Sunday, May 26, 2013

Grilled Blue Whales - Relax It's A Cocktail

When I was in my young wild and rambunctious phase, we might have had a party or two.  One of our go-to party drinks was a beverage we called Blue Whales.  

It was a simple concoction, 2 gallons of lemonade, 1 bottle of Everclear, 1 bottle of Curaco, and a bunch of sliced oranges.  It was powerful, economical, and everyone liked it because, despite the alcohol, it was candy cotton sweet.  Perfect for drinking on the beach or poolside.

This weekend we had some houseguests in town for the annual blogger party (post forthcoming) so I made an updated version of Blue Whales.

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Click link below for full post and recipe.

There are several versions of Blue Whales out there.  This one is probably more of a party punch than a cocktail.  I am not sure what's the difference between a punch and a cocktail other than quantity.

My new version has grilled fruit, pineapple rum, and a lower proof alcohol but it still packs quite a punch.


Grilled Blue Whales Cocktail

by www.nibblemethis.com
8-12 servings

Ingredients
  • 2 quarts lemonade
  • 6 oz blue curaco
  • 6 oz pineapple rum
  • 3 oz Ol Smoky Moonshine (plain) or grain alcohol
  • 2 oranges, sliced thin
  • 2 limes, sliced thin
  • 1 lemon, sliced thin
  • 2 tsp white sugar
Instructions
  1. Toss orange, lemon, and lime slices with the sugar in a Glad ziptop gallon bag.
  2. Preheat a charcoal grill to 350f.  In my Smoke Hollow grill this takes about 3/4 of a chimney filled with Kingsford blue bag briquettes. 
  3. Remove the slices from the bag (retain the bag) and grill both sides until nice grill marks form, about 3-5 minutes. Return the slices to the bag.
  4. Mix the lemonade, curaco, pineapple rum, and moonshine together. Add the fruit and the juices, to the punch.
  5. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled. Serve over ice with the fruit as a garnish.
  6. Drink responsibly and enjoy!
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The reason I like to grill the fruit is that it caramelizes the sugar on the outsize of the fruit and the natural sugars on the inside too.  Putting the hot fruit back in the bag forms a fruity simple syrup that sweetens up the cocktail.  I learned the grilled fruit cocktail trick from Kingsford University, I came up with the simple syrup trick on my own.



Letting the fruit soak in the punch lets the alcohol permeate the fruit and the smoky flavor of the fruit mingle with the punch.  

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Funny story about Blue Whales.  Hop in the Way-Back Machine with me.  

One summer in the late 80s, I took a vacation and a friend (Yo! Chris S) and I got a beach front room at the La Fiesta Ocean Inn and Suites in St Augustine, Florida.  (Pictured below with the red roof, can't believe it is still there after all of these years!)
 
Picture courtesy Trip Advisor.
One thing lead to another and we ended up with 7 people staying in a two queen bed suite for the weekend.  I recall someone sleeping in the tub.  Some of us surfed while the rest "beached" during the day and one night we made Blue Whales in a styrofoam cooler.  I don't know if it was the alcohol in the punch or just a poor cooler but the bright blue elixir quickly started leaching right through the sides! 

Not wanting to lose perfectly good Blue Whales, we worked quickly to redistribute it to all of the red Solo cups that we had, the ice bucket in the room, and any other container we could find.  Ahhh to be in my early 20's again!  Wait, you couldn't pay me go through that again.  Once was fun but once was enough!