New Year's resolution #1

So this year while celebrating the first day of 2016 by having a barbecue lunch at the 'naked' ski field (minds out of the gutter! Not naked people at a ski field - brrrr - but the ski field itself was naked. January being the height of summer in NZ means no snow, so yeah, a barbecue amongst the gravel slops with strangely fornlorn looking, purposeless chairlifts going to nowhere) at Mt Lyford with family, my sister said to me she had decided to buy a calendar showcasing a monthly cocktail.  Each year she buys a themed calendar that piques her interest.  Photos of Crete, contemporary NZ landscape art, Salvador Dali, to name but a few.  Last year it was rustic, tumbled down or slowly disintegrating, old outdoor dunnies... interesting, but I think I much prefer this years theme.
Anyway during our chat it was decided, as we are mostly 'cocktail' virgins, that we would follow the calendar and make the cocktail - a new experience every month.

Deciding that I'd like to get in the swing of things, a friend and I spent one evening at a local whiskey bar that also had a range of lovely cocktails to sample - The Last Word, on New Regent Street.  I confess I have been there once before with same friend but that had been many months prior and in that time the owners had changed so it was definitely time for a revisit.
Said sample was a Moonlight - their variation on an Aviation.  So tiny, but so delicious and far, far too easy to drink.  I had one!!!  Had to drive home after you know, so had to show at least a modicum of sense.

And now for our turn:-

With a definite lack of experience but an abundance of enthusiasm we dove into the making of our first Pina Colada (yes, that's right - we've never had one!!!) late on Tuesday evening...

Kitchen wizz and ingredients at the ready we followed the recipe to the letter.  Needless to say a kitchen wizz does not a blender make.  Turning it on, Pen got to wear the ingredients all down the front of her top. But here's the final result.

I know, I know, amateur much, but the pineapple chunk was an ingredient in her chicken curry for tea that night so we thought we'd better garnish our effort with something, otherwise it just looked like a glass of milk.

The first taste was nothing like I had anticipated, like a mouthwash of coconut cream and nothing else.  I hesitated to take another but it seems the longer you leave it the more the pineapple (and alcohol) infuses it and gives it the warm, sweet glow of setting sunshine, and it gets stronger with every sip.  The amount of white rum in it definitely loosens the tongue.
For a couple of wine drinkers it's not really the thing.  It needs the addition of scenery; the tropical paradise, a seat by the pool, floppy hat, funny little umbrella garnish/accessory/thingy, and a hot, hunky piece of eye-candy to ogle at to turn it from something a little mundane into something completely decadent and desirable.  It demands holiday laziness, relaxation, sunshine, palms rustling in summer breezes.  It's an event and not just a drink.  In that setting I'd definitely indulge in another...

Next month it's Mango daiquiri.  More my thing?  I don't know yet, but bring it on.  (I definitely will have to go buy a bullet before we try that one.  My turn to make it and I want to drink it, not wear it.)

Bottoms up!

Sydney Whyte