Look, there’s a lot happening right now people. I’m going to 5 shows in 10 days, and I feel like I’ve been sprinting since I got back from vacation anyway. On top of that I’m just trying to be better about some stuff. Get a good night’s sleep, cook a bit more after 3 weeks of eating a whole lot of delicious food. And maybe toning down the drinking after a hot run. But you know, that gives me more time to be contemplative about what it is I do choose to do when I have a few minutes in the kitchen. Here’s a couple works in progress in the kitchen that won’t steer you too wrong.
Now if you don’t mind me, I gotta go get to a Waxahatchee show.
So I had some grapefruit to use. But I did not want something with the heft of a Jet Pilot or a Zombie (lol it was a weeknight too) and besides, I am out of cinnamon syrup at the moment (for shame, I know, for shame). Still it’s a venerable basic formula when thinking about how to go about making a drink. Lime and grapefruit play well together, and if I don’t have cinnamon, I do have vanilla syrup, which is subtler but also does the job.
Like I said, I wasn’t looking to get destroyed or anything, just have a nice drink and use some grapefruit before it turns to darkness. So I pulled out a couple bottles of trusty rum (El Dorado 5 and Smith & Cross), grabbed some falernum, grabbed some Angostura and Herbsaint, and opened a now somewhat more difficult to find Topo Chico to give you this working progress:
1 oz grapefruit
.5 oz lime
.5 oz vanilla syrup
.5 oz falernum
1 oz El Dorado 5
1 oz Smith & Cross
a couple dashes of Angostura
a few drops of Herbsaint
Topo Chico (to top)
Take everything but the Topo Chico and combine it. You could probably play this like a Swizzle, but I put it in my mixing tin with a bunch of ice and shook it up. Strain into a Collins glass, top with fresh crushed ice, give it a couple stirs with a bar spoon, top with Topo Chico and a bit more fresh crushed ice. Could have used a mint garnish, but otherwise, was perfectly happy with this simple (heh) and refreshing drink
Now onto tonight’s fun experiment. I’ve been meaning to fat-wash some rum or gin for some time. It’s pretty easy, you take 3/4 of a cup of virgin coconut oil and combine it with a bottle of liquor. Shake it a few times over the course of a few hours, freeze it and discard the frozen coconut fat at the top. Viola!
Of course, this was my first time doing it at home, so I did not want to use an entire bottle of anything simple because I wasn’t sure if I would fuck it up (even if the process is pretty simple). So I started small with 250 mL of Plantation Dark and a 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil to get to my coconut-washed Plantation Dark.
Why go through all this trouble? It’s a novel way to impart coconut flavor without using something atrocious (looking at you Malibu) or without delving into coconut cream. Sometimes you don’t want to open the Coco Lopez until you are making Piña Coladas, you know?
What better to put that along side than another recent syrup addition to the collection, pandan syrup. It’s got a nice nutty, vanilla-y flavor. I was 2/3rds of the way to an experimental daiquiri, so I grabbed some pineapple juice and here we are:
2 oz coconut-washed Plantation Dark
.75 oz pineapple juice
.5 oz pandan syrup
You got this, right? Mix all three in that tin, grab some ice, and shake the hell out of it. Double strain into a chilled coupe. This one needs some tweaking. The pandan and coconut are nice, I’m barely getting the pineapple, so it may be worth turning back to the traditional lime in the next iteration and just float some Stiggins on top. Time shall tell
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something every week or two (if we are being honest), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
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