Thursday, February 9, 2012

Lilikoi Daiquiri

 lilikoi, or yellow passion fruit

This one is so simple that it's barely a cocktail, but sometimes the best cocktail is the one you have. I'm currently visiting home in Hawaii and the place I'm staying is pretty limited in the bar department. I'm not about to go broke stocking this place, so I'm making due with what's here.
This has turned out surprisingly well. I picked up a bottle of Koloa white rum (my favorite white) for about $25. This usually costs me about $35 and a couple of hours of driving, so that's pretty awesome.
I just ran out of limes and was looking for something to use instead when I found some lilikoi growing on a vine in the yard. I cut one open and looked around the kitchen for something to juice it with--no tools into this place, either. If you aren't familiar with a lilikoi, they are full of seeds. In fact, all the juice/flesh is on the seeds. Finally, thirsty and tired and digging through the kitchen for a juicing/straining solution, I juices scooped the whole mess into my glass, filled it with ice, and poured my rum in. A thorough stir and I was in business.





  • 2-3 ounces Hawaiian white rum
  • juice, flesh, and seeds of a whole lilikoi







The result was delightful. The lilikoi is sweet and sour at the same time, and tastes excellent with rum without requiring a sweetener for balance. As a bonus, th ice kept all the seeds at the bottom and out of the way. There weren't many ripe lilikoi on the tree outside, but through some lazy experimentation I discovered that adding only ice and rum to my glass kept most of the flavor going without needing additional fruit.

What do you do if you don't have these growing in your yard? I don't know, you figure it out.