Coconuts is this month’s theme for Mixology Monday, the largest online monthly cocktail party, as hosted by Joey (aka JFL) of Rated R Cocktails.  Joey relates that he picked this theme because “Ah the Coconut, so round, so firm, so fully packed…with flavor… Coconut is versatile, coconut is magical, not only is it edible but it can be made into scores of products.” We tend to agree with him, and were thinking about deconstructing Maui’s Mama’s Fish House Coconut Mint Refresher since we noticed a lot of people looking for the recipe via this TripAdvisor Topic.

We usually would not make blended drinks, but it had to be done for this truly refreshing summer cocktail.  The basic ingredients for our version of the Coconut Mint Refresher are Gin, Coconut Milk (fresh made), lime juice, simple syrup and mint leaves. It’s fairly easy to make coconut milk from whole coconuts.  We’re pretty sure that it will be heavily covered by all of the MxMo entrants, but our unique addition would be to use an oyster knife to extract the fruit from it’s shell.

The quick instruction for making fresh coconut milk is to use a hammer and pound the shell around it’s equator a couple or more times around until it cracks in half, collect it’s water, separate the flesh from the shell (this is where the oyster knife came in handy), peel the brown inner shell using a vegetable peeler (not absolutely necessary), throw the flesh into a blender with it’s collected water and about 1/2 a cup of hot water, blend for about a minute, then strain and squeeze all liquid through a cheese cloth or kitchen towel (second and third extracts with 1 cup of water can be made for use with curry dishes but the milk only lasts about 3-4 days in the refrigerator).  If you must use canned coconut milk, make sure to buy the Chao Koh brand and mix thoroughly before using it for the drink.

Coconut Mint Refresher
2.0 oz. Fresh Coconut Milk
1.5 oz. Gin
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup (add another 0.5 oz or more for a sweeter cocktail)
3 large mint leaves
1.5 cups ice

Add all ingredients to a blender and mix until thoroughly blended into a slushy consistency. Pour into highball or tall cocktail glass and garnish with mint leaves.

Many thanks to Joey at R rated Cocktails for hosting this month’s Mixology Monday and to Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut for keeping MxMo alive.

Related Posts
Mixology Monday LXXXVIII Announcement: Coconuts! (Aug 11, 2014)
Rated R Cocktails’s MxMo 88 Coconut Roundup
Mixology Monday Site
Mama’s Fish House Delivers True Aloha Spirit (Sep 12, 2012)

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