How To Make Rainbow Shots - The Rainbow Shooter

Rainbow Shots

• ½ oz grenadine
• 6 oz pineapple juice or orange juice
• 1 oz Malibu coconut rum
• ¾ oz blue curacao
• Crushed ice

Before we start, I’d like to share some insight from doing the Rainbow Shooter a few dozen times. Crushed ice works a bit better than cubed ice; I think that it helps slow down the layers as you pour, which is pretty crucial. I prefer using pineapple juice over orange juice, although you can use either one. The pineapple juice seems to blend the colors better for me. If you don’t have Malibu, you can use vodka, I don’t think there’s a huge difference.

First step, pour your grenadine into the bottom of a large glass or cocktail shaker and add a layer of crushed ice.

Second step, layer the pineapple juice on the back of a bar spoon, and add another layer of ice. Make sure you have left enough room for your remaining layers.

Next step, layer the Malibu rum on the back of a bar spoon. Before this last step, make sure you are ready to pour, because we’re almost ready.

Last step, place your strainer on top of the glass with all the layers. Quickly pour the blue curacao around the perimeter of the glass, and then, still using the strainer, pour the shots in succession. If everything goes right, you should have a whole row of rainbow shots, running from blue to red.

The Rainbow Shooter takes about two minutes to set up, mostly to assemble your ingredients and crush some ice. The whole trick only takes about three minutes total to finish, as pouring the layers needs to move along briskly, so that they stay relatively separated. Pulling off the Rainbow Shots gimmick takes planning and a little bit of luck, but with practice, you should be able to reproduce it anytime you want to. For regular bartenders, the Rainbow Shooter is a chance to impress friends and strangers alike with your bartending prowess.