I`m a bit late to the party with this post, i blame it on the working-week…but for this booo weekend i have a rum-barrel type of tiki drink served in a for the theme black pineapple.
I`m making it with – well you may have guessed it – rum – and after the UK rumfest one could believe i`d be tired of rum but no no no…that´s not the case, and i don´t think that`ll ever happen..
There`s a so much spooky drinks out there that i really didn´t know what to make…should i carve out a pumpkin or make a flaming drink? well i already did that last year, so no…Should i make a blood-red vampire type of drink?
I had no clue…but then i saw that nice pineapple in the shop and decided to paint it black and use as vessel for a heavy tiki drink that should quench the thirst at least for folks who likes exotic rum drinks.
This is grown-up treat:
SPOOKY PINEAPPLE
Not that this pineapple looks very spooky at all…it rather looks grilled…:-) So scoop out a pineapple and paint it black.
Muddle a handful of pineapple pieces with 0.5 oz butter-cinnamon syrup mix in shaker and add:
Shake hard with ice and double strain into the pineapple filled with crushed ice and if you wish, top with a little Ting. Float Lemon Hart151
Garnish with something fun.
BUTTER-CINNAMON SYRUP MIX
Make cinnamon syrup by adding equal parts demerara sugar and water in a pan and heat to dissolve the sugar. Add crushed cinnamon sticks and lightly boil on low heat for just a little, then take off heat and leave to cool and let the flavors blend for an hour or two. Then strain and bottle. Or use B.G Reynold´s excellent cinnamon syrup.
Then melt one teaspoon butter for every 0.5 oz syrup. Add the melted butter to the syrup and stir together.
It´s simply a refreshing tiki drink, not the least spooky but there´s more than enough spooky drinks out there…in any case it´s tasty and most of all – relaxing. You can play with different rums too.
The fragrance of coffee is one of those lovely things that belongs to our comfort-zone, really, what would we do without it?
I`m gonna write a little series on my favorite flavor combinations and coffee and pineapple is first out. The pairing of flavors is something that i`ve always been interested in and i`m more or less always on the hunt for new flavors to play with.
But also old and proven flavor pairings are fun to mix with and good to imbibe and like the classic cocktails always will be there. One such flavor combination is coffee and pineapple and especially in the tiki drink world it`s a classic.
Pineapple goes well with cinnamon too – another tiki classic. But in this post i`ll deal with the coffee. Every coffee lover knows how important it is to choose good quality and flavorful coffee – beans or blends. I have over the years tried many different coffees and i have now settled with 3 types that i think is superior to any other.
These 3 coffees are first the coffee from Louisiana (especially Community Coffee) then Kona coffee from Hawaii and finally Jamaican Blue Mountain. These three are more flavorful, strong and fullbodied than any other i have tried from anywhere. The Community Coffee is my house coffee of the three.
I recently introduced that coffee to a co-worker and he said i have turned his coffee-world upside down and that he´ll never want another coffee…that´s how good he found it to be and i`m not going to say against that. He did put it above Blue Mountain which is a good coffee..
So good coffee for great cocktails! and coffee in cocktails is a wonderful thing, it creates a contrasting flavor and paired with pineapple is a marriage in heaven. When it comes to flavor pairings a rule of thumb is that the things that grows together in the same climate also goes best together.
Now the pineapple – it gotta be FRESH! i like the ones that are not yet fully ripe but still fragrant since they are really fresh and not too sweet. You can check if a pineapple is ripe by tearing off one of the top leaves, it should go off easily and by sniffing on it, it should be very fragrant. The kinda almost-ripe ones i like are lightly fragrant, the leaf goes off but not too easily and they are a bit greenish.
Put pineapple and coffee together with dark rum, lime and sugar and you´re in for a treat. Here´s a very classic type of tiki drink, i call this one Coffee Barrel, a bit boring name i know but it fits with the rum barrel mug i used. (These cool rum barrel mugs are from Smuggler´s Cove)
COFFEE BARREL
Place 5-6 coffee beans in a shaker and crush them but don´t make powder out of it. Add 5-6 chunks of fresh pineapple and muddle with the crushed beans.
1 oz white cachaca ( i used Abelha which is very smooth without being industrial – it´s handcrafted small batch)
Shake hard with ice and double strain into a tiki mug or chimney glass with crushed ice. If using a large mug like the rum barrel mug you may make a double recipe.
Float Smith & Cross (a good float)
Garnish mint sprig and pineapple chunks
This tastes rummy, spicy and tiki! and the addition of aphrodite bitters blends well with the pineapple-coffee theme since the bitters contains coffee as well. So let´s move on to one of my favorite cocktails, the daiquiri. And here´s my version of the Aphrodite Daiquiri:
APHRODITE DAIQUIRI
1 oz white rum ( i used Havana Club 3 yo)
1 oz Smith & Cross
0.75 0z fresh lime juice
0.5 oz pineapple syrup
2-3 dashes Aphrodite bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with a rough golden sugar rim.
Liquid gold with just a touch of coffee and pineapple…
This Month’s Theme is: Drinks that are a total pain in the ass to make!
Pain in the ass drinks..sure i can deliver that;-) actually i have no less than three for this MxMo which urges us all to come up with the most laboursome drinks you can think of. But laboursome doesn´t mean that they aren`t tasty, rather the contrary – often you´ll be greatly rewarded.
Its definetily a good idea to make these i`ll post here at home when you have plenty of time.
I`m lucky to be a cocktail blogger. That permits me to mix up my drinks at any pace i want and stop mixing when i`ve had enough, or play with the most impossible ideas for garnish. Its fun – but even me takes shortcuts and avoid certain drinks more often than not, especially when i`m about to mix drinks that are not for a blog post.
As most people already know, the worst drinks to make are the TIKI cocktails – not all – but many, say 6 out of 10, something like that. Its not uncommon with 8-13 ingredients and of course normal simple syrup will not do -Â you need to at least make sure you have orgeat, falernum, grenadine, Donn`s spices #2, several flavored syrups and various tinctures and drams – like pimento dram. Not to mention the amount of rums, liqueurs and other spirits that are needed, some in very small quantities like say – drops. (absinthe) But for how to master all these exotic drinks there`s help.
I haven`t yet mentioned the garnish these drinks very often require to be properly crowned.
My drinks for this MxMo aren´t any specific and known tiki drinks though, its actually a few twists on the Pina Colada which isn`t a tiki drink – but the way they are made puts them into the tiki cathegory of labour i think.
So if you are lazy stop reading.
The drinks here are a bit labourous yes – but not difficult. If you have the time to elaborate a bit you`ll be rewarded with tropical extravaganza.
The Pina Colada is a very nice drink and i like it a lot but i don´t make it very often, maybe it has to do with that i prefer coconut milk in cooking rather than drinking and for drinking when it comes to the coconut i prefer the green coconut water. Anyway, i decided to make a few twists of the pina colada and after some experimenting i came up with three coladas that basically are very similar yet very different.
Another thing in this post is that many measurements are quite approximate, i try to be exact when i can but it doesn´t always work out, especially not with these kind of drinks.
TEPACHE COLADA
0.5 pineapple peeled and cored and cut into chunks. Save 2 chunks for the garnish along with 2 leaves. Puree the chunks and strain so you get fresh juice.
1.5 oz white rhum agricole
0.5 oz aged rhum agricole
2 oz coconut milk
2 oz fresh pineapple juice
1 oz tepache (made with an extra pinch of palmsugar)
4 cups ice
Blend in blender until smooth and pour into ice filled glass. Garnish with pineapple chunks and leaves.
Tepache
The basic recipe for tepache or pineapple beer is sugar, water, and pineapple skins. Its a Mexican fermented pineapple drink traditionally made with fresh sugarcane juice – known as guarapo and spices. But you can make tepache with raw sugar as well as fresh sugarcane juice is hard to find in many places.
The key is to use a pineapple that is ripe.There are some ways to see if a pineapple is ripe and what not to do is to base your judgment on its colour. Instead pick it up and sniff at the base, it should smell sweet. Next, the leaves should be fresh and green and the leaves in the middle should be easy to pull out. If the pineapple has brown soft spots, leave it and find another, it should be firm.
So now you have found a ripe nice pinapple, here´s what to do next:
Peel with about half inch of pineapple flesh attached to peel. Then chop into 1 inch pieces.
8 – 12 cups water
2 cups raw unrefined sugar plus a tsp palmsugar dissolved in 1 cup very hot water. The palmsugar is optional, but i l´like the deep flavour it gives.
1 lime, juiced (optional)
8 ounces ginger root, cut into small chunks (optional) or a few cinnamon sticks, cloves, and/or star anise
Place peel, sugar and spices in a one gallon container that has a cover. Add enough water to top it off and seal the container. Leave the bottles in a sunny or warm area minimum overnight and maximum 5 days (more days = more fizz) its a clear advantage to have warm temps (for the fermentation) so unless you live in a warm place do this in the summer. Then add the lime juice. To serve, chill in refrigerator.
The leftover of this tepache can be served as is or why not mix it with some rum? I think the tepache goes very well with the rest of ingredients in this colada, it adds a bit of a mellow spiciness.
The next colada is using Crema de Mezcal. You can use any good quality mezcal you like in it but i think the crema is the one for this drink – giving to it a smoky flavour and then using some roast coconut milk to combine adds some charred nuttiness:
MEZCOLADA
05-1 pineapple peeled and cored and cut into chunks. Save 2 chunks for the garnish along with 1-2 leaves. Puree the chunks and strain so you get fresh juice.
1 oz reposado tequila
1 oz Del maguey Crema de Mezcal
2 oz roast coconut milk
2 oz fresh pineapple juice
1t orgeat
4 cups ice
Blend in blender until smooth and pour into ice filled glass or serve in pineapple shell. Garnish with roasted coconut chips (or why not a mezcal soaked cherry) and pineapple leaves.
Roast Coconut milk – Toast a handful of shaved fresh coconut chips until well brown and mix with 1 can lukewarm coconutmilk in blender, leave to sit for a while, then strain through cheesecloth.This is my own way to make it easier.
The traditional way to make roast coconut milk is to first roast chunks of fresh coconut in a charcoal fire until blackened on all sides.Then brush off the charred exterior and grate the flesh before adding it into a bowl and add 2 cups of lukewarm water. Then squeeze and knead the coconut thoroughly for 1 minute, then strain through cheesecloth into a bowl to obtain thick coconut milk. Probably the traditional way makes for a tastier roast coconut milk but i haven`t tried as i have no place to make a fire. There`s a lot of yummy flavours in this drink, the agave from the tequila and mezcal plus the smoke, roast coconut milk, almond and pineapple.
The task of opening a coconut, shave the flesh and toast it may seem laboursome but it actually isn´t, here is a link on how to do it easily.
HONEYCREAM COLADA
The last colada is flavoured with baked banana honeycream. That is a mixture of baked banana, honey, sugar and water. It was used in a cocktail comp in Copenhagen and their version used water not cream. But in this drink i use heavy cream instead of water to cream it up with the coconut milk.
Here`s how to do it: Bake your bananas in the oven untill they get a bit of color and blend it with equal parts honey and heavy cream, add a bit of sugar ( i used muscovado) to bring out the banana and reduce it in a pan.
0.5 pineapple peeled and cored and cut into chunks. Save 2 chunks for the garnish along with 1-2 leaves.
1.5 oz rhum agricole blanc
0.5 oz JWray overproof
2 oz coconut milk
2 oz fresh pineapple juice
1 tsp baked banana honey cream
4 cups ice
Hibiscus tincture (optional, just for that little extra ( labour)
Blend in blender until smooth and pour into ice filled glass. Garnish with the pineapple chunks, and pineapple leaf and a few dashes hibiscus tincture for a little extra flavor contrast and color.
Hibiscus tincture
Mix 1oz crushed dried hibiscus flowers (jamaica) with 5oz highproof grain spirit or overproof rum like JWray and leave for a few days, then strain and bottle. Use it in drops.
To play further with these coladas you may use vanilla beans, demerara rum, muscovado sugar, cinnamon syrup, cachaca, macadamia nut syrup, Trader Tiki`s syrups to name a few ingredients.
Have fun! thanks Mike for hosting with a fun topic!
Here are three New Year tiki drinks to imbibe at the end of this year (and thereafter) Thanks for reading my blog and commenting on my posts which helps keeping the blog alive.
I`m happy to now be on the right side of the year soon – now we move towards spring and summer again even though very slowly..so here its not going to get any darker but slowly lighter, but i won`t see any change until beginning of march. For the moment it gets dark around 3pm.
I hope to mix many many drinks in the year to come..
DRUNKEN MOAI
A handful fresh pineapple chunks
Dash cinnamon powder
1t liquid honey
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
2 oz aged cachaca
A little champagne to top
Garnish hibiscus sugar rim, pineapple leaves and slice.
Crush dried hibiscus flowers into a fine powder and mix with a golden fine sugar. Rim a tall glass and fill up halfway with crushed ice – carefully to not ruin the rim, Muddle pineapple, cinnamon, honey and lime in a shaker, add cachaca and ice and shake well.
Double strain into the glass, fill up with some more crushed ice and top with a little bit of champagne.
NEHE NEHE
2 oz rhum agricole blanc
0.5 oz golden raw sugar syrup
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fresh grapefruit juice
Dash Angostura bitters
Small dash hibiscus grenadine
Garnish golden sugar rim and citrus leaves
Rim the glass with golden fine sugar and fill up halfway with crushed ice – carefully to not ruin the rim,.Shake ingredients and strain into the glass and add more crushed ice to fill Garnish with a few citrus leaves.
THE RISING SUN
2 oz El Dorado 3 year old cask aged rum
¼ oz Mozart Dry
1 oz pineapple juice
A little champagne to top
Garnish cocoa rim and mint
Rim the glass with cocoa powder, fill up with crushed ice. Shake ingredients except the champagne and strain into the glass. Carefully add more crushed ice to fill and top with a little champagne.
Time again! This months MxMo is hosted by eGullet Society – thanks very much for hosting! Here is the announcement:
This month, fellow Society members, we are the hosts for a Mixology Monday on the theme of dizzy dairy. Any drink using a dairy product is fair game: milk, cream, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, curds, you name it. Given the importance of dairy products in drinks dating back centuries, there are lots of opportunities for digging through vintage receipts for a taste of the past, and as always innovation is highly encouraged.
This really gives room for a lot to play with and i`m a lover of egg whites in cocktails, but i suspect many will use that so therefore i have chosen another route – butter. In the form of honey-cream-mix which is equal parts honey, sugar and butter, no cream even though the name suggests that. As one may guess, the honey-cream-mix is a part of the tiki realm of cocktail mixing. The most well known is honey-mix which is equal parts honey and water. A similar mix is used in Pearl Diver`s Punch.
When using honey-cream-mix its necessary to keep it just above room temp before you mix it because of the butter solids. The preferred way to mix it is with a blender saving ice for last and blend at high speed no more than 20 sek. Then strain through a fine wire mesh sieve and serve immediately.
SMOKY PINEAPPLE
1 pineapple, hollowed
5-6 chunks of fresh pineapple
2 oz tequila reposado
0.5 oz Crema de mezcal (Del Maguey)
1 oz honey-cream-mix
¼ oz orgeat
Ting to top
Hollow out a whole pineapple to make a drink vessel, the easiest way is to use a pineapple corer. Preferably use a pineapple thats is newly matured, they are less sweet. To easily take out the core in the middle, cut a bit with a small knife and/or twist it. Then take 1-2 slices and cut out chunks. If you dont have a fresh pineapple, don`t use canned juice…rather use a cartoned juice.
Add all ingredients to a blender saving ice for last and blend at high speeed for exactly 20 sek. Then strain through a fine wire mesh sieve into the pineapple filled with crushed ice. top with Ting and serve immediately.
Garnish a pineapple leaf and mezcal soaked cherry.
HONEY CREAM MIX
Take equal parts liquid honey, sugar and butter and heat it and stir to make a sauce.
There are a few things that just seems to be made for each other, like JW&N Jamaican overproof rum and the likewise Jamaican grapefruit beverage called TING! Just pour some ice, fresh lime juice and Ting in a glass and top with JWray…i mean can it get much better?
Ting was first created by Guinness of Jamaica, later acquired by D & G (Desnoes & Geddes) brewers of Red Stripe Beer. It contains a small amount of sediment consisting of grapefruit juice pulp. A relative newcomer to the citrus clan, the Jamaican grapefruit was originally believed to be a spontaneous sport of the pomelo.
James MacFayden, in his Flora of Jamaica in 1837 Â separated the Jamaican grapefruit from the pomelo, giving the Jamaican grapefruit the botanical name, Citrus paradisi Macf. About 1948, citrus specialists began to suggest that the Jamaican grapefruit was not a sport of the pomelo but an accidental hybrid between the pomelo and the orange.
The botanical name has been altered to reflect this view, and the Jamaican grapefruit is now generally accepted as Citrus X paradisi. The Jamaican grapefruit was first described in 1750 by Griffith Hughes who called the Jamaican grapefruit the “forbidden Jamaican grapefruit†of Barbados.
In Hortus Jamaicensis, it mentions the “Jamaican grapefruit†as a variety of the shaddock, (old name of the “pomelo†(Citrus maxima – which the now defunct “Forbidden fruits liqueur†was made of ) but not as large; and as forbidden Jamaican grapefruit – a variety of the shaddock – but the Jamaican grapefruit is much smaller, having a thin, tough, smooth, pale yellow rind.
Another wonderful drink that contains both Ting and JWray is a drink that i call Pineapple Delight. Its my take of the Mango-Pineapple Float. Its fresh muddled pineapple, honey cream mix , fresh lime juice, orgeat, JW&N overproof rum, dash of grapefruit bitters and rhum agricole topped with Ting.
PINEAPPLE DELIGHT
1 cored pineapple. In mixing glass add:
A few large chunks of pineapple – muddled
2 juiced limes
1 barspoon orgeat
1.5 oz Rhum Agricole Blanc 100 proof
2 tblsp fresh honey cream-mix* with a splash JWray overproof rum
Dash of grapefruit bitters
Shake hard and fast, strain and serve in the pineapple with crushed ice Top with Ting. Garnish with 2 pineapple leaves and a piece of pineapple. Believe me..this drink is worth the effort..
HONEY CREAM MIX
Equal parts Sugar, butter and liquid honey
Add to pot, heat and stir until it gets creamy. You want a smooth creamy sauce. Keep a bit above room temp. The problem with honey cream mix is the milk solids from the butter that forms when the mix gets chilled. It may help to use clarified butter or to dry shake first (without ice) before shake over ice.
After discussing with friends who cannot find the JWray rum i also made another version using Lemon Hart 151 Demerara instead of the JWray. Tasty too.
Nothing made with Ting can go wrong – Ting is the universal cocktail redeemer!
