Thursday, September 20, 2007

What You've All Been Waiting For......

Key Lime Cooler

3 oz Coconut Rum (We use Cruzan)
1.5 oz Monin Key Lime Pie Concentrate (we found this online for a reasonable price through a google search)
1 oz Licor 43
8 oz Sweet and Sour Mix

This is actually the recipe for 2 Key Lime Coolers, but we found that it makes a very SMALL serving. So....we doubled it in a shaker and served it over ice! It is a fabulous drink!!! Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

My new drink obsession!!!

A couple of weeks ago, Chad and I went out to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse. Generally, my adult drink of choice when out to eat is a Margarita. However, I was intrigued by a drink choice on Longhorn's menu.....Key Lime Cooler. Since Chad and I are planning a destination wedding in Key Largo, where Key Lime Pie is THE dessert of desserts, I thought it was only appropriate I give it a try. Honestly, I really wasn't expecting much, BUT....IT WAS AMAZING!!!! It has just enough sweet and sour, and has a graham cracker crusted rim on the glass. I really could have continued drinking them all night (although it would have been quite expensive and probably would have knocked me on my butt).



Within a day or so, Chad and I decided to give it a whirl ourselves.....after calling Longhorn and getting the recipe, we were ready. We were told a long list of ingredients we had never heard of including a Vanilla Licor and Key Lime Concentrate....but never the less, we were on our way!!! So, at 10:00 one evening, we decided to find our ingredients to make this awesome new drink. We searched high and low for this "Key Lime Concentrate", and after a long search, we purchased what we felt would be the "next best thing"--fresh key limes that we could juice to get the "fresh" effect!
After finding all of the ingredients needed (according to the bartender we had spoken to), we were quite excited. However, our inexperience with key limes was seen quickly since we realized just how many key limes we had to juice in order to get enough juice for just 1 drink---it was something like 8-10 key limes per 1 drink! CRAZY!!!! My poor hands----I was rolling the key lime, cutting it in half, juicing it into a cup.....1..2....3....4...5...6.....7....8...and the craziness continued!!! Unfortunately, this "fresh" key lime taste wasn't what we were looking for! It wasn't as sweet and "key-lime pie-ish" as the Key Lime Cooler at Longhorn.

So..................................................What did we do???


We called yet ANOTHER Longhorn location. The bartender we spoke to at that location gave us a COMPLETELY different recipe and informed us that it was actually something called Monin Key Lime Pie Concentrate, not Key Lime Concentrate. This time we were told to get Sweet and Sour Mix, Cruzan Coconut Rum, Licor 43, and this Monin Key Lime Pie Concentrate. We made another shopping trip for these ingredients---we were able to find the Monin Key Lime Pie Concentrate online for around $7 through a google search!

Three days later....Monin Key Lime Pie Concentrate arrived...and we were ready for action!!! It definitely was the "key" ingredient---pardon my pun :-) We had replicated the AWESOME drink!! We are so amazed by this wonderful drink, but yet are curious what the first Longhorn Bartender was talking about with the other recipe....maybe they didn't want to share such a wonderful drink recipe with the rest of the world??? Oh-well.....we know it now, and we're going to share it with all! Check the blog in a day or two for the Longhorn Recipe for Key Lime Coolers!!!!

As Rachel Ray would say....... YUM-O!!!!