The Painkiller is essentially a riff on the Piña Colada, created in Puerto Rico in 1954. The only difference being the addition of orange juice and nutmeg. It was first made some twenty years later by Daphne Henderson, owner of a small bar called the Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. The bar got its name due to the fact that White Bay lacked a jetty and the patrons usually swam to shore from their boats and ending up with a pocket full of wet bills.

One of the frequent guests enjoying the Painkiller was Charles Tobias, founder of Pusser’s Rum. Even after becoming friends with Daphne Henderson he tried to get her to reveal her secret concoction but she persistently refused. After two years he finally snuck a drink from the bar, brought it home and started experimenting on his own to recreate the drink. The following Sunday he was back and challenged Ms Henderson to a $100 bet and taste test among the ten customers at the bar to settle which version was better. A bet he won.

Originally the drink was made with Cruzan Rum, a product of the US Virgin Islands (Pusser’s Rum Ltd. didn’t start until 1979 and wasn’t around when the Painkiller was created), but in 1989 Charles Tobias managed to file a US trademark on the name and recipe for the Painkiller making it illegal to call it a Painkiller if it’s not made with Tobias’s own Pusser’s Rum. In 2011 Pusser’s Rum even took a New York Tiki bar named Painkiller to court both for using the trademarked name and for serving Painkillers made with rum other than Pusser’s. This in turn led to bartenders across the US to boycott Pusser’s.

The glass, called Ripple Cup, was designed in 2019 by French-American designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen.

Product information

This is one in a series of illustrations of classic cocktail recipes with a selection of the most beautifully designed glasses.

The size 40x50 cm (approx 16x20”) are signed and printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Bright White 310g archival paper and are sold in a limited edition of 50 prints.

The size 30x40 cm (approx 12x16”) are printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art Studio Enhanced 210g archival paper.