Covid be damned, we’re going to Hawaii again this November. Gonna take the same Norwegian Cruise with four island stops. There’s still a lot of Hawaii left to see.
In the spirit of Hawaii and with nothing else better to do, I decided to try my hand at making a Blue Hawaiian, one of our favorite “fruity drinks” during past cruises.
For starters, there is a difference between a Blue Hawaii and a Blue Hawaiian.
A Blue Hawaii uses whiskey sour mix and a little vodka, along with white rum, Blue Curaçao and pineapple juice. The Blue Hawaiian, which I much prefer, uses Blue Curaçao, rum, pineapple juice, Cream of Coconut and crushed ice.
Curaçao, I discovered, is a Caribbean liqueur made by using the dried peel of the Lahara citrus fruit. Blue Curaçao is essentially the same thing, but it’s doctored with artificial coloring, which adds a distinctly royal blue appearance to cocktails.
Blue Curaçao (pronounced cure-ah-sow) has a distinct taste that is a little bit bitter and a bit sweet, a little like Triple Sec. Blue Curaçao is found in the cordial section of the ABC stores and it’s not expensive – less than $10 a bottle, but it took three ABC employees to find it. It was in the back storage area.
Cream of Coconut can also be difficult to track down. When I went into Harris Teeter, the store manager was out in the front with all the carts and I asked him where to find it. While I was shopping, he went looking and finally found somenear the beer and wine aisle where they keep all the mixers. It comes in cans, and I bought two to be safe. The Cream of Coconut is the magic ingredient that makes this drink so yummy. It is smooth, creamy and rich.
Instead of ordinary white rum, however, I used Malibu Caribbean Rum flavored with Coconut Liqueur. The finished product is sinfully good and goes down quickly and easily, too easily at times. You don’t have to go to Hawaii to enjoy this drink, but when you have your first sip, you can almost hear the whisper of grass skirts doing a seductive hula dance.
Here is the Blue Hawaiian recipe I use.
1 jigger Malibu Rum
1 jigger Blue Curaçao
1 jigger cream of coconut
2 jiggers pineapple juice
12 or 15 cubes of ice
Put it all in a blender, crush finely and Aloha!