Prior to this week, I’d never cut a pineapple. Others have done it for me and I’ve eaten pre-cut pineapple, but I never got my hands dirty while doing so. It scared me.
This week, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business. Silly me, I didn’t even realized pineapples had seeds under their spiny skin! Fun fact for the day.
Once I had several pineapple spears, I cut them down farther and set out to infuse my own tequila. Yes, I started making pineapple tequila!
Infusing alcohol is pretty easy. Especially since luck would have me randomly purchasing small mason jars just the day before. In my quest to come up with something new, I browsed many crafty blogs and found a recipe for grapefruit vodka from Not Martha. Won over by this simple idea, I knew I could kill two birds with one stone and a.) cut my very first pineapple and b.) infuse my very first jar of alcohol!
All I did was fill the jar with pineapple spears and then topped off with lots of tequila (tequila and I aren’t really friends anyways, so why not make it taste better?). Note: When infusing alcohol, make sure to use the best quality you’ve got on hand. The fruit is only going to give it a hint of flavor, it’s not overpowering. In my case, the bf would have FLIPPED if I used all of our Patrón, so instead I went with a mélange of our remaining José Cuervo and then topped it off with Patrón ;)
As a tip for mild-flavored fruits (such as pineapple), most recipes I browsed said to leave the pineapple in the alcohol for up to two weeks. Then when ready, strain the liquid and use to your tastes.
After two days, I couldn’t wait to try it. I was so excited. So as soon as I woke up the second day, I took a spoon to my jar and tasted. What a horrendous idea that was. Even though it smelled like pineapple, it straight up tasted like tequila. I almost spat it out. Clearly it needed more time!
So four days later, I wanted to test it out in a beverage. My remaining pineapple was close to the end of its life and I honestly couldn’t wait any longer. So that pineapple tequila turned into this:
Yes, that’s a piña colada margarita! No I didn't have any mini drink umbrellas. Leave me alone for a few seconds while I pout.
Although it ended up being a lot more watery than I would have liked, the margarita tasted pretty darn delicious. And now that my curiosities have been satisfied, I still have 4/5 of the jar left to soak up more pineapple flavor. Then I can really enjoy it next week (though, who really enjoys tequila anyways?!).
Piña Colada Margarita
- 2 shots (4 oz) pineapple infused tequila
- 1/2 c fresh pineapple
- 1/2 c coconut milk
- ice to thicken up
- salt to rim the glass
Enjoy the warm weather this weekend!
