The banana rum frappe

I found this cocktail on p.121 of "raising the bar." It has two main ingredients pineapple juice and banana rum.

PROS : Tasty and pretty. Can't go wrong with pineapple, bananas and rum.
CONS : You have to put banana chips in the rum and let it soak 48 hours! Who's got the patience? (I took some of the rum out after four hours to make me a cocktail. My bad. I have to admit it was better after the full 48 hours of sitting.


RECIPE (15 drinks!!!)

Banana rum

• 12 dried banana slices
• 4 ounces boiling water
• 2 ounces unsulfured molasses
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 liter dark rum
• 1 large vanilla bean

Place the banana slices in a large recipient with a lid.
Add the water, the molasses and the brown sugar and stir.
Let sit for 2 minutes.
Stir in the rum and the vanilla seeds and bean.
Shake vigourously.
Let sit in the refrigerator for 48 hours shaking occasionally.

Banana Rum Frappe

• 4 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp shredded coconut, toasted
• 1 lemon or lime wedge
• 16 ounces pineapple juice
• Crushed ice for serving
• Dried pineapple slices or banana chips.

Fill a pitcher with ice.
Fill it with the pineapple juice and the banana rum.
Stir.
Rub the lemon/lime wedge on the outside of the glasses.
Pour the sugar and the coconut on a plate and roll the glasses in them.
Put crushed ice in the cups and pour the frappe over the ice.
Garnish with dried pineapple slices and coconut.

ENJOY!!

My first post EVER!!!

This all started when I was bored (always dangerous). I started looking at cocktail books on amazon. I ended up buying three of them. Since I've been using them regularly, I thought it may be nice to post the results somewhere... and this is it! The goal is to put the recipes we've tested, the pictures of the drinks and drinkers and a critique of the drinks... but no promises!

For the curious and the bored, here are the three books I ended up with. I'm including some of my preliminary critiques because otherwise the text would not be long enough for the images.

The first one is "The Craft of the Cocktail." It contains 500 recipes as well as a description of different types of tools/liquor/mixer. My main complaints so far is that the index SUCKS! You need to know the exact name of the cocktail to find it. It's quite frustrating. Most other books let you search by using the main alcohol. Some even let you choose by flavor or colors! Also this guy has an obsession for burning citrus peels on top of the cocktail. I'll have to try that sooner or later. Maybe he's on to something.

The second book is "Raising the bar : better drinking..." This one gives you extensive instructions on how to do everything : how to make grenadine syrup, maraschino cherries, banana rhum. So far I've enjoyed making their recipes and people have enjoyed tasting them. The only strange thing is that their portions change from one recipe to the next. Some of their recipes are for 3-4 drinks and some are for 15 drinks! I'm fine with divisions sober, but after a couple of drinks, I don't want to figure out what 3/8 of an once is!

The last book is "Cool cocktails." I'm not sure what I think of this one yet. I have not used it much. It contains fewer recipes and it somehow manages to have very similar recipes. It does have beautiful pictures though and that makes up for a lot... I'm running out of things to say and I have not reached the bottom of the last picture. Ah, well!