Tag: beverage

Grilled Pineapple Old Fashioned – News Flash

On By The Boozy NewsieIn News Flashes, Reviews1 Comment

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I saw this drink over at ToGatherCuisine and thought it sounded delicious. He’s got all sorts of good stuff on the blog, so definitely check it out.

I tested out his pretty original take on an old fashioned, with the unique twist of allowing the fruit to make its own simple syrup! Sadly, I found it wanting, but I’m pretty sure this was either my fault or the pineapple’s fault, not the recipe. Notes to follow.

It’s a pretty simple recipe, copied below in its entirety.

Grilled Pineapple Old Fashioned Ingredients

Grilled Pineapple Old Fashioned

  • 4 oz. bourbon. (Bulleit was [his] weapon of choice)
  • 1 slice of fresh pineapple, 1/2 inch thick.
  • Using an indoor grill pan or an outdoor grill, grill the pineapple for 3 minutes on each side over medium to medium-high heat. Add the slice of pineapple to a shaker filled with 1 cup of ice. Muddle for 20-30 seconds, leaving only a few cubes of ice still frozen.
  • Add the bourbon to the shaker and shake for a few seconds, just enough to incorporate the pineapple and the alcohol.
  • Pour the contents of the shaker into a tumbler filled with ice through a strainer, making sure none of the pineapple chunks fall into the glass.
  • Enjoy while cold!

Tip: While using an outdoor grill with charcoal and/or wood will add another layer of depth and smokiness to the drink, just make sure to clean the rack your pineapple will be resting on well before grilling the fruit. The last thing you want is remnants of the burgers you grilled floating around in your glass.

Pineapple GrillingMixing Gif Grilled Pineapple Old Fashioned

Tasting Notes:

BN: I really wanted to like this, but it wasn’t sweet enough and was too watered down. I think therefore that was some issue with my ratio of ice to pineapple, or the fact that maybe I didn’t grill the fruit for long enough to really pull out those caramel-y sweet flavors. Maybe it needed to be fresher pineapple — I’m not sure how good the one I had was. Alternately, maybe canned pineapple would be syrupy enough.

Also, I think this would be an even better recipe with the inclusion of bitters, a) for Old Fashioned’s sake and b) because bitters make everything better. I will try this again, maybe in the summer when I have more grilling confidence, because I love the idea, and I think I just didn’t do it justice. But wrote about it anyway.

PiC: I don’t like Old Fashioneds very much in general, and this one didn’t really have much taste which was too bad because I do like pineapple.

Grilled Pineapple Old Fashioned Hero

The No Power Hour – Earth Hour

On By The Boozy NewsieIn OriginalsLeave a comment

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If you know what Earth Hour is, hopefully you’re not on your computer reading this right now! That is, if I manage to post it in time. For those of you that don’t, it’s basically a world-wide (supposedly 7,000 cities) show of support for conservation, climate change awareness, etc., sponsored by the WWF. For an hour (8:30–9:30 local time) everyone shuts off the lights, both in their own homes and on big monuments like the National Cathedral, the Santa Monica Pier Ferris wheel, and so on. And so it’s cool! The first one I took part in was in 2009, I think, in London, and it was surprisingly cool to wander around and see things like Nelson’s column and the National Gallery all pitch black. So, to commemorate the occasion, here’s a drink, with ingredients that seem somewhat natural and earthy (including limes from a bush that grows in my yard!).

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The No Power Hour

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 4 oz coconut water
  • 2 oz pomegranate juice
  • 0.5 oz lime juice (fresh is best)
  • lime wedge for garnish

I initially mixed everything but the pomegranate juice together, in hopes of layering the pomegranate on the bottom and making a cool sunrise-y type look, but that didn’t work at all. So, you can ignore that, mix everything together and garnish with the lime wedge. I really need to work on drinks that have more fun techniques.

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Tasting Notes:

BN: I like this! The weirdest thing is that it doesn’t taste like alcohol at all, when I specifically made it a little stronger so that it would get you through that dark hour of potentially nothing to do… But it tastes good! A lot of coconut flavor with a little acid from the pomegranate and lime. I wish it looked a little more interesting, but then again if you’re drinking it in the dark it shouldn’t matter too much.

PiC: I think coconut water tastes like human sweat, so I didn’t love that part of it… But it was better than coconut water usually is, and if I liked coconut water I’d probably be super into it. As it stands, it’s very pretty.