Pineapple Sage & Passion Fruit Rum Cocktails

When it finally feels like summer we love to sit outside on the patio and create some fun cocktails.  We don’t get a chance to do this nearly as often as we would like, but when we get a night together (and the kids have long been put to bed) we make the most of it.

A couple weeks ago at the farmers’ market we picked up a pineapple sage plant.  It is loving our garden bed and last night we put it to use in this sweet and delicate cocktail.  An important side note…this plant has an evil twin.  Don’t mistake Texas Sage (also known as Scarlet Sage) with pineapple sage.  The flowers from the Texas Sage will make you quite sick to your stomach…and not from drinking too many of these! You can easily tell the difference by crushing a leaf.  If it smells like pineapple you are safe.  If it smells like grass don’t use it.

We used one ounce of Captain Morgan’s Parrot Bay Puerto Rican Rum with natural passion fruit flavor, pineapple juice, San Peligrino water, ice and a few crushed pineapple sage leaves with flowers to garnish.  With the exception of the flowers we put it all in a shaker and shook vigorously and then poured into chilled glasses and garnished with the gorgeous red pineapple sage flowers.  Talk about an amazing drink…so perfect for a summer night sitting outside enjoying the weather before it gets too hot that we are complaining about it- even then though- we might complain less if we were drinking these.