This Sunnyboy cocktail has been on The Gresham list for 10 years (with good reason)

Created by then general manager, Mat Hewitt, in 2013, the drink continues to find fans.

This Sunnyboy cocktail has been on The Gresham list for 10 years (with good reason)
The Sunnyboy cocktail at The Gresham. Photo: Millie Tang
This drink is one of the Boothby Top 50 Drinks of the Year 2023 — you can see the full Top 50 here.

Sunnyboy

Ingredients

  • 50ml coconut-butter washed vodka
  • 50ml pineapple juice
  • 15ml passionfruit purée
  • 15ml vanilla syrup (2:1)

Instructions

  1. Shake all ingredients with ice.,
  2. Double strain into a coupe glass with a coconut sugar rim.

Notes

The Sunnyboy was created by Mat Hewitt when he was opening The Gresham in Brisbane as general manager some 10 years ago. Current day Gresham bartenders Millie Tang and Corby Small brought the drink to our attention — it’s delicious — and managed to get some more info from Hewitt.

“Well, it was around the time that fat washed Old Fashions were coming in, the directors and I tasted a few in NYC at Death and Co. and thought they were really bloody tasty,” says Hewitt. “They were keen on making it or a variation as the Gresham house drink. The directors and I were adamant that the house cocktail needed to represent QLD, as we had the first heritage liquor license and all the history associated with the space and name.

“I mainly wanted to have a very qld style cocktail, it was either passionfruit or mango. The base was the start , I created the drink at home messing around with fat washes - I knew anything with oil/fat would stick to the alcohol. Butter and Coconut worked really well, passionfruit and pineapple added length and enhanced the butter, then vanilla because, well who doesn’t love vanilla. The rum was based on Barry Chalmers winning cocktail at the Bowery, the Mesha, so I used a sugar/coconut rum.

“I named it the Summer Time, the directors loved the drink, said it tasted like a Sunnyboy. The name stuck as it fit perfectly. Still one of my favourite drinks to make.”