Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bartending On Your Honeymoon

Last week was a stressful one for me, with the vendor issues, so I'm going to try to keep things lighthearted this week!

I told you all a while back about our honeymoon plans
here and here. For a week we have a private house rented on the north shore of Kauai, followed by a day in Waikiki.

We're really looking forward to lounging on the beach in front of our house in Hawaii, but renting a house does come with some downsides compared to staying in a hotel. Namely, no waiters to bring you drinks!

So last weekend while Mr. Cola was in Vegas for a friend's bachelor party, I took it upon myself to try some recipes for a classic Hawaiian drink, the Mai Tai. If I'm going to have to make my own drinks on our honeymoon, I wanted to be prepared by knowing what ingredients to buy at the store, and how difficult the drinks would be to make!

First up was a partially pre-made option:

4 oz Trader Vic's Mai Tai mix
2 oz dark rum
Juice from 1 lime (or Rose's lime juice)


Multiply that by 2 to fit in a 20 oz glass better, and this is what I ended up with.

Then it was time for the taste test. Which I documented for you with the built-in webcam on my computer (I was bored without Mr. C around to entertain me, and I'd never played with the webcam before that weekend, so it was a good excuse. And now I know how to use it if I ever need to!).

"Wow, that's limey!"


Conclusion: Eh. It was okay, but not great.

Next, I tried a more complicated, 7 ingredient recipe:

2 oz dark rum
1 oz light rum
1 oz orange liqueur
4 oz orange juice
4 oz pineapple juice
3 oz sweet and sour mix
1 oz grenadine syrup


Now, for the moment of truth:

Conclusion: Yummers! But a lot of work to make.

Do I really want to have to mix 7 ingredients every time I need a drink on the beach on our honeymoon? I'm leaning toward no. But the pre-made mix wasn't very good either.

So I can either make a big batch of the more complicated recipe and just pour it into a smaller glass as needed, or find another option. Beer would be easy, but I can't drink it. I like some other bottled options like Mike's Hard Lemonade, but they make me too full after one or two because they're so carbonated. And I could always just drink my "go to" drink of Captain and Diet Coke, but I think I might feel like drinking a something a little more special on our honeymoon!

Tell me hive, what easy-to-make drinks do you like to drink on a hot, sunny beach? Is anyone else taking a honeymoon where you won't have some of the luxuries of being at a resort?

2 comments:

  1. I love this post! And you are so cute to think up some honeymoon drinks for you and your man. My favorite "tropical" easy drink is guava juice with either sparkling wine or vodka. But you have to like guava juice to like this drink. And sparkling wine, which people seem to either love (me!) or hate (my fiance).

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  2. You might want to check out these - I hear they're awesome! www.drinkripe.com They don't have a Mai Tai though. :(

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