Funk The Funky Funk

Funk The Funky Funk was created in October 2022 by Simon Difford, founder of Difford's Guide, at the Clocktower bar in Rye, England. It's a self-described "funked-up Daiquiri": cachaça and unaged overproof Jamaican rum standing in for a single rum, lime juice for snap, sugar cane syrup to match the cachaça's own sugarcane base, and coconut water and a touch of pineapple liqueur to round out the funk instead of fighting it. As with several drinks in this batch, the only documentation this site could find is Difford's own listing — there's no independent write-up or older lineage to speak of, which fits a drink barely a few years old.

A Recent, Single-Source Drink

There's no mystery to solve here the way there is with some of the older tiki drinks in this batch — the creator, bar, and date are all specific and recent (2022, the Clocktower, Rye), and Difford's Guide is the only place the recipe appears. That's not a knock on the drink, just an honest accounting of what can and can't be verified.

The name is doing double duty: it's a nod to Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia), the jazz-funk track Difford suggests playing while you drink it, and a fair description of what unaged overproof Jamaican rum and cachaça taste like stacked on top of each other — grassy, funky, and unapologetically loud.

The Spec

Cachaça for a grassy sugarcane backbone, a smaller pour of overproof Jamaican rum for funk and lift, lime for acid, sugar cane syrup to keep the cane flavor consistent, coconut water to soften the whole thing, and a small pineapple liqueur pour for a fruit top note.

Why coconut water, not coconut cream

Coconut water is thin and only lightly sweet, which keeps this a shaken, citrus-forward drink rather than tipping it into a rich piña-colada-style texture. Coconut cream would overpower the cachaça's grassiness; the water just rounds the edges.

Two funky spirits, not one

Cachaça and unaged overproof Jamaican rum are both grassy, high-proof sugarcane spirits, but they're not interchangeable — cachaça is fermented and distilled straight from cane juice, while the rum comes from molasses. Stacking them adds complexity instead of just adding more of the same thing.

Bottom Line

This is a loud, honest drink that doesn't pretend to be older or more storied than it is — a sharp, funky modern daiquiri variant worth a spot in the rotation on its own merits.

The Daiquiri Family