This morning I woke up with sunshine practically pouring out of ears, my heart lighter ‘an air and a serious spring in my step. It’s summer, you guys. Not almost summer or might as well be summer but the real thing. Warm. Glorious. And my day planner Google Cal is finally awash with long, sleepy weekends, fancy pants dinners and aeroplane travel to places near and far. Columbus, Las Vegas, Puerto Vallarta. Tahoe, Mammoth — and, if I can swing it, maybe even a late summer roadtrip through the Pacific Northwest. It’s a lot in a little time, and before I know it, I’ll probably be one big ball of whiney woeisme, but for now I’m just gonna go ahead and bask in the glow that is a proper summer vacation.
And drink me a drink that is unapologetically literal in its celebration of the season. (Because it’s sunny yellow. Poetic, right?)
Growing up in Sacramento, summer was sticky forearms on the counter at Vic’s Ice Cream. Long drips of mint chip, the sharp, puckery fizz of a lime ricky. Tall cups of pineapple sherbet passed across the counter — sweet, frothy and impossibly cold. Blissful on a hot day, for sure. But even better enjoyed in the waning light of an 80-degree evening, plus cutoff shorts and Rollerblades. (Because, no shitting, everything tastes better on Rollerblades.)
(More parentheses: And a grilled cheesedog sandwich alongside. But we’ll save that for later. Homie can only cram so much summer into one post. No more parentheses.)
This dandy sipper is a riff on all of those flavors — cool mint, tropical fruit and zippy lime — chilled out with (*shocking*) coconut water a la those agua fresca dealies I’ve been clucking about as of late. But that’s not all. Because when you blitz the crap out of pineapple — and we’re talking whole pieces of real, fresh fruit — something sort of bonkers happens. It whips into a cloud of sugary, floaty froth that is downright spoonable.
Go ahead. Give it a shot. Blend everything up real good like, pour out a glass or three, and wait a minute. TOLD YA SO. Real, live, spring-in-your-step summer, brought to you by a sexy head of pineapple froth.
Who. Freaking. Knew.
Happy For Realsies Summer!
xo,
Em
Pineapple-Mint Coconut Water Frappé
By Emily Stoffel
Cook time: 20 mins (including simple syrup) | Serves 3-4
Ingredients:
- 4 cups fresh pineapple
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1/4 cup mint simple syrup (recipe below)
- twist of lime
- ice
- additional lime & mint for serving (optional)
Instructions
Add pineapple, coconut water and simple syrup to a high-speed blender and process until very smooth and frothy, about 30 seconds. Pour over ice with a generous twist of lime and a sprig of mint and give that bad boy a few minutes for the floaty pineapple froth to rise to the top. SEE?!?! Cover and chill leftovers for up to a day, stirring before serving. Enjoy!
Mint Simple Syrup
Note: Typical simple syrups are 1:1 sugar to water, but as I’ve mentioned before, I like mine on the lighter side. Since you still need enough liquid volume to steep the mint, I’ve just reduced the sugar by half (rather than reducing the quantity of syrup, itself, in the agua fresca).
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup organic raw sugar or coconut sugar (coconut sugar will make a slightly muddier drink)
- Generous handful mint (about 20 leaves)
Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring or swirling until sugar is dissolved. Add mint, pressing down to ensure leaves are submerged in syrup. Remove from heat, cover, and steep for 15 mins. Strain out mint leaves before using syrup.
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12 Comments on “Pineapple-Mint Coconut Water Frappé (vegan, paleoish)”
Wow I am well jealous of your google calendar…I empathise with your reaction to when you blitz pineapple. It is a beautiful thing, better yet with mint.
I’m so glad you’re feelin’ me, Mariana! It’s like a cloud of condensed, whippy goodness — just scrape-the-edges-of-the-mason-jar good. And I’m pretttttty amped on my summer plans, too — though elation can so easily meltdown into a big, drippy stressicle. But until THAT happens, I’m reveling! 🙂
Whoa, this is a fresh and beautiful thing. I’m hosting a baby shower and need tasty pretty things to sip on – this is perfect!
Yes, Grace!! Shower that baby with all the minty, pineappley stuffs! Or something! 🙂
De-lish!! I’ve got to give this a try, love everything about it! Your blog is adorable, I am so glad I stopped by! ; )
Hey thanks, lady! I felt the same way when I stumbled across your blog a few weeks ago — so much good stuff! Thanks for popping over. 🙂
I have no idea why but yeah, pineapple froths up like the dickens. I like to blend it form frozen. 🙂
No complaints here — it’s a phenomenon I’m happy to endure! 🙂
So pretty and refreshing! Love it!
Hey thanks, pretty lady! <3
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