Josiah's Bay Float (Revisited With Pineapple Shell Cup)

I had previously tackled this cocktail and the Baracuda #1 in the New York Bartender's Guide several years ago. It is amazing, as you'd expect with rum, sparkling wine and Galliano, which gives the drink a smooth and slightly anise spice flavor. It is amazing how suitable Galliano is to tropical cocktails.

This time I wanted to take up the suggestion of making the drink in a pineapple shell. I lucked out when I got a moderately ripe pineapple that was easy to carve up. You basically cut the leafy top off, several inches down at the point where the fruit is widest. The bottom two thirds of the pineapple will make up the container with the drink. Using a sharp knife, cut a circle approximately one inch inside the shell, leaving a good portion of the fruit as the wall of the container. Cut diagonally inward in a circle to remove a cone-shaped segment of the core. The remaining core and fruit can be scooped out with a spoon, but leave more than two inches in the bottom of the container space.

If the pineapple sits a little lopsided, you can even it out by cutting into the base of the fruit, but this only works if you left plenty of room beneath the container space or else you end up with a hole in your container.

Use the pineapple container right away or freeze the pineapple for up to a week to use it when you want to.

Here's the recipe again:

• 1 oz. gold rum
• 1/2 oz. Galliano
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 tsp. sugar syrup
• 2 tsp. lime juice
• champagne or sparkling wine
• lime slice
• maraschino cherry
• hollowed out pineapple shell (optional)

Combine all ingredients except champagne, lime slice and maraschino cherry in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a hollowed out pineapple shell or hurricane glass. Add champagne and stir gently.

Royal Matador

I'm kind of obsessed with pineapple shell drinks right now. For one thing, it is amazingly easy to core a pineapple and freeze the shell. Then just pull it out and fill it with a drink that will stay cold in an icy pineapple.

This time I was following the recipe and made a saw-toothed bowl deep enough for two drinks--perfect for sharing. The word "royal" in a drink name usually denotes the use of pineapple or Chambord or both. Anyway, I get the idea that anytime someone goes all out and makes a pineapple shell or spear cocktail. It's the royal treatment!

• 4 oz. gold tequila
• 1 1/2 oz. Framboise (homemade raspberry syrup + vodka used but Chambord is a good standard)
• 1 tbsp amaretto
• 2 oz. lime juice
• fruit of one whole ripe pineapple

Cut off the top of a pineapple and save the top. Scoop out the pineapple, being careful not to damage the shell, and liquefy the chunks in the blender. Strain the pineapple juice from the pulp and put the juice back in the blender with remaining ingredients. Blend with ice until smooth and pour into the pineapple shell. Put the top back on and serve with two straws. (Garnish with whatever floats your boat.)

Batida de Pina

In Spanish, Batida means to beat or smash. So this drink is really a pineapple smash cocktail with rum. The recipe calls for fresh pineapple, not canned, and if you have fresh pineapple, you also have a shell. I carved out the top half of this pineapple to make a single serving cup; and the nice thing is that the fruit around the edges gains a rum sweetness and alcohol from holding the drink.

• 3 oz. light rum
• 2/3 cup fresh pineapple
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• mint sprig

Blend all ingredients except mint sprig (and tiny umbrella) in a blender with ice until smooth. Pour into a highball glass (or pineapple shell). Garnish with the mint sprig.

Josiah's Bay Float

I've been looking for ways to use a bottle of Galliano since I bought one more than a week ago. If you've ever done the same, you know it is hard to find recipes that don't involve cream because it has such a rich vanilla flavor. More imaginative mixologists have discovered that it works great in tropical drinks as well, and the following are a few of my favorite tikis and punches.

• 1 oz. gold rum
• 1/2 oz. Galliano
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 tsp. sugar syrup
• 2 tsp. lime juice
• champagne or sparkling wine
• lime slice
• maraschino cherry
• hollowed out pineapple shell (optional)

Combine all ingredients except champagne, lime slice and maraschino cherry in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a hollowed out pineapple shell or hurricane glass. Add champagne and stir gently. Garnish with lime slice and maraschino cherry. (Mine is garnished with a baby pineapple spear.)