Some cocktails are best suited to a particular time and place. The Fluffy Duck, for example, is best suited to a time long gone in a parallel universe. And most tropical cocktails, such as this super-fruity, tart daiquiri, are best suited to, well, the tropics. Sure, it’s delish at any time of year, but unless you’re surrounded by palm trees, dripping sweat onto your sand-covered feet and really, REALLY in need of refreshment, it just won’t taste as good as it can be.
So here’s my tip: don’t bother making this at home. Go to a tropical island and get somebody to make it for you. It’s good for the tourist economy and it means you don’t have to clean up. Winning.
INGREDIENTS
4 mint leaves
45ml white rum
80g diced fresh pineapple (confession time: I used canned instead. Shoot me)
4 lychees, peeled and seeded (yes, you should use fresh. Yes, I used canned instead)
15ml pineapple juice (you can probably guess by now that I used store-bought, not fresh)
15ml lime juice (but hey, I’m not THAT bad that I’d use bottled lime juice. I used the fresh stuff)
15ml sugar syrup
1 cup crushed ice
mint sprig, for garnish
pineapple leaf, for garnish (obviously you will only have one of these handy if you used fresh pineapple. If you used canned pineapple, do not use the pineapple can lid as a substitute garnish!)
GLASS
cocktail glass
METHOD
Place everything except the crushed ice and garnish(es) in a blender. Blend.
Add crushed ice and blend until mixture has the consistency of shaved ice.
Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish.
Drink on a tropical island or, failing that, drink it on a hot day while thinking about a tropical island. And if no tropical islands or hot weather are coming your way, drink it to console yourself…
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY
Let’s see, you’ve got to either peel pineapples or open cans, and you need to crush ice, and then you have to clean a blender. It’s probably best to get someone else to make this for you, preferably a hot waiter on a tropical island.
RECIPE BY
This recipe appears in the mighty tome that is Shaken: 250 very sexy cocktails (Murdoch Books, 2004).
