... mock mai tai christmas eve ...

7.07 am Saturday 25 December 2010 AEDST

up until 2 am this morning wrapping; if retail sales are down it isn't my fault.

drank a mock mai tai while wrapping:

1 litre pineapple juice
1/2 cup grenadine
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 teaspoon almond essence
juice 1 juicy lime
about 1 litre of ice

to garnish:
lemon verbena or mint large sprigs
maraschino cherries
cold sparkling mineral water
straws

mix all of above in 2 litre mixing jug, placing ice in first and then pouring other ingredients over.
mixing shouldn't be necessary.

serve in large ie at least 400 ml glass, placing a small sprig of lemon verbena and 2 (I had 3) maraschino cherries. I started out drinking this straight, then cut it 50/50 with cold sparkling mineral water. I ended up stirring the ice melt in after I had finished up the mineral water (a 750 ml bottle). got clearer as ice melted.

my ice was from some I bought at the BP at Mt Lambie en route to Bathurst for an afternoon's christmas shopping and I had a big lump about 1 litre in size.

it was best after a couple of hours, when the almonnd extract kicked in (still no orgeat syrup and Monin don't list it on their Australian web site).

there are recipes for home made orgeat and marischino cherries (although they only have a three week refrigerator life span. I'll try because it is cherry season here.) on the chow.com site; this has various other syrups which I am interested in and good cocktail recipes which I would like to try.

I was going to add a little St Germain but decided not to (had too much wrapping) ; I added some elderflower cordial, bought earlier in the year at the Orange Markets, about 50 mls after I had had the first couple of drinks; not certain that this helped.

chow.com is recommended, has good photos and videos, but you might have to wade through a lot of americanisms. it seems to be mainly out of the west coast/texas but also has some contributors from Chicago, New York and maybe mid West.

merry christmas. wrap in moderation.