The Piña Colada you've been missing is the one made with Sherry

Today we're going to make a simple colada recipe using sherry. The Baldwin colada was created by Rand Duan at the Baldwin Bar in Boston, and what makes this unique, if you haven't figured this out already, is that we're using sherry as our base. So we're not using any rum in this. You'll also need some cream of coconut, but it calls for a cream of coconut that is not as sweet as your standard Coco Lopez. So I will be using the coconut mix, which is half Coco Lopez, half coconut milk. This is the standard version you will find in the Tropical Standard Book, and it's very close in overall sweetness to the Smuggler's Coat recipe, if that's one of the cream of coconuts that you're using. Now I recently shared a video on how to make your own Coco Lopez, which I'll link to. That recipe matches the standard amount of sugar that's in traditional store-bought Coco Lopez, which is sweeter than what we are using today. But you can make that version if you want to, and then add more coconut milk, or you can just buy some Coco Lopez and add more coconut milk. I'll have all the instructions for all of that in this episode's description. So let's go ahead and make this. I'm using my drink mixer, but you can always shake this. I'm going to start with three-quarter ounces of lemon juice, one ounce of coconut mix, or your own cream of coconut that's been adjusted, one ounce of pineapple juice, and then two ounces of an Amontillado Sherry. I'm going to garnish this with some pineapple fronds, a slice of pineapple, and then we're going to float this with some Angostura bitters. So there you go, the Baldwin Colada. All right, let's try this Sherry Colada. I'm going to try it from the bottom first, without that Angostura mixed in yet. I can't think of an instance that I've used lemon juice in a Pina Colada-type cocktail. So that does change up that here. We're not using lime juice to add acidity. We're using lemon juice, plus you're getting acidity from the Sherry just a little bit. The Sherry, in this case, adds a nuttiness to it. So you get you get Sherry acidity, a bit of a nutty flavor, a little bit of a caramel note. It is the backbone there, and it's a nice change up. I don't do much lower ABV stuff here, not because I'm against it, but it's nice to have something like this because Pina Coladas oftentimes are just way too sweet, so we're cutting the sweetness here. Plus, people try to compensate with that with putting a bunch of booze in it, and that combination of tons of coconut, tons of Coco Lopez, tons of sugar, and a lot of rum is dangerous. It's dangerous. So having something to change up to that that was just tasty. I don't want to say that it is too sweet, because it's not too sweet, but it's just sweet enough. But I think once we mix in the Ango, that should transform this a little bit. I am using a paper straw because I like the way it looks, but if you are a paper straw hater, you could just use a plastic straw. That's so good. You can still taste the Sherry, but you get the bitterness. You get obviously Angostura flavor. I used a little bit less than a quarter ounce to float on top, but it didn't have the right look for the pictures I would take, so I do now keep some Angostura in dropper so I put a little bit on top. So there's quite a bit here. There's probably a little bit too much for your typical drinker that doesn't love Angostura bitter. So if you're not super sure, you can dial it back and then always obviously add more, whether you're dashing it in or pouring it in or dropping it in. But it does add a nice complexity, amplifying some of the herbal notes from the Sherry and then dropping down that perceived sweetness we get from the coconut mix and the pineapple juice by adding in the Angostura bitters. So the Baldwin Sherry Colada, it's delicious. It is, I think, a substantial departure from your standard pina colada to where it feels completely different. So it's not really competing with your favorite pina colada. It is something different. So if you're looking for something that is different or just lower ABV using Sherry instead of rum, then you should try this, especially if you like interesting flavors, something that's out of the sort of train your palate for. These are all flavors that we all, I think, know and love. It's just not what we're used to with a pina colada. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like below. Consider subscribing to the channel, and if you want to support this channel more, check out my Patreon page. Otherwise, I'll see you on the next one.