Pineapple Top Cocktail: Spicy Pineapple Coffee Tequila Sour

The Pineapple Top Cocktail is a Spicy Pineapple Coffee Tequila Sour made using pineapple juice fresh pressed from pineapple homegrown by upcycling a leftover pineapple top, lemon juice, Spiced Ginger Syrup, Tequila, Coffee Liqueur, Macadamia & Cacao Bitters and Quillaja, garnished with a pineapple leaf fan. I was inspired to design the Pineapple Top Cocktail recipe to highlight the flavour of fresh pineapple using the formula of the 1888 vintage Whisky Sour recipe of Theodore Proulx (1888: 37-38) in his Bartender’s Manual as a starting point. Proulx’s (1888: 37-38) recipe calls for lemon, sugar syrup, Whisky, an accent of Benedictine or ‘Curacoa’ [sic.], and importantly a pineapple juice sink, sugared rim and a fancy seasonal fruit garnish. In the Pineapple Top Cocktail, I retain the fresh lemon and the pineapple juice, but I incorporate the pineapple juice into a shaken cocktail to add fluffy texture, rather than using it as a sink and stirring and straining the cocktail as in Proulx’s (Proulx 1888: 37-38) recipe. I swap out the Whisky for Tequila and the Orange Liqueur or Benedictine accent for Coffee Liqueur and Macadamia & Cacao Bitters. I add additional foamy texture with Quillaja and garnish with a fancy fresh pineapple leaf fan.

Inspiration for the Pineapple Top Cocktail: Fancy Whisky Sour

I designed the Pineapple Top Cocktail recipe to highlight seasonal fresh homegrown pineapple flavour and was inspired by the formula of Theodore Proulx’s 1888 recipe for a Whisky Sour (Proulx 1888: 37-38). Proulx’s (1888: 37-38) Whisky Sour recipe is a great example of the fancy style of Sour of the 1880’s calling for a sink of pineapple juice and a fancy seasonal fruit garnish, an optional elaborate sugared glass rim,and a Sour made with lemon, sugar syrup, a base of ‘good whisky’ and an accent of Benedictine or ‘curacoa’ [sic.]. Proulx (1888: 12), writing elsewhere in his Bartender’s Manual compares a Whisky Cocktail which he advises should be ‘served plain’ and a Whisky Sour which he indicates should have a fancy seasonal garnish – he writes:

“A whisky sour, on the contrary, demands all the delicacies of the time of year, such as strawberries, pineapple, orange, etc.”

Theodore Proulx (1888: 12). Bartender’s Manual. Chapin & Gore: Chicago.

How to make a Whisky Sour: Stir & Strain, garnish with seasonal fruit

Theodore Proulx (1888: 37-38) writes of how to make the Whisky Sour using a method of stirring with ice and straining into a chilled Sour Glass prepared with a sugared rim, pineapple juice sink and fancy seasonal fruit garnish, he writes:

“…stir with spoon, and strain into a glass which you already had prepared. This is acknowledged to be the nicest sour on record.”

Theodore Proulx (1888: 37-38). Bartender’s Manual. Chapin & Gore: Chicago.

How is the Pineapple Top Cocktail Different?

I have designed the Pineapple Top Cocktail to highlight the fresh seasonal pineapple grown from an upcycled pineapple top which I grew in my garden in a large container in a sunny spot. I use Theodore Proulx’s (Proulx 1888: 37-38) Whisky Sour as a template for a fancy Sour recipe which features pineapple as part of the ingredients although I depart from this formula by adding texture through fluffy shaken pineapple juice, swapping out the base and accent spirits used and adding additional foamy texture with Quillaja. Fresh homegrown pineapple has the most delicate delicious aroma – smelling like a fruity, spiced caramel pudding. Following the Sour template, I use lemon juice for souring combined with tartness in fresh pineapple juice. To complement the beautiful fruity spicy pineapple aroma, I have used a spiced rich demerara ginger syrup for a spicy kick and molasses notes that works well with complex caramel notes in Reposado Tequila. I add further complexity through incorporating bitter, fruity and nutty notes in Coffee Liqueur and Macadamia & Cacao Bitters. I accentuate the fluffy texture of shaken pineapple juice by using Quillaja to create a foamy shaken cocktail. I garnish the Pineapple Top Cocktail with leaves from a pineapple top shaped into a fancy fan.

Sour, Fruity, Sweet, Spicy

I bring in sour and complex fruity notes with fresh lemon juice and fresh pressed homegrown pineapple juice. Fresh homegrown pineapple has the most amazing aroma like spiced fruity caramel pudding. Pineapple already has fruity sweetness as well as some sourness due to the presence of citric and malic acids but combined with the citric acid in lemon juice adds a useful source of sourness and fruitiness in a cocktail. Pineapple also has a fluffy texture when shaken combining well with Quillaja for a rich foamy texture.

Tip: How to grow your own pineapple from a leftover pineapple top

Next time you have a leftover pineapple top from making pineapple fruit or juice or using the leaves for garnishes keep the leftover pineapple top.

• You can either allow the base of the pineapple top to air dry or place the pineapple top in a glass jar of water until roots form. Julie Bennett (2022) from Pip Magazine in her article Growing Pineapples from Tops recommends air drying to avoid fungal problems – I have had success with both methods.
• Once you have dried out the pineapple top or roots are present for the pineapple tops placed in water your pineapple top is ready to plant into a small plant pot with some potting mix.
• Repot the pineapple top plant as it grows bigger and finally pot into a large container in a sunny spot with some decent quality well-draining potting mix and mulch. I potted my pineapple top into a half wine barrel raised on some terracotta pot feet, with decent quality potting mix with some succulent and cacti mix which has some sand in the mix added to aid drainage and sugar cane mulch and gave it a feed of seaweed solution. Pineapples being air plants can absorb some nutrients through aerial roots as well as those under the soil.

My pineapple top plant took quite a while to grow large enough to flower and fruit – although I truthfully lost track of how long I had left it before this happened it was over a period of years. I researched this and found that pineapple plants grown from tops can take 2 years to grow large enough to produce a pineapple flower and a pineapple fruit. Flowering and fruiting are also dependent on environmental conditions with a quicker time line in warmer areas. When pineapple plants produce flowers these begin with a small spiky ball like structural central element that turns into the pineapple fruit with reddish and green colours and small bright purple flowers.

The pineapple flower came at the end of Summer and the fruit was not ripe to pick until Winter – research shows that flowering and fruiting of pineapples varies as to which season you plant them in the ground and the maturity of the plant when planted. This Winter fruit in Sydney is making me ask the question is the pineapple fruit ripening over Winter part of global warming as most commercially grown pineapples are cultivated in warmer Queensland or just down to the sheltered sunny spot in my garden?

Pineapples have been grown in Sydney historically in the 1800’s in the kitchen garden at Vaucluse House (Curran 2015) and currently, with Horticulturalist Helder Esteves (2017) of Museums of History NSW writing in his blog Plant your History Beautiful & Tasty of pineapples growing, flowering and producing fruit in the restored historic Vaucluse House kitchen garden.

Pineapple plants make wonderful structural plants in any garden having spiky architectural green leaves. I use fresh growing pineapple leaves as a source of living cocktail and drink garnishes. See for example my posts on Pineapple Pistachio Cream Lactart, Pineapple Shub Gin Fix and Pineapple Pickle Mai Tai.

Pineapple Meanings: Welcome, Hospitality

Pineapples are part of the bromeliad, Tillandsia or air plant family and originated in Brazil, circulating throughout South America and the Caribbean from here and introduced to Spain by Christopher Columbus (Coucquyt, Lahousse & Langenbick 2020:240-243). Interestingly, pineapples are a symbol of welcome in the Caribbean and inspired by this came to represent hospitality in Spain and later throughout Europe (for more on this see Coucquyt, Lahousse & Langenbick 2020:240-243).

Sweet & Spicy

I swap out plain sugar syrup for a rich Spiced Ginger Syrup which gives the Pineapple Top Cocktail a spicy kick from coriander and the chemesthesis or heating sensation of Ginger and Cassia Bark combined in a rich demerara syrup with notes of molasses that pair wonderfully with the caramel and spice notes in fresh fruity tart pineapple.

Bitter, Fruity, Nutty

I swap out the accent of Orange Liqueur or Herbal Benedictine for bitter, rich fruity and nutty notes through Coffee Liqueur and Macadamia & Cacao Bitters.

Strong

Departing from Whisky, the base for the Pineapple Top Cocktail is a Reposado Tequila with tropical fruit, caramel, vanilla and baking spice notes that pairs well with the fruity, caramel and spice flavour of fresh homegrown pineapple. Some typical pairings for fresh pineapple are caramel and vanilla (Segnit 2010: 2603) and Reposado Tequila offers both notes in addition to tropical fruity notes and refreshing herbaceous and grassy notes.

Foamy

I use Quillaja, made from soapbark, to create a plant based lush foamy texture to amplify the already fluffy texture of shaken pineapple juice and create a fancy presentation for this Spicy Pineapple Coffee Tequila Sour.

How to make a Pineapple Top Cocktail

Departing from Proulx’s (1888: 37-38) method for making the Whisky Sour by stirring with ice and straining into a prepared Sour Glass, I instead incorporate the pineapple juice into the cocktail rather than using as a sink and add Quillaja for additional foamy texture – both these ingredients increase in foamy fluffy texture when shaken with ice. The Pineapple Top Cocktail is made by Reverse Dry Shaking – shaking with ice, straining and then shaking dry with no ice and then straining into a chilled coupe glass – the reverse Dry Shake gives an extra foamy texture to the already fluffy shaken pineapple juice and the foaminess of  Quillaja for a lush a fancy Spicy Pineapple Coffee Tequila Sour. I garnish the Pineapple Top Cocktail with a pineapple leaf fan made from 3 pineapple leaves plucked from a fresh pineapple top. The fresh green pineapple fan recalls the refreshing tropical fruitiness of the homegrown pineapple at the heart of this cocktail and reminds us of the architecture of the whole fresh pineapple and its symbolism of welcome and hospitality. The textural Quillaja foam and fluffy shaken pineapple juice create a lush mouthfeel and fancy appearance to this Spicy Pineapple Coffee Tequila Sour.

The Pineapple Top Cocktail is a celebration of fresh pineapple homegrown from a leftover pineapple top to offer a beautiful and sustainable cocktail that upcycles waste into a delicious fruit. I have replanted the top from the small pineapple used in this cocktail, and it is growing now into another pineapple plant with the promise of flowers and fruit to come all coming from upcycling leftovers rather than throwing them into landfill – the pineapple fruit and plant welcomes us into a delicious cycle of growth and life.