Grilled Pineapple Curacao Daiquiri

“I want a tropical drink, but please don’t say Painkiller…”

This, a 40 something good natured woman sitting at my bar asked last week. It was her last night on St Croix and while she had a great time exploring our islands diving spots, she felt that all she could discover above the water was the same tired drink options.

“Painkiller, Bushwacker, Painkiller, Bushwacker! It’s like they’re the only two drinks anybody wants to offer here!”

I can understand her frustration. Both of those sickly sweet concoctions are the two you hear offered first to newcomers. Like some right of passage one has to endure, slurping down the 1200 calories and 90 grams of sugar of  blended pre-diabetic bliss. The Painkiller, supposedly invented at the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI, is essentially a Pina Colada on the rocks, with a bit of nutmeg on top. It’s not a terribly complex or invigorating libation, but any slapdash drinkslinger down here can bang one out in a few seconds. The Bushwacker meanwhile is a messy conglomerate of sweet syrupy liqueurs blended to oblivion. Now, it’s not just lazy bartending to blame. Most tourists down here expect a cool blended refresher, of which they recieve one of the many pre-made high fructose corn syrup mixer recipes handed out by the local liquor distributors.

Both are tasty in that Big Mac sort of way… Which isn’t a glowing recommendation.

Let’s try something different!

Grilled Pineapple Curacao Daiquiri

Here’s something that showcases our local Caribbean flavors, without sacrificing integrity or using a blender. Most of the ingredients can be found locally grown/produced.

What you need!

1 pineapple (Try the local ones from Luca’s Art Farm at Southgate!)

2 cups Demerera sugar

1 cup water

A few Limes (I have a Lime Tree outside my house, I’m sure you can find local ones)

Cruzan Rum

Clement Creole Shrubb (or Cointreau if need be)

Angostura Bitters

First we need to make a Pineapple syrup.

Fire up your grill. Make sure it’s nice and hot, we want a good scortch on our Pineapple.

Remove the stem and bottom of your pineapple and slice off the skin of the fruit. Cut the fruit into half inch rings. You should end up with about 12 rings total, depending on the size of the fruit. Set them aside for a moment.

Take your Demerera Sugar and Water and combine in a sauce pan over high heat. Stir it around for a few minutes until the sugar is pretty well dissolved. At this point you have  nice, rich syrup. Let’s add some flavor. Turn the heat down to medium. Now, add the pineapple rings to the syrup and leave them in for just a minute or so. All we’re looking for here is to coat the pineapple so when we grill it we get a nice caramelization. Remove your syrup from the heat and set aside, we’re not done with it yet.

Remove your rings from the syrup and place them on your grill. I prefer a good charcoal grill with some mesquite chips in for a nice smokey flavor, but gas will work just fine. Get some color on these bad boys. A nice slightly charred look is what we’re going for. After flipping them a couple times to get some developed flavor, take ‘em off the grill and add them back to your syrup. Heat your syrup back up to a simmer and let it reduce for 15 minutes or so. Your syrup should have reduced by about a quarter at this point. Remove the pineapple and set aside to cool. Put your syrup in the fridge and let it cool, daddio…

The syrup was the hard part. Now, with your cooled syrup it’s all easy…

Combine over ice in a tumbler:

1 oz of your fresh Grilled Pineapple syrup

2 oz Cruzan Dark Rum

1 oz Creole Shrubb

1/2 oz fresh Lime juice

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake hard and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice..

Enjoy!