Aku-Aku
Entry 5 — Pineapple, mint, Probitas funk, and an accidental agua fresca.
A bright summertime up drink built around fresh pineapple, eight mint leaves per glass, peach liqueur, lime, demerara, and Probitas. It is also a persuasive argument for growing mint at home unless you enjoy buying an herb garden every time two coupes need filling.
The Build
- 5 one-inch chunks fresh pineapple
- 8 mint leaves
- Fresh lime juice
- Natural peach liqueur
- Homeade Demerara syrup, backed off slightly when using rich demerara
- Probitas rum
Muddled the mint with the pineapple in the mixer tin, then built and chilled the drink before double-straining it into a coupe and adding a mint leaf. The muddling makes a heroic mess; add water to the leftover pineapple and mint in the tin for a bonus agua fresca.
Jeff’s Thoughts
A sophisticated adaptation of the Missionary's Downfall. The aroma combined rum, demerara sugar, and mint. Pineapple hit first with a huge fresh punch; peach balanced it without making the drink overly sweet; mint added herbal roundness; and Probitas supplied the coup de grâce, its Jamaican funk fitting naturally with pineapple and mint. I used Probitas even though it was not the book’s listed bottle because I thought its Barbados-and-Jamaica blend was exactly what the drink wanted. I also used the rich Smuggler’s Cove demerara syrup, backed off slightly, and preferred its extra sugar and drop of vanilla to the standard syrup. This may be my favorite up drink in the book. The name sent us down a sidebar: “aku” can point toward the ocean and can mean skipjack tuna in Hawaiian, but the cocktail name might refer to the Aku Aku restaurant/casino at the Stardust in Las Vegas. And once you make this, make a Missionary's Downfall and compare the two. And if you can't make a Missionary's Downfall you should go immediately to New York City and have Garrett at Sunken Harbor Club make you one. It's worth the trip....trust me.
Stasi’s Thoughts
I’m usually a fan of pineapple, and this drink is pineapple—but it’s so much more than that. There’s a lot of mint, which really balances everything. It isn’t overly sweet. I get mint and rum, and the mint, rum, and pineapple are blended really well.
The Ratings
