Blue Hawaiian

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My Blue Hawaiian is made from 100% all-natural ingredients without any food dyes, so you can enjoy a sip of summer (almost) guilt free! This recipe uses my all natural Blue Curaçao, homemade toasted cream of coconut, pineapple juice, and rum. I’ve even used natural food dye to replace those fake maraschino cherries with a deliciously tart sour cherry.

You’ll need the following equipment:

Ingredients:

Butterfly Pea Flowers
Alkazone
Cochineal Bugs
White Rum
Pineapple juice
All Natural Blue Curacao
Toasted Cream of Coconut
Sour Cherry

No beach vacation is complete without a sweet slushy cocktail. The Blue Hawaiian is right up there with the Pina colada as the ultimate tropical frozen drink. While they look beautiful, the ingredients aren’t always the best quality. They’re loaded with food dyes and high fructose corn syrup. I wanted to try out an all-natural version of the Blue Hawaiian using all-natural ingredients- down to the almost fluorescent cherry. I thought this cocktail would be a challenge to see how my Blue Curaçao holds up in a frozen cocktail.

While Coco Lopez is delicious and the industry standard when it comes to these kinds of drinks, I am opting to make a toasted cream of coconut instead to add a little more complexity to the cocktail. I also like that I can adjust the sugar content of my cream of coconut, since I will be needing to adjust the standard ratios of this drink.

I’ve also used this toasted cream of coconut in my Blizzards and Bikinis cocktail, and i just love how it turned out.

Now to make the pineapple juice. I don’t have the space in my apartment for a juicer, so I’m just going to dice up a pineapple and toss the pieces into my blender and blend until puréed. Once puréed, I’ll strain it through a mesh sieve to collect the juice. If you’re in a hurry you can speed up the process by adding the pineapple pulp to a cheesecloth lined salad spinner basket, and spin away. The juice will collect in the bottom bowl of the salad spinner.

I figured if I’m going through all the work to make an all-natural version of the blue Hawaiian, that needs to include the garnish. Maraschino cherries are incredibly processed. For my version, I am going to be using some sour cherries I got from the farmers’ market. These also make the best brandied cherries in my experience. First, I’ll remove the stem and pit. I think the best way to remove the pit is by using some tweezers.

I wanted to test out this natural food dye that I got for a Campari recipe that I have been working on. It’s actually just a jar of cochineal beetles- which was the original colorant for Campari until they switched to a more vegan friendly option.

To make the food dye, you need to crush a small amount of the beetles into a fine powder.

Once the beetles have been ground, I’ll go to work on the simple syrup. I’m just making a standard 1:1 simple syrup. Once the sugar is dissolved, I’ll go ahead and add in the cochineal. Make sure to add the cochineal powder after you remove the simple syrup from the heat. The cochineal flavor can get quite metallic if cooked. Once that gorgeous red color is achieved, pour the red syrup into a jar with my pitted cherries and set it aside to dye the cherries that bright red color. This only took about 5 minutes to achieve the bright red color, if you let them sit too long, the color will get pretty dark, so make sure to remove them from the syrup after about 5 minutes.

Since my all natural Blue Curaçao doesn’t have the staying power of traditional blue curaçao, I’m going to make some blue ice cubes using butterfly pea flower tea. This ice isn’t going to impart any flavor, just a bit of a color boost for the curacao.

I’m also going to crush the blue ice before adding it to the blender. Crushed ice will give you a smoother, more even textured frozen cocktail.

Now that all the components are ready, we can start building this blue Hawaiian in the blender. First, I’ll add 1/2 ounce of the toasted cream of coconut, followed by one ounce of pineapple juice, then one ounce of white rum, and 1 1/2 ounces of my homemade blue curacao. I made this curacao on the drier side, so it won’t make this blue Hawaiian overly sweet.

Lastly, I’ll add a cup of crushed blue ice and blend this on high for about 30 seconds.

I noticed a bit of color change due to the pH of the pineapple juice affecting the color of the blue curacao. While the cocktail was blending, I added 2 drops of this alkaline booster to correct the color from purple to blue.

While the Blue Hawaiian is still blending, you can add an 8th of a teaspoon to the blender for a smoother, more luscious textured cocktail, but it’s totally optional.

Once the Blue Hawaiian is finished blending, I’ll pour it into a hurricane glass and garnish with the requisite pineapple wedge, cherry and of course the paper umbrella as well as a couple of pineapple fronds.

And while mine is more of a periwinkle blue, it’s really delicious- like a vacation in a glass. I think the toasted coconut milk really elevates this drink. It’s on the drier side when it comes to these frozen beach drinks. This is due to the small about of sugar added to the toasted cream of coconut. My homemade blue curaçao is also on the drier side. I do prefer less sweet cocktails, so it works perfectly for me, but you could always add a little simple syrup to sweeten it up.