The Caribbean Might Be the Most Exciting Cocktail Destination Right Now

Caribbean cocktail culture has historically been painted with a wide brush—think hurricane glasses with tiny umbrellas and escapist vibes. This despite the fact that the region is a vast diaspora of cultures across 13 sovereign nations and more than a dozen territories with nearly 45 million people. To sum up the region’s cocktail contribution as “vacation drinks” is a gross oversimplification, to say the least. 

“While the Caribbean has always had access to incredible ingredients, flavors, techniques, and stories, many of those stories were often presented through a lens that caricaturized the region rather than showing its true depth and diversity,” says Roberto Berdecía, co-owner of acclaimed Puerto Rican bar La Factoría and a long-time booster for the region as a whole. “The international perception tended to reduce the Caribbean into an aesthetic or vacation fantasy, instead of recognizing the sophistication, culture, and creativity that has always existed within its hospitality and cocktail traditions.”

But that long-due recognition is starting to accrue in the form of 50 Best inclusions, James Beard Awards, and a newly launched, multi-island cocktail tour. It would seem that mainlanders are finally taking proper notice of what those on the Islands have always known: The Caribbean’s cocktails, creativity, and hospitality are truly world-class. 

The Neighborhood Bar

More than 700 islands make up the Caribbean—with about 30 inhabited. The cocktail scene, meanwhile, has long been dominated by mega-resorts in the nation’s capital, Nassau. But when Bon Vivants opened in 2019, it wasn’t in a resort, it was in a neighborhood. “We wanted to find a place where we could establish something local, made for Bahamians. And if tourists come, tourists come. But if not, that’s okay, because this is for the local crowd,” says Kyle Jones, who co-founded Bon Vivants in 2019 with William Young.

Jones came from a bartending career in New York City. But when he married his college sweetheart, a native Bahamian, they relocated to the island in 2012. “It was literally one of those Field of Dreams moments where someone had to say, if you build it, they will come,” says Jones. “But I was scared to death, because maybe nobody wants this? But when we opened, it was quite obvious. We were slammed nonstop.”

Bon Vivants positioned itself not just as a cocktail destination, but a true neighborhood hub. During the day, the bar functions as a full cafe. Neighbors relax on the front deck as they sip Americanos and nibble on locally made pastries. On the weekends, they host a local farmers market. And in the evenings, live music by Bahamian artists is a regular occurrence. 

The sheer breadth of the Bon Vivants’ menu is matched by its creativity.

But the cocktails are no afterthought. The sheer breadth of the Bon Vivants’ menu is matched by its creativity. “In the first year, it was more about just doing the classics and our house cocktails right, and making sure we are putting out world-class offerings for the Bahamas,” says Jones. That looks like everything from a well-built Martini to their own interpretation of tiki favorites and rotating house originals like the Benny & The Jets (coconut fat–washed scotch, Amaro Montenegro, coffee tincture, agave, and saline, served with a benny cake—a locally beloved sesame candy). 

Niko Imbert, a Bahamian native and Bon Vivants’ SVP of hospitality, even created a milk punch inspired by the island’s favorite party beverage Sky Juice, traditionally a mixture of gin, coconut milk, condensed milk, and nutmeg, served in a giant styrofoam cup. Imbert’s take, the clarified Gully Creeper Milk Punch, leans on a split base of rum and gin, coconut milk, allspice dram, walnut liqueur, chamomile, and grapefruit, creating a nuanced nod to the original and a fitting example of the evolving cocktail culture on the islands more broadly. “It’s also subtle, classy, it has finesse,” says Imbert. “It’s about a shift of the mindset, and not falling into the status quo of how people perceive our identity. We are clear and intentional about what we do. You do not need to perform your identity.”

And even though they always focused on the local community, the global community also took notice. The 50 Best Bars in North America recognized Bon Vivants for the first time this year. On the heels of that win, and a celebration of the bar’s 7th birthday, Bon Vivants unveiled their newest menu dedicated to the community, with a full section dubbed “The Locals.” It features cocktails like the aforementioned Benny & The Jets and the Funky Nassau, a Caribbean riff on the Sazerac, made with fried plantain–infused Cognac and an essence of cerasee, a traditional Caribbean herb. Jones even made tiny record sleeves of Bahamian albums to clip to each drink for a garnish. “Especially this year, more than any year, we felt like it was time to start giving Bahamians everything the Bahamas has to offer,” says Jones.

Identity and Inspiration 

Straddling a cross-section of cultures, Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory that considers itself both part of Latin America as well as the broader Caribbean community. “Puerto Rico stands out because of its unique blend of heritage and innovation,” says La Factoría’s Berdecía. “We have an incredibly rich cultural identity that naturally influences our approach to flavors, storytelling, and hospitality. You can walk into a bar in San Juan or Aguadilla and taste a cocktail that not only showcases world-class technique but also tells a story about our land, our ingredients, and our people.”

La Factoría has been at the forefront of that story since opening its doors in Old San Juan 13 years ago. Beloved both locally and abroad, the bar currently sits at No. 26 on the 50 Best Bars of North America, making it the highest placed in the Caribbean. But the aim from the outset was more modest. “When we opened La Factoría, our goal was to make cocktails approachable and accessible to everyone, not just for a small niche audience, with the idea that cocktails could become part of everyday culture in Puerto Rico,” says Berdecía. 

Bringing a “big city” craft cocktail approach to the island was a process of growth and exploration, explains fellow Factoría co-owner Leslie Cofresí. “At that time, in 2013, it was the peak of the cocktail revival in cities like New York. But in smaller markets, it was a lot about mimicking—executing classic cocktails that didn’t much look or feel like anything that we drank,” says Cofresí. “It’s the process of growing as a bartender, and leaning on ingredients and your culture to make things that taste more like home for people. It’s about using classics as a structure, rather than a recipe.”

Inspiration came not just from hubs like New York or London, but from across Latin America and growing cocktail scenes like Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and even Miami, which Cofresí considers firmly part of Latin America. “We’re part of Latin America. And then, the Caribbean is even smaller and more specific. So for bartenders and bar projects to grab attention from the big markets and the big personalities was all about imparting culture to your drinks,” says Cofresí.

La Factoría accomplished this not just with their cocktails, like a Guanabana Punch with soursop-infused rum, but with the fully encompassing atmosphere of their space—a historic building in Old San Juan that used to be the Café Hijos de Borinquen, where artists and revolutionaries of the mid-20th century would gather. The space now spans multiple rooms with seven distinct concepts from La Facto in the front to the wine-centric Vino and live music-suffused Shing a’Ling. “The first thing that sets us apart is our ‘calor caribeño,’ the warmth and hospitality that are part of Puerto Rican culture,” says Berdecía. “Music also plays a huge role in creating atmosphere and identity.”

In a full circle moment, Cofresí recently opened a neighboring bar dubbed Cui Cui (pronounced kwee-kwee) inspired by the white-jacketed American style of bartending that proliferated in Europe and Latin America during Prohibition. “There was a moment in Puerto Rico where there were bars like that. A lot of money was coming here. And there was a very sophisticated restaurant scene at that point,” says Cofresí. “I don’t think any of those classic-era restaurants or bars survived. And our idea was, ‘What if one of those places still existed? How would it feel today?’ So we’re taking that classic concept and making it very Puerto Rican.”

At Cui Cui that means Martinis and Negronis alongside a Banana Daiquiri, a tropical-leaning Pimm’s Cup, and a PR Highball made with rum and a housemade soda of matcha and pegao rice (the crunchy layer that forms at the bottom of the pot, prized in Puerto Rican cooking). And yes, they make a perfect Piña Colada. “We wanted to take ownership of the Piña Colada—to serve up a Piña that people would remember,” says Crofresi. “And eventually, if we last a long time, people are going to think it was created here at Cui Cui.” 

Identidad leans into their eponymous aim with cocktails and small plates that celebrate local flavors and traditions with global relevance.

In San Juan’s hip and bustling Santurce neighborhood, cocktail bar Identidad leans into their eponymous aim with cocktails and small plates that celebrate local flavors and traditions with global relevance. “We’re following the work started by other bars in Puerto Rico, such as La Factoría, and at the same time demonstrating that we can use local ingredients, Caribbean flavors and introduce them in cocktails that can be bitter, spirit forward, aperitif-style, etc.,” says Edrick Colon, who co-founded the bar with Stephen Alonso in 2024. 

Signature drinks at Identidad feature options like the Tamarindo y Setas (tequila, mushrooms, tamarind, and a sesame cookie), alongside seasonal plates like Piña Colada–inspired fried fish bao buns. In 2025, the James Beard Awards named Identidad the Best New Bar. “Our goal was to show that the cocktail bars in the Caribbean are at the same level of any other cocktail bar in the world,” says Colon.

A Three-Island Tour

When Library by the Sea opened in late 2022 on Grand Cayman, it brought a new level of high-concept, high-execution cocktails to an island whose most famous drink up until then was the Mudslide. “The Caymans’ cocktail scene has come a long way in the last 10 years,” says Library bartender Jack Scott. “They were using things like sour mix and juice concentrates. But bars like Backroom and Door No. 4 started making changes. And Library built upon that when it opened.”

Helmed by U.K. beverage pros Jim Wrigley and Andrew Copsey with an international team, the bar opened in the former library of the Kimpton Seafire hotel. Leaning into the concept, the cocktail menu pulls its inspiration from books: everything from The Little Prince (“B612, for Consuelo” with gin, cacao distillate, rose water, hibiscus, Italicus, oloroso, goat kefir, sweet vermouth) to Stephen King’s It (“Dancing Clown” with bourbon, peanut butter, strawberry caramel, banana liqueur, oloroso sherry, tannin). But the undercurrent remains distinctly Caribbean. 

“The menu itself is very immersive and represents where we are,” says bartender Daawud Zepherin. “We use local artists, local farmers. It’s where we are and what we want to represent. You don’t have to pretend to be what you actually are.” 

For Kyles Jones at Bon Vivants, a visit to the bar sparked an idea. “A few years ago when I went to the Cayman Islands for the first time, it was as a judge for Tales of the Cocktail to visit Library by the Sea,” says Jones. “I was like, ‘Man, there are so many great bars. Why aren’t more people coming down here for this?’ So my first thought was, let’s do a Caribbean Cocktail Week.”

Fast-forward to a balmy weekend in mid-January of this year, and the bar at Bon Vivants is particularly packed, the atmosphere noisily jovial. Behind the bar, team members from La Factoría in Puerto Rico and Library by the Sea in Grand Cayman shake up signature drinks from their own bars, celebrating the first leg of the inaugural Caribbean Cocktail Tour.

Owing to the sprawling nature of the region, a single week seemed untenable. Thus the idea morphed into a tour: Three bars on three separate islands hosting pop-up celebrations from the other two over the course of three weekends. The pop-ups were free and open to the public, encouraging locals to come out and experience the flavors and facets of culture from their neighboring islands. 

“We want to host people to see the island and not just have good drinks, but experience the culture—the food, the music,” says Jones. “The response was far better than we ever could have thought. We had so much fun, and it was the most beautiful thing watching all of our teams become best friends.”

“Culturally, we’ve all … been made to think that we’re each our own world. So this has been a cool process of really connecting with other cultures in the Caribbean.” —Leslie Cofresí

Despite regional commonalities, this cross-cultural collaboration between the Islands’ cocktail scenes is a more recent development. “Historically, we have been very disconnected by design. We were colonies from different colonizers. And culturally, we’ve all been separated and been made to think that we’re each our own world,” says Cofresí. “So this has been a cool process of really connecting with other cultures in the Caribbean.”

Multiple facets have been driving the interest in the Caribbean cocktail scene, as well as Caribbean culture abroad. Cofresí points to the “Bad Bunny effect” in terms of Puerto Rico’s surging global recognition, for one. Another element is the growing interest and availability of the Caribbean’s native spirit, rum. 

“When we opened Glady’s in 2015, there weren’t a lot of programs making craft cocktails with rum. So our guests would have a little bit of skepticism around our menu, thinking that maybe everything’s going to be really sweet or frozen. I wanted to show them something that broke that perception,” says Shannon Mustipher, a long-time New York bartender, educator, and author of the book Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails.

Mustipher created the beverage program for the Brooklyn Jamaican restaurant with an emphasis on the spirit of the Caribbean. “It was about finding a way to put really cool rum in front of people. I wanted everything on the back bar to be delicious either served neat or suitable for a cocktail. When we opened, I could only find about 50 that I thought made the cut. By the time we were in our last year of business [in 2020], I was able to have about 120. And I just couldn’t fit any more.”

Similarly, chefs are bringing Caribbean culinary traditions into the mainstream spotlight at places like Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi in New York City, and chef Nelson German’s alaMar in Oakland. An emergency Friday night stint behind the bar made German fall in love with cocktails, and inspired him to open Sobre Mesa, an Afro-Latino restaurant that puts the drinks front and center. 

“I’ve been a chef for 29 years, so I use that background for creating cocktails. And that’s where the storytelling comes from for me,” says German. He draws from his own African and Dominican heritage, as well as broader inspiration from travels across the Caribbean. His cocktails spotlight ingredients like plantain, cacao, suya spice, and house-made mamajuana. His new book, Caribbean Cocktails: Drinks and Bites from the Afro-Latino Diaspora, honors his heritage while “highlighting Caribbean cocktails in a different light, showing the craft side of it. It’s really a way to connect that spirits and cocktail history to its people, to its culture.” 

“We have the culture, talent, hospitality, ingredients, and creativity to stand alongside major cocktail destinations like Hong Kong, London, and New York.” —Roberto Berdecía

This ongoing evolution in both inspiration and the idea of ownership means that bars in the Caribbean are more and more taking charge of their own narrative, no longer being defined by the global community, but rather celebrated by it. “For several years now, bars around the world have incorporated Caribbean flavors and ingredients into their menus, which shows the growing influence of the region,” says Berdecía. “We have the culture, talent, hospitality, ingredients, and creativity to stand alongside major cocktail destinations like Hong Kong, London, and New York.”

The increasingly global nature of bartending is also having an impact. Cofresí points to the high numbers of industry folks returning to the Caribbean after working abroad. “I think this is probably the most transformative time, not because of people who came from the outside, but because more people who are from our countries and our cities are coming back with experiences of working in some of the best bars in the world,” says Cofresí. “So if the first step was about mimicking and trying to copy, and that process is how you learn, then you start taking ownership of what you learn and applying your identity to it. I think that’s where we are right now, and that’s definitely happening on all the islands on different levels.”  

And while the reasons that people visit the Caribbean may still largely be for vacation or a sense of escapism, that’s not stopping the industry from showing the world what they are capable of. “The Caribbean punches above its weight per capita,” adds Library by the Sea’s Jim Wrigley. “There is a palpable shift in expectations noted by the hospitality sector both in Cayman and other Caribbean islands. The opportunity to incorporate and evolve global trends and adapt them to the region’s idiosyncrasies is happening throughout the scene here.”