Coconut Rum substitute

Best substitute

White Rum Plus Cream of Coconut

Per 1 ½ oz coconut rum: ¾ oz white rum plus ¾ oz cream of coconut

Best for pina colada

Different texture

The best all-round substitute because it rebuilds both halves of what coconut rum is: cane spirit and sweet coconut. The split ratio also keeps the drink at roughly the strength the recipe intended.

Other coconut rum substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2White Rum Plus Simple Syrup and Coconut Extract
Close match
Per 1 ½ oz coconut rum: ¾ oz white rum, ¾ oz simple syrup, ¼ teaspoon coconut extract
The version to use when the drink needs to stay clear.
What changes
It matches Malibu's sweetness, its strength and its bright artificial-leaning coconut note more closely than anything else.
Best for
Malibu bay breeze, sea breeze variations, coconut and pineapple highballs, punch, jello shots
This is a very close match, arguably closer than the cream of coconut route, because Malibu's coconut flavour really is a clean sweet extract note rather than the full nutty richness of coconut flesh. The catch is that coconut extract is potent and goes soapy if you overdo it, so add it a few drops at a time and taste. Use a 1:1 simple syrup, not a rich 2:1, or the drink will be cloying.
3Another Coconut Rum or Coconut Liqueur
Close match
Use the same amount but check the strength on the label
Bacardi Coconut, Cruzan Coconut, Koloa Coconut and various supermarket own-label coconut rums all sit in the same slot, and any of them will do the job.
What changes
Best for
any recipe calling for Malibu, pina colada, tropical cocktails, shots
Strength varies a lot and it matters. Malibu is 21 percent and heavily sweetened; Bacardi Coconut is around 35 percent and much drier. Swapping the drier ones in 1:1 gives a noticeably stronger, less sweet drink, so add a teaspoon of simple syrup per 1 1/2 oz to bring it back into balance. Going the other way, using Malibu where a recipe expects a drier coconut rum makes the drink sweet enough to taste like sunscreen.
4Coconut Syrup or Coconut Water Plus Extract (alcohol-free)
Different taste
Per 1 ½ oz coconut rum: 1 ½ oz coconut syrup, or 1 ½ oz coconut water plus a few drops of coconut extract and 2 teaspoons sugar
For a mocktail, this is the honest answer, and it works better than most alcohol-free swaps because coconut rum was mostly flavour and sugar to begin with.
What changes
Best for
virgin pina colada, coconut lemonade, mocktail punch, iced coffee, kids' tropical drinks
You lose the alcohol's warmth and its slight drying bite, so the drink is sweeter and softer and tastes more like a fruit cooler than a cocktail. A quarter ounce of lime juice and a dash of bitters, if bitters are acceptable to you, restores a lot of the structure. Bottled coconut syrup from a coffee-syrup line is already very sweet, so cut any other sugar in the recipe.
5White or Gold Rum on Its Own
Different taste
Use Use half the volume the recipe calls for, plus 2 teaspoons simple syrup for every 1 ½ oz replaced
The bare-cupboard option.
What changes
You get the rum backbone and the right strength, and you accept that there will be no coconut in the drink.
Best for
punches with pineapple or orange juice, daiquiri variations, drinks with coconut milk already in them
Halving the volume is the important part, since matching 1 1/2 oz of 21 percent liqueur with 1 1/2 oz of 40 percent rum nearly doubles the alcohol in the glass and makes a bay breeze undrinkable. The result tastes like a clean rum drink, sharper and boozier, with the tropical sweetness gone. If there is coconut milk or coconut cream elsewhere in the recipe, this swap barely shows.
6Velvet Falernum
Different taste
Use the same amount and drop any other sweetener in the recipe
A Barbadian rum liqueur at a similar low strength and similar sweetness level, which makes it a structurally correct swap even though the flavour is not coconut.
What changes
Best for
tiki cocktails, rum punch, Bahama mama, planter's punch
Falernum tastes of lime, clove, almond and ginger, so the drink goes from creamy-tropical to spiced and citrusy, which is a genuinely good cocktail but a different one. It works well in tiki drinks that already have pineapple and lime doing the heavy lifting, and badly in a pina colada, where coconut is the entire point.

What is Coconut Rum?

Coconut Rum is Coconut rum, best known as Malibu, is a sweetened coconut-flavoured rum liqueur bottled at around 21 percent alcohol rather than the 40 percent of a normal spirit, so in a drink it is supplying coconut flavour and a lot of sugar as much as it is supplying alcohol.

Cooking tips

Coconut rum is a liqueur, not a rum, and this is the single fact that determines every substitution. At around 21 percent alcohol and heavily sweetened, an ounce of it contributes about half the alcohol and several times the sugar of an ounce of white rum. Any swap has to account for both, which is why the good substitutes are always a spirit plus a sweetener rather than a spirit alone.
Cream of coconut and coconut milk are not interchangeable here. Cream of coconut is thick and loaded with sugar, which is what makes it a good stand-in for a sweet liqueur. Plain coconut milk has almost no sugar, so if that is all you have, add two teaspoons of sugar or simple syrup per ounce.
In a blended pina colada the coconut rum is doing so much of the sweetening that swapping it changes the whole balance. Build the drink, taste the mix before you pour it out, and adjust with a little simple syrup or extra lime rather than trusting the recipe's proportions after a substitution.
Coconut extract is far stronger than it looks. A quarter teaspoon flavours a whole cocktail, and half a teaspoon makes it taste like suntan lotion. Add it drop by drop, off the measuring spoon, and stop while you still want more.
Once opened, coconut rum keeps well but its flavour fades over a year or two because the coconut flavouring degrades faster than the alcohol. If a bottle at the back of a cupboard tastes thin and papery, that is why, and adding a splash of cream of coconut will bring the drink back.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use regular rum instead of coconut rum?

Yes, but use half the volume and add sugar, because coconut rum is roughly half the strength of a normal rum and much sweeter. For every 1 1/2 oz of coconut rum, use 3/4 oz of white rum plus two teaspoons of simple syrup. You will still have no coconut flavour, so add a quarter teaspoon of coconut extract or 3/4 oz of cream of coconut if the coconut matters to the drink, which in a pina colada it certainly does.

Can I just leave the coconut rum out?

In a pina colada or anything named after coconut, no, because it is providing the coconut and most of the sugar at once. In a mixed punch or a fruity highball, yes, and the drink will just be sharper and less sweet, so add a little simple syrup and it will be fine. If you are aiming for a mocktail, replace it with the same volume of coconut syrup or coconut water rather than simply removing it, so the drink keeps its body.

Is Malibu the same as coconut rum?

Malibu is a brand of coconut rum and by far the most common one, so recipes use the words interchangeably. It matters slightly when substituting because Malibu is on the sweet, low-strength end at around 21 percent, while some competitors like Bacardi Coconut are stronger and drier at around 35 percent. Swapping those in 1:1 gives a boozier, less sweet drink, so add a teaspoon of simple syrup per shot to match.

What is the difference between coconut rum and cream of coconut?

Coconut rum is a clear alcoholic liqueur flavoured with coconut. Cream of coconut is a thick, non-alcoholic, heavily sweetened coconut product sold under names like Coco Lopez, used in pina coladas and coquito. They are both sweet and both taste of coconut, which is why they get confused, but one is a spirit and one is essentially a sweet coconut syrup. A good coconut rum substitute often combines cream of coconut with white rum, which is really just taking the liqueur apart into its two components.

What is the best alcohol-free substitute for coconut rum?

Coconut syrup, the kind sold for coffee, used at the same volume, or coconut water with a few drops of coconut extract and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Both give you the sweetness and the coconut flavour, which is most of what the liqueur was contributing. Add a quarter ounce of lime juice to the drink to replace the sharpness the alcohol was providing, otherwise the mocktail tastes flat and syrupy.

Related substitutes

More liquor substitutes

Coconut Rum substitute

Other coconut rum substitutes

2White Rum Plus Simple Syrup and Coconut Extract

3Another Coconut Rum or Coconut Liqueur

4Coconut Syrup or Coconut Water Plus Extract (alcohol-free)

5White or Gold Rum on Its Own

6Velvet Falernum