Fish Bowl Drink

Drink up summertime with a Fish Bowl drink. Served in fish bowl glasses, this bright blue cocktail is complete with fish-shaped candies and makes a great party drink.

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Fish Bowl Drink recipe

Fish Bowl drinks have long been served at bars. Sure, they’re gimmicky, but they’re sure fun to share with friends. Now you can make this party punch at home!

With all the flavors of tropical sunshine, plus vodka and rum, the Fish Bowl drink is a great way to get on island time without the tiki bar.

Served in round glasses or even a plastic fish bowl with colorful fish-shaped candies, this blue cocktail looks just like a miniature aquarium!

Whether you make two or increase the batch to share a fish bowl with friends, this bright blue cocktail is refreshing and perfect for summertime sipping.

This drink has a longer ingredient list than most, but it’s worth it. This bright and colorful beverage is sure to bring smiles.

Why you’ll love this recipe

This awesome drink recipe is great for pool days, summer parties, bachelorette weekends and more.

• Blue hues and colorful fish candies give this adult drink a nostalgic feel.
• You can make one, two or a big batch to share for a crowd. It’s a fun party drink!
• It is full of tropical flavor with notes of pineapple, coconut and citrus.

The flavor profile includes cool coconut, fresh pineapple and citrus. The vibrant hue is thanks to blue curaçao, an orange-flavored liqueur.

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to pick up at the grocery store and liquor store to make this fun drink:

• coconut rum
• blue curaçao
• vodka
• pineapple juice
• sour mix (or, simple syrup, lemon juice and lime juice)
• fish candies, for garnish

Let’s chat about what to shop for and some of the ways you can mix this cocktail up:

Coconut rum

Coconut rum is a staple for tropical cocktails like the Piña Colada or the Malibu Sunrise. If you love coconut, this is a great spirit to have around!

There are lots of brands out there. I use Bacardi Coconut Rum, but Malibu Coconut Rum is a classic. Kōloa Kaua’i Coconut Rum is a bit more top shelf, but really delicious.

Blue curaçao

Blue curaçao liqueur is what turns this cocktail blue. It’s also used in the blue margarita (and its frozen version). It can also be mixed with orange juice to make it green, as I do in these green mimosas.

Look in the liqueurs section of your liquor store for blue curaçao. It will be near the orange liqueurs and triple secs, such as Cointreau and Grand Marnier. You can’t miss it — it has a deep blue color!

You can also use triple sec or clear-colored, regular curaçao in this recipe but you will want to add several drops of blue food coloring.

Vodka

You can use any vodka in this recipe, but I recommend a medium quality. As I always say, use the best spirits you can afford.

My go-to brands right now are Tito’s, Deep Eddy and Absolut, but I have more suggestions in my Vodka 101 crash course. I’ll tell you how to pick out a bottle of vodka.

If you want, you can use pineapple vodka or peach schnapps instead for a fruitier drink.

Pineapple juice

Fresh-juiced pineapple will give this cocktail tons of fresh flavor, but feel free to use canned or bottled juice. Make sure there is no pulp.

Sour mix

The last drink ingredient is sour mix, which I prefer to make homemade over buying store-bought.

If you don’t have store-bought, you can use a 2:1:1 ratio of simple syrup to lemon and lime juices.

(In other words, if you need 4 ounces sour mix: Use 2 ounces simple syrup and 1 ounce each of lemon juice and lime juice.)

Garnishes

I garnished this cocktail with fish-shaped gummy candy and paper parasols. You can also garnish with orange, lemon or lime slices. Fruit slices make it even more colorful.

The easiest-to-find candy is Swedish fish gummy candy. The ones I used are the Scandinavian Swimmers from Trader Joe’s.

You could also use gummy sharks for a Shark Week cocktail.

Some people like to add Nerds candy “for gravel” at the bottom of the bowl. These will dissolve and as they do, they can turn the blue cocktail into murky waters. Then they can get sucked up by the straw, so do it at your own risk.

I also added cocktail umbrellas. If using a big bowl, you will probably want to use straws. These straws have cocktail umbrellas on them. The different colors will help your friends identify their straw.

How to make a Fish Bowl drink

Making fish bowl drinks is easy!

To a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add all the ingredients except the candy and shake well.

Then pour into two glasses filled with ice. Garnish with cocktail umbrellas and fish candies.

If you want to serve this drink for a crowd, you can use a full-size fish bowl for a punch bowl. See the large-scale recipe below.

Fishbowl Glasses

Here are some glassware ideas

• Balloon-shaped glasses: I used these round stemless wine glasses for my fishbowl cocktails. They are great for individual servings.
• Mini fish bowls: These mini fish bowl glasses come with lids and straws. Perfect for sipping individual fish bowls poolside or beachside!
• Real fish bowls: For a multi-serving punch, check out the section below. For 8 servings, use a ½-gallon fish bowl. For 16 servings, use a 1-gallon fish bowl.

Fish Bowl Drinks for a Crowd

The recipe at the bottom of this page makes two individual servings or one larger serving for two people. It’s about 14 ounces altogether.

But if you want to share one big fish bowl with friends, you’ll need a much bigger portion! I once enjoyed one of these with a bunch of friends in New Orleans. It was so silly but so fun.

Make it in a large bowl or a pitcher. About 8 servings will fit in a ½-gallon fish bowl with room for ice. Here’s how to multiply the recipe into a punch:

• 2 cups coconut rum
• 2 cups blue curaçao
• 2 cups vodka
• 4 cups pineapple juice
• 4 cups simple syrup (or 2 cups simple syrup, 1 cup lemon juice and 1 cup lime juice)

For a 1-gallon fish bowl, double the recipe above.

More tropical drink recipes

• Pineapple Mimosa
• Frozen Margarita
• Strawberry Mojito
• Rum & Coke
• Frozen Mango Daiquiri
• Boozy Dole Whip