Hawaii O - Mixology Monday

As a child I did not much like chocolate. Most of my little school friends liked milk chocolate and most adults liked dark chocolate. I found the first overly sweet and the latter too bitter.

I preferred liquorice - the black, salty kind.

But then I tried a Hawaii ring. A candy shaped like a slice of pineapple out of the Del Monte can - consisting of a pineapple tasting jelly center coated with dark chocolate.

I loved it.

For some reason I thought about this candy, that has long been discontinued, when I read the theme for this months Mixology Monday.

I asked Stewart - the gracious host - of the party if it was okay to invert candy into cocktail and got the go ahead.

So here is my contribution - a liquid dessert:

• 6 cl white rum (I used Banks 5 island white rum, but a slightly drier white rum would be a tiny bit better)
• 3 cl white creme de cacao
• 12 cl fresh pineapple juice
• Dash of Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole Bitters

Shake everything over ice, double strain into a cocktail coupe and garnish with freshly grated dark chocolate.

Enjoy and thanks for hosting Stewart! (For some reason I always imagine that the hosts of Mixology Monday try all the cocktails people come up with and then set to work on the write-up;) )