The Cocktail Spirit with Robert HessEast India House

Dinah (MetaGrrrl) 20 Apr 2009
7:25 pm

One upside of going back to the original is the textural change provided by using pineapple gum (or “gomme”) syrup.

Jennifer Colliau of Small Hand Foods has you covered:
http://smallhandfoods.com/products.cfm
http://smallhandfoods.com/find-us.cfm

We have some of her grenadine and it is sublime!

(And, by the way, Heaven’s Dog in San Francisco not only uses her quality ingredients, their menu is heavily inspired by Charles H. Baker, Jr.)

Tony Harion - Mixing Bar - Brazil 20 Apr 2009
8:43 pm

Hey Robert,

For the Pineapple syrup, one thing came to my mind. I´m not a huge fan of canned stuff, but I couldn´t help thinking about using the syrup from a can of pineapple wheels or something like that…

I agree that your recipe has enough sweet ingredients (probably), but I might give this a try both ways to see. – I just need to find use for the rest of the stuff that comes in the can

Cheers and thanks again,

Tony

Robert Hess 21 Apr 2009
6:04 am

Dinah, you’re lucky that you have access to Jennifer’s syrups! They are indeed good stuff!

Tony, I think that the syrup remaining in a can of pineapples might work. It would be worth trying side-by-side with one made with just pineapple juice to see how they compare.

But if you have pineapple juice and simple syrup, mixing the two 50/50 should be a perfect substitute.

blair frodelius 21 Apr 2009
6:42 am

Ted Haigh sent me his recipe for homemade pineapple syrup awhile ago.  It’s not hard to make.

In a bowl or 2 quart jar combine: 4 cups of sugar, 2 cups of water and stir. Right here you have simple syrup. Skin and cube a small pineapple and put as much of it as will fit into the syrup. Let stand for 24 hours. Extract the pineapple cubes and press juice into the syrup with a hand juicer. Pour resulting syrup through a tea strainer in a funnel into a 1.5 liter bottle. Add a dash of spirits as a preservative. Keep refrigerated. It ought to last months.

Cheers!

Blair

Niels Marthinsen 22 Apr 2009
1:16 am

Wonderful cocktail!

Both Monin and Giffard has a pineapple syrup among their products.

Tobinn 9 May 2009
11:28 am

I took a small can of pineapple juice (one cup), simmered it down by half and added a half cup of sugar, stirred until fully dissolved.  I added a bit of high proof vodka as a preservative.  This was pretty simple to make and while sweet, it’s not as sweet as you’d think - halving the pineapple juices seems to “darken” the flavour.  Anyway, I think it was great in this cocktail although I haven’t yet tried it with just pineapple juice as I used my last can for the syrup.

IanRafferty 4 Aug 2009
6:11 am

At what measures are we using for a tsp guys?

Robert Hess 4 Aug 2009
7:01 am

tsp is short fo “teaspoon”, which equals .1666 ounces, or 5ml.