The holidays are a stressful time for many people.
Whether it’s the rush to finish out the year at work, the meal preparation, prepping for company, or wrapping presents, the hustle-bustle can feel like a hassle.
The calm and unstructured time between Christmas and New Year’s can leave us feeling unmoored, untethered, and unsure of what day it even is.
My friend Ted Wright, CEO of Fizz, a word of mouth marketing agency, has a solution.
Ted is a cocktail connoisseur — a cocktail snob, even — and each year around the holidays, he shares a recipe for a cocktail of choice. He has yet to let me down.
This year, Ted’s contribution is the Holiday Helper.
The Holiday Helper
Ingredients
2 ounces dark rum
4 ounces pineapple juice
1 ounce orange juice, freshly squeezed
1 ounce cream of coconut
Garnish: nutmeg, freshly grated
Directions
Add the rum, pineapple juice, orange juice and cream of coconut to a shaker with cubed ice and shake vigorously but briefly to combine.
Strain into a tall glass or hurricane over crushed ice.
Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg
Serve with a straw.
Ted offers some commentary:
The rum in a Holiday Helper must be a dark rum (I prefer the Zacapa 23) but any dark rum will do. This creates a baking spice-like depth to the drink, which is accentuated by its fresh nutmeg garnish. Fresh nutmeg makes a difference. Buy the whole nutmeg (in all grocery store spice sections this time of year) and grate with a microplane or smash with a clean hammer until the nutmeg is dust.
Fresh orange juice makes a huge difference. Citrus season in Florida is December and January. This is the time of year that I make it a point to use the freshest OJ I can.
Christmas and New Year’s Week, I squeeze OJ myself using all sorts of Florida oranges that I find in our farmer’s market. My two grocery store favorites are Uncle Matt's Organic or Natalie's Orchid Island Juice Company. Both can be found in many, many grocery stores where you buy your “not from concentrate” juices.
Canned pineapple juice is fine. Unless I am in Hawaii, I prefer canned to fresh pineapple juice.
So there you go. A little assistance as you round out the year.
Happy New Year, my friends. Here’s to a classy AF 2024.