If you fol­low my Twit­ter or Face­book you may know that I recent­ly went down to Ran­cho San­tana, a Nicaraguan resort, to con­sult on their bar, train their bar staff and cre­ate their cock­tail menu. The El Mat­ri­mo­nio Clan­des­ti­no is a cock­tail I cre­at­ed for Ran­cho San­tana’s restau­rant and bar, La Fin­ca y El Mar. Cre­at­ing drinks for this client was a good oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore the cur­rent trend of low alco­hol con­tent recipes. Con­sid­er this recipe for your next pool par­ty because it can be made ahead of time in large batch­es*. It’s a refresh­ing low alco­hol con­tent cock­tail, per­fect for sip­ping pool­side all day.

I call this cock­tail El Mat­ri­mo­nio Clan­des­ti­no, Span­ish for The Secret Mar­riage, because it incor­po­rates two alco­holic ingre­di­ents of very dif­fer­ent lin­eages, the Sauvi­gnon Blanc and the Cacha­ca. The union of these two ele­ments from oppos­ing fla­vor fam­i­lies may be sur­pris­ing, but you won’t be able to deny their com­pat­i­bil­i­ty once you taste it. Con­sid­er this a trop­i­cal take on for­bid­den love.

Recipe

• 2 oz Sauvi­gnon Blanc
• 1 oz Cachaca
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz sim­ple syrup
• 1/2 oz of fresh pineap­ple juice
• 6–8 mud­dled mint leaves
• 1 pineap­ple wedge for garnish
• 1 pineap­ple leaf for garnish
• 1 pineap­ple mint sprig for garnish

Add the Sauvi­gnon Blanc and mint to your shak­er tin then light­ly mud­dle. Add the rest of the ingre­di­ents to your shak­er tin except the gar­nish­es. Add ice and shake well. Dou­ble strain into a tulip glass filled with small pel­let ice. Gar­nish with a pineap­ple wedge, a pineap­ple leaf and a pineap­ple mint sprig.

Note: If you’re mak­ing this drink at home con­sid­er these fun cubette ice cube trays. Also, if you can’t find cacha­ca a white rum will work just fine. Below is a recipe for a large batch.

Batch Recipe

• 1 bot­tle of your favorite Sauvi­gnon Blanc
• 12.5 oz cachaca
• 6.25 oz pineap­ple juice
• 6.25 oz of lime juice
• 6.25 oz sim­ple syrup
• 50 mint leaves
• Since you are not shak­ing with ice and dilut­ing this cock­tail, top with club soda to taste.

Add a healthy amount of mint leaves, approx­i­mate­ly 50, to a big pitch­er and top the mint with a lit­tle Sauvi­gnon Blanc. Light­ly mud­dle the mint to incor­po­rate the mint fla­vor. Then strain into a sep­a­rate con­tain­er and dis­card the mud­dled mint. Add large ice cubes to your pitch­er and then pour the strained Sauvi­gnon Blanc and the rest of the ingre­di­ents in (Larg­er ice melts slow­er). Feel free to add some cut fruit to the pitch­er to enhance the visu­al appeal. Top with club soda to taste. Keep in mind the cock­tail will dilute the longer it sits on ice.