After our trip to Cuba, where an overly enthusiastic store salesperson foisted a number of syrupy liqueurs made from Anise, Banana, and Coconut upon our cups, there was a deep distrust and fear of banana liqueurs. So we were a bit confused when we flipped through the pages of Imbibe and found the write-up featuring cocktails with banana liqueur.

But the cocktail names, “I Love Lamp”, “Ramble On”, and “Daiquiri du Bresil” were catchy. So we looked up the Giffard’s liqueur mentioned on K&L’s website, where it described the liqueur with the magic words: “restrained in its sweetness.”

It was definitely worth whatever money Giffard paid for the advertisement.

We now own a bottle of Giffard’s Banana Liqueur – which is still definitely sweet (it’s a liqueur after all) but happily not cloying.

Immediately, we set about creating the Daiquiri du Bresil and I Love Lamp. Here we feature the I Love Lamp, which was the more successful of the two (we used Wray & Nephew’s Overproof in the daiquiri… which was admittedly too aggressive of a selection of a “white rum”). The I Love Lamp, developed by Jordan Browre in Mayahuel in New York City, turned out to be a delicious, tiki-like drink with a front palate of smokey tequila.

And ever so slightly, our prejudice against liqueurs is dissipating.

I Love Lamp featuring Giffard’s Banana Liqueur

Ingredients

1 oz Tequila (Casa Dragoness)

1 oz Demarara Rum (El Dorado 15)

0.75 oz Giffard’s Banana Liqueur

1 oz Pineapple Juice

0.75 oz Fresh Lime Juice

0.25 oz Agave Nectar (we substituted Demerara simple)

4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Glass

Wide coupe

Directions