “dirty” dump into sharing-size Tiki mug.
  4. Top with pebble ice and apply all garnishes.
Shangala banana cocktail

Shangala Banana

(Created by Leanne Favre, Clover Club and Leyenda, Brooklyn)

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce Agave de Cortés Joven Mezcal
  • 1 ounce Lustau Fino Sherry
  • 3/4 ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil
  • 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 ounce Giffard gomme syrup
  • 4 cardamom pods
  • 3 pinches chile de arbol powder

Method

  1. In a shaker, gently muddle cardamom and chile powder with gomme syrup.
  2. Add other ingredients and ice.
  3. Shake well and fine strain into a pilsner glass.
  4. Fill with crushed ice and garnish with a banana leaf.
Banana suit cocktail

Banana Suit

(Created by Sean Johnson, Amor y Amargo, New York City)

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce Sipsmith Dry Gin
  • 1 ounce Salers Aperitif
  • 1/2 ounce dry vermouth
  • 1/2 ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil
  • 1/4 ounce Giffard Vanille du Madagascar
  • 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Method

  1. Build all ingredients over one large piece of ice in a rocks glass.
  2. Briefly stir, then garnish with a mint bouquet.
Bananas foster adult milkshake cocktail

Bananas Foster Adult Milkshake

(Created at Péché, Austin)

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce banana liqueur
  • 1/2 ounce Zaya rum
  • 2 scoops vanilla ice cream

Method

  1. Combine ingredients in a blender and blend.
  2. Pour into glass and garnish with cinnamon.

Article originally published January 26, 2018. Revised May 18, 2023.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
How to make the best spaghetti sauce, according to Jamie Oliver
Anybody can make a red sauce. Here, Jamie Oliver reveals how to make the best spaghetti sauce
Sunday gravy tomato sauce pasta pot

Spaghetti sauce is subjective stuff. Most who make batches claim their recipe is the best, thanks to a few extra ingredients or a few secrets they're unwilling to make public.

Regardless of how it's put together, it's impossible to go wrong with a good red sauce. As renowned chef Jamie Oliver says, the sauce serves as a lovely base atop which you can tinker and experiment. Once you get the gist of the sauce taken care of, you can spend the rest of the week fine-tuning and playing with various riffs on the traditional spaghetti. And for the record, Oliver's spaghetti sauce is arguably the best out there, for a couple of key reasons.

Read more
The best mango cocktails to bring the tropics to your glass
Your drinks need more mango. These recipes will show you the way to tropical paradise.
An ice-cold glass of Mango Basil Margarita on black table.

Mango season is here, which means it's time to give your cocktails the tropical fruit treatment. The vibrant yellow stone fruit affords tons of flavor and works well with a number of spirits. Mango is also incredible refreshing sans booze in a mocktail or classic mango lassi.

While we often talk about mango, as in the flavors we're reminded of when sipping an excellent Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling, we don't work directly with the fruit as much as we should. Those who live in sunny states like Florida, California, and Hawaii are fortunate enough to grow their own. But even if you reside elsewhere, mangos are pretty readily available, especially this time of year.

Read more
The 6 best low-calorie drinks to order at the bar
Low-calorie cocktails: Put down the light beer — you're better than that
Paloma cocktail

It's inevitable. Summertime is nearly here, and that means sugary, colorful cocktails like margaritas and daiquiris. And while the sweet treat of a blended fruity drink by the pool is the stuff summer afternoons are made of, it's easy to overdo it. No no, not on the alcohol. This is summer vacation, after all. We're talking calories here. Thankfully, there are plenty of delicious low-calorie drink options so that you can still get your buzz on without offending the bathroom scale too much.

Gorgeous craft cocktails are wonderful. Unfortunately, they're also often full of calorie-carrying simple syrups, sugary drink mixers, and hidden fats. That doesn't mean you have to avoid the mixed drinks, altogether, though. There are plenty of alcoholic low-calorie drink options out there that are far better than hard seltzers or light beers. These are some of our favorites.

Read more