Blue Hawaiian
I’m playing bartender at a friend’s party tonight and for thematic reasons (don’t ask) I wanted to make a blue drink. As it turns out, this is not easy. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of blue drinks, but there are a lot of bad blue drinks.
I went back to what might be the original—the Blue Hawaii. As with a lot of Fruity Rum Drinks, this has changed over the years in random ways. I see a lot of versions with coconut; I see very few versions with any sour component. The original version, which surprisingly enough is actually from Hawaii, has sour mix and no coconut.
I did a “straight” version of it and decided that I wanted to tweak it just a little. “Sour mix” is usually two parts lemon juice to one part simple syrup; I find that most rum drinks are happier with lime, though. (I also find that most commercial sour mixes are terrible corn syrup and juice concentrate atrocities. Don’t buy ’em.) Knowing my audience, I also wanted to sweeten the drink a little. Here’s my adaptation:
Coyote Blue Hawaiian
- 3/4 oz. light rum
- 3/4 oz. vodka
- 1/2 oz. blue curacao
- 1/2 oz. lime juice
- 1/2 oz. simple syrup
- 3 oz. pineapple juice
Put it all in a shaker with ice, shake it up, and strain it into a cooler glass with more ice.
The drink will be better if you can use fresh juices, but if you can’t—or if you’re expecting to make a lot of drinks for a party—look for not-from-concentrate juices. (Out here, Santa Cruz Organic makes a bottled lime juice which is worlds better than what you get in those plastic squeeze limes at a lower ounce-for-ounce price.)
Two minor notes: one, as you might suspect from the pineapple and lime juices this drink is more blue-green than blue. (My using amber-colored simple syrup probably doesn’t help matters.) Two, while this isn’t a hugely strong drink it’s real easy to drink fast. If this bothers you, cut back on the simple syrup!)
