A gingered pineapple and rum cocktail with lime and mint, packed full of fresh flavours.
It was a long weekend here in New Zealand, Labour weekend in fact. I'd hazard a bet that for almost all of New Zealand, Labour weekend is about two things: getting shit done, or getting no shit done at all. Translated - it's one of the busiest weekends at the garden centre, and typically one of the first weekends that feel like real, actual summer.
For us, it was definitely about getting shit done. With help from my wonderful Mum and Dad, we hit the backyard with all the equipment. We weeded, we dug, we planted and we built. All of my tomato seedlings are in and the summer garden is ready to rock.
Most significantly for me, we finally planted a tree for my baby girl and buried her placenta, or whenua, beneath it. My big girl's tree is at our last house, so we also planted a new tree for her. When in bloom, our girls' trees will welcome tuis to our garden - native New Zealand birds with iridescent blue-black feathers, a distinctive white tuft beneath their neck and an equally distinctive bell-like song.
By the end of a few days of hard work, it was definitely time to put the tools down and enjoy a celebratory cocktail. I had half a pineapple in the fridge and all the limes and mint I could ask for in the garden, so I threw it all in the blender with some rum and whipped up this refreshing cocktail.
A refreshing rum cocktail
Pineapple and rum are a flavour combination that's undeniably hard to beat (it's one of my favourites). This cocktail starts its life in the blender, then gets topped up with chilled soda water to become a refreshing cocktail.
I peeled and cored half a pineapple and threw it in the blender with dark rum (you could also use white rum), lime juice, ginger, mint and ice. I sweetened it with a little coconut sugar and blended until smooth, before topping it up with sparkling water to serve.
The number of people this serves depends a bit on the strength of your rum (be careful if it's overproof), and how much soda water you top it up with. This cocktail recipe serves at least four, easily six, and maybe eight if you prefer a lower alcohol, refreshing drink. You could halve the quantity of rum if you want to serve fewer people, or want it lower in alcohol from the outset.
Get the recipe
INGREDIENTS
For the cocktail:
- Half a pineapple peeled and cored (about 400g)
- ½ cup dark rum
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or sweetener of your choice
- ½ tablespoon fresh ginger finely grated
- A few sprigs of mint about 20 leaves
- Large handful of ice
To serve:
- Chilled soda water (sparkling water)
- Mint leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put all cocktail ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Either pour directly into glasses (until about half full) or into a carafe or large jug, before topping up with soda water. Watch out - the mixture will quickly foam up when the bubbles hit it!
- Give the mixture a gentle stir if necessary, then garnish with mint leaves and serve immediately.
Robin
Thanks for this lovely recipe, it was an inspiration for a "what's a good pineapple juice cocktail" moment.
I bastardised it with ingredients to hand, so added preserved ginger, ginger syrup and coconut butter ice cubes rather than just ginger and ice cubes and topped up with ginger beer. The coconut butter and ginger beer were due to being too disorganised to have ice-cubes and soda in freezer and fridge!
Officially declared to be my wife's "New Favourite Cocktail". I'm sure if I organise myself to have correct ingredients next time she'll love that as well.
Amber
Wow Robin that sounds amazing! I'm all for using what's to hand, sounds great 🙂