It’s no secret to those who know me (and many who don’t, since I've mentioned this many times before) that rum, in almost any form, is my favorite alcoholic beverage. Although I love daiquiris and mojitos, I like rum best mixed with seltzer over ice. Since we have been drinking rum in this way, Jack and I have evolved our palates and we now own a nice selection of top-shelf rums from several (mostly Caribbean, of course) countries. My favorite is a rum from
Of course, this does not preclude me from trying other rum-based drinks. I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner last night and she was making a pineapple-marinated flank steak as a main course and mentioned needing to find an appropriate cocktail. I just happened to see a recipe for Pineapple Rum Cocktails in last September’s Gourmet and asked if I could bring the fixings for that.
These were, obviously, a cinch to prepare. Blend mint, sugar, and some of the pineapple juice then add lime juice. Mix ½ cup of the pineapple juice with 3 tablespoons of gold rum in a glass.
This was very good, I loved the flavor of the gold rum (I used Appleton Special Jamaican) and pineapple, but the tiny bits of mint were distracting to me. And to Jenni. The others didn’t think the mint was a problem, though, so you all should mix up a batch of these and try it out for
yourselves.
Pineapple Rum Cocktails
Gourmet September 2007
32 ounces chilled pineapple juice (not canned, either frozen and reconstituted or, better yet, from a carton)
1 cup mint leaves
2 tablespoons sugar (I used brown sugar which probably darkened the gold color of the drink a bit, but I
like the taste of brown sugar with pineapple!)
¼ cup fresh lime juice
12 ounces gold rum
Blend 8 ounces of the pineapple juice with the mint and sugar until the mint is finely chopped. Pour into a pitcher with the rest of the pineapple juice and add the lime juice.
Chill. This step can be done 4 hours ahead of time.
Fill tall glasses with ice, add 3 tablespoons of gold rum to each, and top with ½ cup of the pineapple juice mixture.
Note: There was enough pineapple mixture left over for one serving. I took this home, refrigerated it overnight, then the next afternoon I strained out the mint pieces and prepared it according to the recipe. The result was a drink with the pineapple-mint flavor but without the mint bits floating through it. This drink will definitely be prepared again, and probably with the additional step of allowing the mint to soak in the juice for several hours, then straining it.
