An Upgrade to the Painkiller Cocktail Recipe
Published ~ February 17th, 2021 | Updated ~ March 28th, 2021Author ~ Carl Busch
Tags ~ Rum |
It is COLD here in Iowa. The negative temperatures and added wind chills have me wishing for warmer weather, a beach, and a nice cocktail. Since I can only have one of those things right now, I figured I could at least embrace the tropical spirit with a Painkiller.
I haven't had great luck when I've ordered Painkillers in the past. I love all of the flavors individually and have always hoped the drink would be good. Still, I was disappointed time and time again.
But, I've had a lot of free time in the past year, so I decided to try to make my own. And WOW! What a drink
Painkiller Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 oz fresh orange juice
- 1 oz coconut pineapple puree
- 1.5 oz fat washed Bacardi Gold Rum with coconut oil
- .5 oz planation pineapple rum
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients into a tin
- Add a few pebbles of ice
- Whip shake until ice is melted
- Pour over pebble ice in double rocks glass
- 6 dashes of pineapple bitters
- Garnish with an orange twist
The Painkiller I made was delicious! So, why were all of the ones I had tried before SO BAD?
I decided that it was probably a bad combination of store-bought juices and poor rum choice that made them so...mediocre.
So I figured I'd play around with the recipe and make a simple, upgraded version. My goal wasn't to make the original cocktail better. Because it's pretty awesome as is when you use fresh ingredients and a good rum. I just wanted to experiment with some of the elements and make a unique version of the drink.
My first choice was to reduce the amount of orange juice. I wanted this upgrade to be a little less citrusy and a little boozier. So I started with 3 ounces of OJ.
Then I set my sights on improving the pineapple component by using fresh pineapple. I cored the fruit and put it in our ninja blender with all of the expressed juice and 2 oz of homemade coconut cream.
After blending it all together, I had a great coconut and pineapple puree to add texture, flavor, and a little sweetness. I think this combination made my Painkiller less syrupy and added a lovely freshness to the cocktail.
Since I had reduced the amount of coconut by adding it to the pineapple puree, I needed to find a way to incorporate a little more into the drink.
What better way to add coconut than fat washing your spirit? I used a virgin, unrefined coconut oil to fat wash Bacardi Gold rum. In 6 ounces of the rum, I added 2 ounces of melted coconut oil and let that sit in the freezer for 12 hours. When I pulled it out, I used a coffee filter to strain out all of the hardened coconut oil and was left with a delightfully subtle coconut rum.
I also decided to use Plantation Pineapple rum and charred pineapple bitters to make the pineapple pop a little more.
This is an excellent alternative to the original Painkiller recipe.
