Hi, Leandro!

I also make a Pink Flamingo cocktail, but it is completely different from yours. The below text is from a write-up I did intending to submit to another site, but never did. It explains the history behind ours. BTW, I’m all about low carb, so I make my own sugar-free grenadine and Rose’s Lime.

Feel free to play with this if you want – I’m open to suggestions for improving it, although there’s a certain amount of nostalgia about the original.

(looking at it again, after all the fiddling with the recipe I’ve done over the years – as explained below – I pretty much ended up right back where I started, only using sparkling water instead of 7-Up)

ABOUT THE PINK FLAMINGO COCKTAIL

I realize that there are other cocktails with this name, but this drink was invented by my roommate and I while we were stationed with the U.S. Navy at Diego Garcia in the mid-80s. To make a long story short, our barracks room (“The Flamingo Club,” natch!) became the best club on an island with not much else to do during non-working hours but party and drink! Our signature concoction started with the Flamingo Cocktail recipe found in several bar books modified to our tastes (mainly throwing out the gin, which nobody liked at the time) and what was available in the Base Package Store. Originally it was 2 parts White Rum, 2 parts Apricot Schnapps, 2 1/2 parts Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial, enough Grenadine to make it pink, and 7-Up. We used to pre-mix everything but the 7-Up by the gallon for parties.

I ran into problems when I excitedly tried to introduce the Pink Flamingo to friends years later. First, what was a great drink that year in the tropics was cloyingly sweet anywhere else. But even more importantly, not long after leaving DG whomever made the Apricot Schnapps (Mr. Boston, DeKuyper, Hiram Walker or one of those type brands) quit making it. Over the ensuing years I occasionally tried fiddling with the recipe to both tone down the sweetness and find a suitable substitute for the apricot. I tried tropical fruit-flavored rums, for example, without quite capturing the magic.

Luckily, once I finally inhabited a place with a giant liquor store, I discovered imported apricot liqueurs! The Pink Flamingo lives again!

INGREDIENTS IN THE PINK FLAMINGO COCKTAIL

1 1/4 oz White Rum (I use Plantation 3-Star or El Dorado 3-Year)
1 1/4 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot Liqueur
1 1/2 oz Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial
1/2 oz Grenadine (if homemade, a barspoon if store-bought)*
3 oz Club Soda/Sparkling Water

* As stated above, the original purpose of the Grenadine was simply to make the drink pink. I make my own Grenadine, which ends up being more purple in color, so I add a little red food coloring to it just for this drink. The advantage to using homemade is that it gives the drink a pomegranate component that it didn’t have before and that store-bought Grenadine doesn’t provide. If using store-bought, which is already Very Red due to its own food coloring, just use enough to make it pink, a bar spoon or so.

HOW TO MAKE THE PINK FLAMINGO COCKTAIL

Add the first four ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice and stir until cold. Strain into a collins or pint glass filled with fresh ice and top with club soda or sparkling water.