Originally posted 27^th February 2012

One warm weekend in Limehouse…

Global Warming.  Every cloud has a silver lining- this weekend was nothing short of a divine mini-heatwave.  Add a few close mates visiting London and a little too much time alcohol on our hands, all made for a hazy, boozy weekend where time had no meaning.  The G&Ts were flowing, as was old faithful Peroni, Guinness, tequila (more on that later) and the small matter of a bar called LAB.  You may of heard of it; I seemed to be the only schmuck who hadn’t.  Watch this space.

Onwards and upwards before my hangover and irrepressible heartburn get the better of me; pray silence please for THE drink of 2012: the Mauritian Daiquiri.

Mauritian Daiquiri

Remember the pineapple rum I mentioned?  The one from Mauritius?  Yup, you got it.  Well it turns out it makes damn fine cocktails.  Who would have thought it?  My housemate tried a glass and I am pretty sure it gave him gut rot.

The rum is unbranded.  As in “Let’s find a random bottle of Bacardi, throw in pineapple, lychee and other bits, then stick a new label on it” kind of unbranded.  It turns out that Mauritius has a burgeoning rum industry with three distilleries, so I hope it is authentic Mauritian sugar cane rum; I may need to source some of that.

The bottle doesn’t state ingredients- and nor should it- I mean, do we really want to know?  My mate who gave it to me said that there was another bottle of the stuff with the added ingredient of a dead fly.

What can be said about this rum that you aren’t probably- and correctly- assuming already?  It’s strong, but the bottle doesn’t state abv so I cannot be more precise.  Easily knocking on the 50% window, maybe more after transit and a long spell sat in the bar doing sod all.  It is crammed full of pineapple chunks, lychee and what looks like soot but is more likely those little black bits of pineapple.

Sooty Martini- or Sootini- now there’s an idea…

The rum has turned gold in colour and the sweet taste of the pineapple and lychee permeates through; but I am just assuming this as there was no way I was trying this neat after what happened to my housemate.  He said something similar before rushing to the loo.

The rum is now sadly almost used up but there is no reason that more can be made using locally-sourced ingredients; by which I mean what can be obtained from Tesco.  Adding pineapple and lychee to a run-of-the-mill bottle of rum, then leaving it for a few weeks months years could produce exactly the same effect.  I am so going to start trying this with other fruit.

Ingredients

So the rum had to be used; rule one of Carmine’s Bar;

“Everything gets tried, no matter how dangerous”.

I thought that the best way to go would be a variation on the classic Daiquiri, but ease on the rum- literally for health reasons- and add in some Kwai Feh lychee liquor to take any sooty edge off the drink:

1.5 shots Pineapple and lychee-infused rum

0.5 shot Kwai Feh lychee liqueur

0.5 shot Pineapple juice

0.5 shot Lime juice (Lemon juice can sub if needed)

0.5 shot Monin sugar syrup

0.5 shot iced water

Method

After checking the rum for dead flies throw all the ingredients together into the shaker and shake over ice.  The fine strain is vital here, to sift out any chunks of fruit that got into the mixture.

So fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a nice chunk of pineapple.

The start of a beautiful friendship

The Mauritian Daiquiri is serious shit.  The rum, though ‘watered down’ packs a punch, and despite being fruity, sweet and just a little sour, the cocktail warms you up and carries the alcohol beautifully.  The sugar syrup adds a little thickness- as well as sweetness- to the taste, though more lime can be added in to taste.

Words cannot describe how I feel about this drink.  It screams summer; screams for beaches, warm night and maybe Hawaiian shirts.  Yet here we were in February, windows open, fabulous sunset, drinking Mauritian cocktails.  Just another day, just another day…