Well, I’ve done it again. For the third time playing hockey, I’ve dislocated my shoulder. Which, oddly enough makes mixing (shaking) drinks extremely difficult. However, the bar is still open, and drinks must be consumed. With a sling on my shoulder, I think I need a painkiller. Recipe courtesy of Liquor.com:

2.5 oz. Dark or navy strength rum

2.5 oz Pineapple juice

1 oz. Orange juice

1 oz. Cream of coconut

Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a large snifter filled with pebble ice. Garnish with grated nutmeg and a skewered pineapple leaf and preserved cherry.

Technically this should be made with Pusser’s rum, as they invented the cocktail in the British Virgin Islands. Lacking Pusser’s in my bar, I subbed in Gosling’s dark rum. The Painkiller is rum forward, but not in a bad way. It’s the centerpiece of the drink so it deserves to be the opening flavor salvo. Once you get past the rum, the pineapple flavor starts to dominate, with a backing smoothness from the coconut cream.

I’m normally not a coconut fan, but I like this. As mentioned above, the coconut cream adds underlying sweetness without overpowering the rum, while also cutting the acidity pf the pineapple. It also adds thickness, as the coconut cream is pretty viscous. The finished drink has a froth reminiscent of a flip. It’s a heavy drink, any more than two and you’ll start feeling full.

It’s cold and refreshing. It’s essentially a piña colada,  but with dark rum instead of white. Personally, I prefer this version since I tend to stay away from overly sweet drinks. One downside to this drink is that you can’t really nurse it. It will start to separate after a bit.

Like most drinks of this type, it can also be made virgin, much to the delight of Mrs. Sharkbait who thoroughly enjoyed the version I made her. However, if you’re making a virgin painkiller, you’ll definitely want to add more nutmeg on the top. Without the rum, the nutmeg alone shoulders the burden of counterbalancing the sweetness of the cream so you’ll need extra.

(Banner image found here)