Summer is quickly coming to an end, but partiers everywhere continue to cling to warm-weather nostalgia by spicing up their soirees with delicious tropical fruit inspired drinks. Banana, a fatty fruit with virtually no juice to offer, isn’t the most popular cocktail ingredient. But its bold and iconic flavor profile is unmistakable, and offers a fun change of pace if you’re used to a more traditional mixed drink.
And there are a surprisingly wide range of boozy beverages featuring the great banana front-and-center. Here we have listed some of our all-time favorite banana cocktails: some are flavor-only, some feature a delectable banana liqueur, and others ask you to add the whole fruit to your vitamix (just remember to peel it first!)
Banana Daiquiri
The one, the only: the banana daiquiri. If there is one banana alcoholic drink to have in your recipe book, it’s this iconic cocktail. Creamy, icy and delicious, this is one of our favorite banana mixed drink recipes that we keep coming back to time after time.
This banana daiquiri recipe also gets to be first on our list of banana alcohol drinks because it’s one of three cocktails on this curated menu that actually has the fruit itself on the ingredients list. Smoothie lovers rejoice!
In addition to one whole banana -- frozen or fresh, your choice -- the banana daiquiri cocktail recipe calls for coconut cream, fresh lime juice, sugar, ice and 2 ounces of your favorite rum. Garnish with a lime wedge, coconut rind, or a swirl of whipped coconut cream and a maraschino cherry for a fancy finish.
For more detailed instructions, check out this great banana daiquiri recipe.
Yellow Submarine
We all love drinking yellow submarines! Yellow submarines! Yellow submarines! Because this banana vodka drink is refreshing, tasty as heck, and super easy to make (plus the name is just so fun to say!) And the tropical flavors and sunshine-yellow hue of the final product makes you feel like you’re drinking the summer straight out of a glass.
A traditional yellow submarine is made with vodka, light rum and banana flavored liquor served in a martini glass with a slice of banana fruit to garnish. If you want to make yours a little juicier, follow this super-fruity recipe and add peach schnapps, pineapple juice and orange juice to your favorite banana flavored alcohol (banana bourbon, banana cognac, and other varieties of banana booze are all great options.)
Banshee
A beautiful, refined and vintage-feeling banana cream drink featuring a delectable combo of bananas and chocolate. Inspired by the classic white russian, this smooth, sumptuous and oh-so-smooth banana flavored drink feels like you might be drinking your dessert at the back of a smokey burlesque bar in the 1920s. That might just be the old-fashioned glass, though.
The perfect banshee calls for banana cream liqueur, white creme de cacao liqueur, and either whole cream or milk depending on how decadent you’re feeling that day. Serve on the rocks, and garnish with either a banana slice or a swirl of white chocolate syrup.
Make it even more amazing by using homemade ingredients: follow this banana liqueur recipe and never run out of ingredients for banana cream liqueur drinks.
Dirty Banana
The dirty banana is a banana cream rum mixed drink that is downright delicious. It’s basically a milkshake for adults, and you can add or subtract ingredients as you like to make it absolutely perfect to your unique tastes and preferences. Careful though -- this monster of banana mixed drink recipes may seem sweet, but there’s about 4 cocktails worth of alcohol in this bad boy.
A Dirty Banana is made of one banana, ice, Kahlua, dark rum, light rum, banana-flavored liqueur, light cream, and whole milk. Serve in your tallest diner-style milkshake glass and garnish with whipped cream, a maraschino cherry, an unpeeled banana slice, and a swirl of chocolate syrup.
Banana Cream Colada
Another classic banana flavored drink that you could easily mistake for a healthy beverage option were it not so gosh darn delicious. Think banana cream pie, but blended up with pineapple juice and rum. Hm, that sounded better in our heads. Oh well.
A Banana Cream Colada is a bonafide bananarama, made with both one whole banana AND banana liqueur, combined with coconut cream, coconut rum, pineapple juice, ice and a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream for a decadent and utterly tropical experience.
If you want to give this drink an extra kick, try adding one oz of banana flavored tequila to the mix.
Bananarac
A wild take on the classic Sazerac, the Bananarac is possibly the most refined and distinguished recipe on our menu. You definitely won’t be able to mistake this for a milkshake.
Ingredients include Demerara Gum Syrup, rye whiskey, armagnac, Giffard Banane du Brasil (banana cognac), bitters, and absinthe-washed ice for serving. Garnish with lemon oils, and serve with banana chips as your bar snack.
If you love a banana-pear combo but are having trouble finding good banana and pear recipes, try subbing pear whiskey for the rye in this banana whiskey cocktail.
Bananas Foster Manhattan
Wanna know something wild? There’s no bananas in this drink! None at all! But despite this critical fact, a Bananas Foster Manhattan has a surprisingly banana-forward flavor. The combined power of both orange and angostura bitters, brown sugar simple, and rye bourbon conjure bananas from the ether and make for a delicious evening libation.
If you simply must have a little bit of banana in this drink, garnish with a grilled slice of the tropical fruit.
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