Painkiller: Orange, Pineapple, Coconut, Rum

This has been an exhilarating week here at Measure & Stir; yesterday, I passed my ten thousandth pageview. It was a small personal milestone. To celebrate, let's cap off the week with the last of a series of tiki drinks that I made two weeks ago. Observant readers will note that this was the last drink that I made that night, and although my mixology stayed viable, my skill with the camera had, by this time, degraded. The entire affair was inspired by a late night romp through Kaiser Penguin's archives, and they were so strong that it became a bit of an unwitting bender.The sacrifices I make for you, my fine readers!A Painkiller tastes like a Piña Colada with bit of orange, though with one critical distinction. The most interesting thing about this drink, in my opinion, is the blending technique, which is to blend on high for about three seconds. Such a process does not yield the homogeneous, fluffy-yet-creamy texture of a smoothie, but rather a slushy, icy texture halfway between smoothie and crushed ice. It's an intriguing haptic sensation that distinguishes it from run of the mill blended drinks, and from its more common cousin.I hope it goes without saying, by now, that if you aren't going to use fresh Pineapple juice, you should not bother to make this drink. If you are at a bar and you suspect that they are not going to use fresh pineapple juice, similarly, I suggest ordering another drink.

Painkiller (Grog Log, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry)4oz Pineapple Juice1oz Orange Juice1oz Coconut Cream (Unsweetened).25 oz Simple Syrup4oz Pusser’s Rum (or 2 1/2oz gold – used Matusalem Clasico 10; 2oz Dark Spiced– used Kraken)8oz crushed iceBlend at the speed of light for no more than three seconds, and pour into an enormous and daunting glass. Grate some nutmeg and cinnamon on top. Or don’t. (Or a strawberry and an orange peel rose)

You can make an orange peel rose by cutting the longest fat orange peel that you can, and then rolling it around itself so that it resembles a rose. I just dropped it on top of the blended ice -- delicious! Be sure to express some of the oil of the orange before rolling it.Instead of Coco Lopez, I used canned coconut cream from the local Japanese market, though I think the coconut cream itself is a product of the Philipines. Coconut milk/cream is one of the very few non-fresh ingredients that is reasonable to use. Making your own coconut milk or cream is a laborious process, and would easily cost twenty dollars worth of coconuts to make the quantity that you can buy in a single can for a single dollar. Coconut cream, in particular, is mostly fat, and therefore degrades very little when preserved with heat, as in canning.Coco Lopez is also extremely sweet, which is why I added a quarter ounce of simple syrup, to compensate for using unsweetened coconut cream. If you want to approximate the flavor of the drink with unsweetened coconut cream, you probably want half an ounce of Simple Syrup, or even three quarters. Personally I find it cloying, which is why I buy the unsweetened stuff and then add sugar according to my taste.Have a good weekend!