Mostly in my journey with cocktails I have made cocktails which I, at least believe, will like. Since I have had hundreds of cocktails since I started this hobby, I have started to learn my way around what I like and what I don’t like. Personally, most of the spirits are fine with me, vodka is a bit boring and I tend not to use it, homemade grenadine is fantastic, maraschino liqueur is lovely and pineapple juice is ok. Then why should it not work if I combine all of these ingredients? I have a few ideas on why it does not work for me, but in this combination, I think this cocktail is awful. Most of all, what this cocktail, in my opinion, is balance. There is no bitterness, little acidity and not enough alcohol. It is a sweet blend of nice flavours, which is good if you like that, but for me, the ingredients just do not mix that well.

What I think the learning from this is and should be is that the worst thing that can happen if you want to educate yourself on cocktails and find something you don’t like is that you will have tried it once and you don’t have to go back. In my opinion, if you want to take the journey of finding your own path and way in cocktails, you have to go down the path of what you don’t like. For me there are a few cocktails which I would prefer something else over, however, what I have learnt along the way is that there are often things that are common between the cocktails I don’t like. This also makes it easier to choose between which cocktails to try when you are out at bars since you are usually able to pick things up from the menu.

My Recipe:

• 1.5 oz (4.5 cl) white rum
• 0.5 barspoon maraschino liqueur
• 1 barspoon grenadine
• 1.5 oz (4.5 cl) paineaple juice

Add the ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake to chill and dilute. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.