When it comes to making drinks, one usually prefers to stick to the fruits available at that time of the year. Drinks & desserts are one of the best ways to capture the flavor of the seasons in your food. And this Pineapple & Lychee delight is perfect for your next Hawaiian Backyard BBQ! Adapting it slightly from a regular Martini, we swap the plain Lychee juice with a bit of pineapple, and add a dash of Orange liqueur to get that perfect balance of tangy and sweet. photo courtesy of Cocktail Times.
Lychee is primarily a Chinese fruit, but over years, it has been cultivated in India, South Africa, as well as parts of US like Hawaii and Florida. The sweet juicy fruit with a soft whitish-pinkish interior perfectly compliments any other sweet-tangy fruit like Pineapple. It tastes great on its own too, as you might know if you’ve tried Lychee Juice or a Lychee Martini, but mixing it with Pineapple juice and a bit of vodka (if you want a cocktail) will give you a mixed drink that will tinge your taste-buds long after your glass is empty!
Pineapple & Lychee Cocktail
Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup drained canned lychees (15 to 20, from a 16- to 20-oz can)
6 tablespoons pineapple juice
6 oz (3/4 cup) vodka
1 1/2 oz (3 tablespoons) Cointreau or other orange-flavored liqueurHeat sugar and water in a 1-quart saucepan over high heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, then pour into a heatproof bowl set in a large bowl of ice and cold water. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until syrup is cold, about 3 minutes.
Puree the lychees with sugar syrup and pineapple juice in a blender until smooth, then force through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on solids and then discarding them.
Fill cocktail shaker halfway with ice cubes and add lychee puree, vodka, and Cointreau. Shake 15 seconds and strain into Martini glasses.
For an extra festive look, crush a couple lychees with cranberries and add them at the bottom of the glass. As you pour in the cocktail, the drink will have a nice pinkish hue at the bottom. Garnish with some mint leaves, or an Orchid for a true Hawaiian effect!
Related Recipes
Traditional Lychee Martini
Mango Mojito
Healthy Pineapple Juice
That sounds like a great cocktail to me