Fluffy Duck

A creamy Australian classic from the 1970s blending rum with Advocaat and orange juice, creating a smooth, dessert-like cocktail with a playful name.

The Fluffy Duck emerged from Australia's enthusiastically indulgent 1970s cocktail culture, a decade in which sweet, creamy, and richly flavored drinks dominated hotel bars and RSL club menus across the country. The RSL — the Returned and Services League, founded in 1916 to support Australian veterans — operated thousands of licensed clubs in every suburb and regional town, and their bars became a defining feature of Australian social drinking life from the post-war period through the 1990s. The Fluffy Duck's key distinction is Advocaat, the Dutch egg liqueur that has been produced in the Netherlands since the 17th century when Dutch colonists in South America began making it from avocados (the name likely derives from the Dutch pronunciation of the Portuguese abacate, avocado). When avocados became difficult to source, the recipe shifted to eggs and cream, and the thick, yellow, custard-like liqueur has been a Dutch specialty ever since. Combining Advocaat with white rum and citrus juice creates a cocktail that is richer and more substantial than either component suggests alone — the egg proteins in the Advocaat contribute an almost milkshake-like body, while the rum's clean spirit base and the citrus acid keep the whole drink from becoming cloying. It became a recognizable Australian cocktail identity: sweet, unapologetically indulgent, and perfectly suited to the easygoing bar culture of the era that produced it.