Strictly speaking, the Bushwacker cocktail—a creamy, boozy combination of coffee, chocolate, and orange liqueurs, plus milk, cream of coconut, and rum or vodka—is not a Florida creation. The drink was invented in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 1970s, when bartender Angie Conigliaro of the Ship's Store in St. Thomas threw a bunch of stuff in a blender in an attempt to make a sort of tropical version of a White Russian. Later, according to the definitive history of the drink written by journalist Aaron Goldfarb for Punch, bar manager Tom Brokamp, who claims he originally suggested the idea for the drink to Conigliaro, would sell it to tourists as a maximalist piña colada. The drink wouldn't get its unique moniker until a pair of flight attendants became enamored with it; the pair owned a dog named Bushwack, which Conigliaro used for the name.
Eventually, the Bushwacker would migrate to Florida, after a woman named Linda Murphy tried it on vacation. Murphy worked the bar at the Sandshaker Lounge in Pensacola Beach, and she decided to put her own version of the drink on the menu. Murphy's updated Bushwacker used rum instead of vodka, and added chocolate sauce and whipped cream, giving the drink even more of a milkshakelike feel.
