Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail

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Start chilling your martini glasses! Our delicately sweet, sour and slightly floral Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail is perfect for summer sipping and we have an easy mocktail (non-alcoholic) recipe for the kids.

Icy cold Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail in a martini glass with a bowl of fresh rambutans in a wooden bowl.

Juicy sweet rambutan juice with a splash of vodka and sparkling water is the 3-ingredient cocktail with an attitude. Once you give this cocktail recipe a try, you will wonder why you waited so long to find this fun vodka martini. It’s Rambutan Season twice a year from July to late August and again in December and January. Let’s get this party started!

Jump to:

Tropical Cocktail Recipe
Summer Cocktail with Vodka!
What is a Rambutan?
What Does Rambutan Taste Like?
How to Eat Rambutan?
Keeping the Sweet in Check
How to Make a Cocktail?
Fun Appetizers with Cocktails
Kid Friendly Tropical Mocktail
Keeping it "Healthyish"
Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
More Cocktails and Mocktails
Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail

Tropical Cocktail Recipe

Sophisticated

Unique

Exotic

Tropical

Can be made with fresh or canned rambutans

Slightly sweet and floral

Crisp

And not too sweet

Vodka martini getting poured into a martini glass and rambutans around the table.

Summer Cocktail with Vodka!

This rambutan drink recipe is for you. When the heat index soars, there is nothing like a cool and refreshing summer cocktail with vodka to cool you down. Let’s get that shaker going right now to get it snow flaky cold. You deserve it!

Large wooden bowl filled with fresh rambutan fruits and one is opened to show the snowy white fruit inside.

What is a Rambutan?

The Rambutan is a tropical exotic fruit that grows in Southeast Asia and Hawaii too. This fruit is closely related to the lychee and longan and is warming in nature. Be sure to check out our post, Introducing the Five Energies of Food, to learn more about the warming and cooling nature of foods.

This little (3-6 cm) oval red fruit has little green hairs protruding from it. Some breeds of rambutan have yellow hairs. There are some breeds that have a yellow fruit with pink and yellow hair.

She is quite funky looking, don’t you think? Don’t let her scary hair disguise fool you. This exotic fruit is super sweet and tropical in flavor.

Did you know that the Malay word Rambutan means hair? Actually, these little hairs are very messy and frizzy like our hair on a super humid day. (smiling) The Vietnamese call this really bad hair day of the rambutan, “chôm chôm”.

Close up shot of Rambutan showing all the little green hairy like protrusions.

What Does Rambutan Taste Like?

We think rambutan tastes cross between a grape and a pear.

If you compared a rambutan to a lychee, we would say that they are both taste a little sweet and a little sour like a grape. However, the rambutan has more of the sour notes and we like that a lot. A lychee is more floral in taste compared to the rambutan.

The texture of the internal flesh of the rambutan and lychee is similar to a peeled grape. Rambutan fruit inside is actually slightly smaller in size compared to a lychee. The one major distinctive feature between a lychee and a rambutan is their outer appearance.

Lychee fruit has no outer hair. Instead, the lychee has a bumpy outer surface that looks like little flat bubbles. The rambutan fruit has wispy looking “Bad Hair Day” on the outer shell.

Rambutan fruit cut in half showing the white fruit inside.

How to Eat Rambutan?

Always wash fruit first before eating
Hold the rambutan in both of your hands and either your two thumbs to just cut through the center skin and then peel apart. Alternatively, place your rambutan on a cutting board. Then, slice with a knife only through the skin to get it started. Finally, peel apart with your hands.
This will reveal the snowy white interior sweet flesh of the rambutan. Remove the outer hairy peel. (Check out our video in the recipe card below)
Next, you must remove the internal seed from the rambutan as these are toxic. Do not eat the seeds.
You will notice that there is an inner shell lining inside of the flesh of the rambutan, between the seed and the flesh. This is safe and okay to eat. Don’t try to remove it as we will be straining your Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail after we puree it.

Rambutan peeled and cut in half showing the pit and the outer beige skin of the peel. The little bit of the skin of the pit that is left behind is okay to eat.

Keeping the Sweet in Check

Do you like your drinks dry or sweet? The best part about this cocktail you can make it either way by balancing the ingredients to your desired effect.

If you like your cocktails only delicately sweet, do not add any simple syrup. The natural sweetness of the fresh rambutans are perfect as they are a little sweet and slightly sour.
On the other hand, if you want your beverage sourer, add a little spritz of fresh lemon juice to taste.
Like your drinks sweet? You can either...

Option 1: Use canned rambutans in syrup instead of fresh. Add a little of the canned syrup to your desired sweetness.

Option 2: Make yourself a little simple syrup. Add equal amounts of sugar (or sugar alternative of choice) and water to a pot and slowly heat until all the sugar (or sugar alternative of choice) is melted and incorporated. Add a little cooled simple syrup to taste to your drink.

Step by step hoe to make a tropical cocktail drink.

How to Make a Cocktail?

Chill martini or cocktail glasses.
Peel and remove the pit from the rambutans or use canned rambutans. If you can’t find rambutans, you can certainly substitute with lychee fruit instead.
Use a food processor, blender or even a mortar and pestle to mash the rambutan fruit.
In a cocktail shaker add vodka (hold for the kiddy mocktail), ice and mashed rambutan fruit. (if desired you can add either simple syrup or juice from canned rambutans to sweeten.) Shake well.
Strain Tropical Fruit Rambutan cocktail through the strainer and into your chilled glass. Top with a little sparkling water and give it a little stir.
Enjoy!

Snow flaky cold Rambutan Cocktail in a martini glass with a bowl of fresh rambutans in a wooden bowl.

Fun Appetizers with Cocktails

The perfect night is a Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail in one hand and a Vietnamese pizza in the other. Let’s have a tropical Asian themed night. For a delicious cocktail and appetizer pairing, be sure to try our Easy Mango Salsa and tortilla chips, Summer Rolls with Chili Lime Dipping Sauce, Firecracker Grilled Shrimp or our Thai Firecracker Shrimp Party Appetizer.

Kid Friendly Tropical Mocktail

With everyone home together all the time, don’t forget about the kiddos. You can make an alcohol free fizzy rambutan mocktail for the kids in the group too. Just hold the vodka and add a little more sparking water and they can enjoy a delicious rambutan juice with the group.

Keeping it "Healthyish"

One serving of vodka has about 96 calories and is less in carbohydrates compared to other spirits. Using fresh rambutan has less carbohydrates compared to using canned with syrup. We enjoyed our delicious Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail with no added sugar, just the natural sweetness from the fresh fruit.

We always say everything in moderation is the key to success. This vodka martini recipe is vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free.

You may be asking, are Rambutans good for you? According to the NIH, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects of rambutan, including diabetic management has been studied with very promising results.

However, pregnant moms should avoid the over ripe rambutan as they have higher sugar content and this higher sugar content can convert to alcohol.

super close up shot of a hairy rambutan.

Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

How to pick a Fresh Ripe Rambutan?

In the perfect world, you want your rambutan to be bright red with nice green hairs protruding for the perfect ripe rambutan.
They should smell sweet and never sour. The interior fruit should be firm and not mushy.

Just like in our post How to Cut a Pineapple, rambutan fruits do not ripen after harvest. So, pick a good batch to start with.

If you see dark brown rambutan with dark brittle hairs that are all falling off, these are overly ripe. Can you still eat these? Yes, you can. However, when they get overly ripe, they form excess sugars. These excess sugars can ferment into alcohol.

Where can you buy rambutans?

You can purchase these fresh tropical fruits from Asian Markets and even on Amazon from the fresh market. Lucky you, if you live in Hawaii, as you can find them at the local markets.

Alternatively, you can also buy Rambutan fruit canned. Aroy-D has rambutan in syrup in 20 oz (565 g) cans. The canned version you can find at Asian markets and online as well. If you like your cocktails sweeter, you may prefer the canned option as you can use the syrup that the fruit came in to sweeten your drink. In addition, the canned ones already have the pit removed.

How to Store Rambutan?

Rambutan are always best eaten fresh. They can be stored at room temperature only for a day or 2 at most. Then, they must be stored in the refrigerator in a bag with perforated holes so that it can breathe. You can also peel, pit and store them in a freezer safe container in the freezer as they make fantastic Red White and Blue Healthy Sorbets for up to 2 months.

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