Aruban Drinks to Try on Your Trip (and Where to Find Them)

The Aruban drinks to know are the Aruba Ariba cocktail, Coecoei (a red agave liqueur), Ponche Crema (the island’s Christmas eggnog) and Balashi, the local beer brewed with desalinated seawater. Add a stop at an old rum shop and a few bar signatures, and you’ve covered the drinks most tied to the island. Here’s what each one is and where to find it.

Aruban drinks at a glance

Drink	What it is	Where to try it
Aruba Ariba	Fruity rum and vodka cocktail created in 1963	Surfside Beach Bar lists it; the Hilton Aruba is where it was born
Coecoei	Red liqueur from agave sap, rum and sugar	In an Aruba Ariba; bottles at The Arubian Taste, Oranjestad
Ponche Crema	Rum eggnog, sweeter than the American kind	December festivities; Aruba Experience Café & Patisserie makes a homemade version
Aruban Blast	Blended Ponche Crema, rum, coconut cream and banana	A Radisson Aruba recipe you can make at home
Balashi, Chill, Magic Mango	Local beers from the Balashi brewery (first brew in 1999)	Happy hours such as 5 O’Clock Somewhere; the Balashi Beer Experience near Eagle Beach
Rum shop beer or rum	Walk-up neighborhood bars, one open since 1937	San Nicolas, Savaneta, Santa Cruz, near the airport, Palm Beach Road

Aruba Ariba, the island’s signature cocktail

If you order one Aruban drink, make it this one. The Aruba Tourism Authority calls it “without doubt the island’s most emblematic cocktail”. It was created on 1 July 1963 by bartender Juan “Jocky” Tromp at the Aruba Caribbean Hotel, which is now the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, and he won a bartender competition with it.

The base is vodka and white rum with crème de banana, orange and pineapple juice, grenadine and a little Coecoei. Recipes vary from bar to bar. Some use lemon juice, some use cranberry, and Grand Marnier can stand in for Coecoei. It’s sweet and fruity, and it’s often served as a welcome drink.

The Hilton is where it started, so it’s a fun place to ask for one. Surfside Beach Bar in Oranjestad also lists “the famous Aruba Ariba” on its menu. For the full story and a recipe with measurements, read our guide to the Aruba Ariba cocktail.

Coecoei, the red agave liqueur

Coecoei (also spelled cucui) is the ingredient that makes an Aruba Ariba Aruban. It’s a red liqueur traditionally made with agave sisalana, known locally as kukwisa, and it has a light anise flavor. According to popular legend it goes back to the island’s indigenous people. Today it’s made from agave sap mixed with rum and sugarcane, and the Aruba Tourism Authority notes that you can buy it at The Arubian Taste in Oranjestad.

Don’t confuse it with Venezuelan cocuy, which shares the name but is a different, distilled drink made from another agave species. Coecoei is served at celebrations and mostly ends up in cocktails. If you can’t find it at home, VisitAruba suggests passion fruit nectar, agave nectar or cherry brandy as stand-ins. We go deeper in our post on Coecoei and Ponche Crema.

Ponche Crema, Aruba’s Christmas eggnog

Ponche Crema is the Caribbean take on egg punch, made with rum, condensed milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and spices. The Aruba Tourism Authority describes it as “a bit sweeter than the standard American eggnog”, and it’s a fixture of the island’s Christmas food tradition. Aruba Experience Café & Patisserie is known for a homemade version.

It also works as a cocktail ingredient. The Aruban Blast, a Radisson Aruba recipe, blends 1.5 oz white rum, 1.5 oz Ponche Crema, 1 oz coconut cream and a banana with ice, poured over a little blue curaçao in a tall glass. Eggnog liqueur works if you can’t find Ponche Crema.

Balashi beer and its siblings

Balashi is Aruba’s national beer. The name means “by the sea” in Papiamento, which fits: the brewery sits next to the island’s desalination plant, and desalinated ocean water is the main ingredient, along with malt from Scotland and hops from Germany. The first Balashi Pilsner was brewed in October 1999.

The brewery makes several versions:

• Balashi: the original pilsner.
• Chill: a lighter, lower-alcohol lager with a soft lemon finish, launched around 2011 during Carnival season.
• Magic Mango: Chill’s “little sister”, described by the Aruba Tourism Authority as the fastest-growing beer on the island.
• Magic Orange and Malta 0.0%, an alcohol-free malt drink, also appear in the brewery’s lineup.

The new Balashi Beer Experience opened on 4 October 2026 in the Gloria entertainment complex near Eagle Beach, with tastings of the pilsner, Chill, Magic Mango and Malta 0.0%. It isn’t the working brewery. More in our Balashi beer guide.

Rum shops: where locals drink

For a look at everyday Aruban drinking, find a rum shop. These walk-up bars were set up more than 100 years ago to serve rum, and today most of them pour more beer than rum. The Aruba Tourism Authority names a few:

• The Aruba Rum Shop in San Nicolas, open since 1937
• Pos Chiquito near Savaneta, opened in 1960
• Rudsen in Santa Cruz
• Young Fellow near the airport
• Local Store on Palm Beach Road

Rum shops are casual, and a cold Balashi at one of them tells you more about the island than another frozen drink at the pool.

What about Aruban rum?

You’ll see Palmera White Aruba Rum on shelves and on some cocktail menus. Cuba’s Cookin’, for example, makes its classic mojitos with “Rum Palmera, a local rum”. It’s produced by Palmera Quality Products, but one rum reviewer found no stated distillery or sugarcane source, and was told that Aruba’s one former distillery is closed. The fair way to describe it is rum bottled and branded in Aruba, not proven to be distilled there.

Modern Aruban cocktails worth ordering

Beyond the heritage drinks, many bars have a house signature. These are modern creations rather than old traditions, but they’re specific to the island:

• Cocojito at MooMba Beach Bar: coconut rum, mint, lime, simple syrup and soda.
• Mangoardiente at The West Deck: rum or aguardiente, mango juice, lime and sugar syrup, finished with chili liqueur or prosecco.
• Batido Rosa at Hilton Aruba: pineapple and lemon juice, soda, grenadine and cachaça.
• Pelican-rita at Pelican Pier Bar on Palm Beach.
• Piña coladas made with real coconut milk at Rum Reef on Baby Beach.
• Bloody Marys at Scott’s Brats, Playa Linda Beach Resort.
• Purple Rain at the SandBar, Bucuti & Tara on Eagle Beach.
• Aloe lemonade at Palms, Hyatt Regency Aruba, which serves four versions.

Alcohol-free Aruban drinks

Not everyone in the group drinks, and the island has a few local options beyond soda. Malta 0.0%, an alcohol-free malt drink, is on the tasting list at the Balashi Beer Experience. Palms at the Hyatt Regency serves four aloe lemonade drinks, so ask which ones come without alcohol. Local guide myarubaguide.com also lists awa di lamunchi, a refreshing lime drink. We couldn’t find a reliable Aruban recipe for it, so ask how they make it.

You can also ask for virgin versions of the classics. A piña colada or a mojito without the rum is still a good drink on a hot afternoon.

Drinks on the water

Boats are another easy place to get a drink. Several sail and catamaran operators include drinks in the ticket: Delphi advertises a snorkel sail with “endless drinks”, Pelican Adventures includes food and drinks on its Havana Sunset Cruise, and on Jolly Pirates trips “the bar, rope swing and merriment are always included”. If you’re chartering a private boat, ask the operator what they provide and what you can bring.

A few rules before you order

The legal drinking age in Aruba is 18. A 2016 amendment to the island’s licensing law raised it from 16 and requires sellers to check ID unless the customer is clearly over 18, so bring yours. And keep cocktails and the ocean apart. VisitAruba’s water safety advice is simple: “Always swim sober.”

Where to drink Aruban drinks without leaving your villa

A lot of these drinks are hard to get right at home. The Aruba Ariba alone calls for vodka, rum, several liqueurs, three juices and grenadine, which is a lot of bottles to buy for a week’s stay. We deliver cocktail jugs mixed by a professional bartender to villas, hotels, homes, boats and beaches, and the Aruba Ariba is one of the five jugs in our Beach Bash package, alongside Rum Punch, Margarita, Mojito and Piña Colada.

Each 1 gallon jug pours roughly 8 to 10 cocktails and is batched fresh the same day, so it arrives ready to pour, with no shopping, measuring or shaking. You can swap flavors through your booking notes, and we confirm by WhatsApp. See the cocktail jug packages, including an alcohol-free Zero-Proof option with Virgin Mojito and Tropical Fruit Punch.