Covers & Cocktails: Coconut Mango Daiquiri

Apparently, it’s fall now. However, I was just in Florida for a week and I was pretty sure my face was going to melt off my body. Every crevice felt damp. I should also mention that my family lives in North Florida where the mosquitos are the size of small purse dogs. What I’m trying to say is that it was hot as balls and I wanted a cold, somewhat tropical drink to help me forget the humid hell I was in.

I’ll admit that when it comes to sweet things, I know little to nothing about Indian flavors and picking The Bollywood Bride obviously made my job a little difficult. So the lovely Sonali Dev helped me brainstorm. My original ideas were either a chai white Russian or a blackberry gin & tonic using jamun fruit (an Indian plum). Obviously, I went with none of those things, but Sonali gave some great suggestions, if any of you want to experiment with drink making on your own:

Ok, so… The White Russian sounds great because I am a complete and loyal Vodka girl (Vodka+Sprite has got to be the drink of gods). Not sure how the chai will work but there’s this new creamy Indian liqueur called SomRus that might work. Be warned that it is a little on the sweeter side and heavy on the cardamom.

Jamuns are my favorite fruit (seriously, I ate them by the bucket in India this summer). I doubt you’ll get fresh ones but I know for a fact that you can get a bag of frozen ones in any Indian store. There is great amounts of texture loss when they thaw, so using them in their frozen form is best. But gosh and yum, now I’ve got to put some in my vodka sprite.

I have friends who’ve been using hints of curry leaves and cilantro with a touch of coconut or mango in martinis with some great results. For less sweet versions curry leaves/cilantro and some jaljira (a cumin based refresher). Also, ginger is my favorite thing (along with lime) to go in a cocktail (ok, I misspoke, Moscow Mule should be the drink of gods).

So there you have it… something with ginger a hint of coconut and garnished with mango/jamuns and one curry leaf and vodka, lots of vodka. Great, now I’m dreaming. Is it five yet?

Instead, I went with a daiquiri with mango juice, jamun, and coconut rum. I also wanted to do a ginger sugar rim, but more on that later because I should not tackle anything that requires my undivided attention. I liked how the color palette matched with the cover, but I also liked the tartness of the jamun. The Bollywood Bride is a darker story than Sonali’s previous book, A Bollywood Affair ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ), so the plums worked well, but I wanted something light and refreshing in taste too…because boy, are you going to need a little lightness after this book. There are so many feels in this book that I highly recommend imagining a lovely beach with a breeze or else you may ugly cry with all the soul-crushing angst (which, as a reader, I eat up with a spoon).

Shopping list:
Coconut rum
Mango juice
Jamun
Ice
Ginger (optional)
Sugar (optional)

Proportions:
1oz. blended jamun fruit
2oz. coconut rum
4oz. mango juice

Directions:
There is some assembly required with this one.

1. The jamun have a pit, so be sure to remove those. I bought frozen ones. After letting them thaw, I scored them down the middle and twisted. Think of it like pitting an avocado. My bag had about twenty or so fruit, so I did this to all of them. I put them in a blender with a little bit of water and let ‘er rip. Give it a very thorough blend to make sure it’s smooth. Feel free to strain it to remove any large chunks or big pieces of skin.

2. I then combined the rum and mango juice and gave it a shake. The mango juice is thicker than the rum, so I wanted to combine the two before transferring it to a blender.

3. I started with half a tray of ice cubes to blend with the rum and mango juice mixture. I like my daiquiris on the thicker side, so I added a buttload of ice. Just keep an eye on it and check to see which consistency you prefer.

4. To finish, I poured my blended jamun mixture on the bottom of the glass, then I added the the mango rum mixture. The nifty design in the glass was purely accidental.

Modifications and notes:

• I went to an Indian grocer to buy my jamun. Finding fresh ones will probably be tough, but the frozen ones do just fine. If you can’t seem to find them, regular plums will do. However, plums are fleshier and a little sweeter than jamun, so keep that in mind.
• BLEND BLEND BLEND. Seriously, let that puppy go nuts. I hate the noise of a blender, but I want my daiquiris smooth without any chunky bits of ice left.
• This drink is pretty light on alcohol, mainly because the coconut rum with the ice can leave the daiquiri tasting rather diluted. If you want to boost the booze factor, add in another alcohol component, like a mango rum.
• Now onto the ginger. Ideally, it’d cut the sweetness a bit and I was using this recipe. However, I got too absorbed into my book (as you do) and my sugar turned into caramel in the blink of an eye. I have a tasty ginger brittle to munch on instead, but alas…no crystallized ginger for garnish or ginger sugar for the rim. Feel free to give it a go if you’re confident.