Dorado Choco Leche Bacardi

• 1/2 cup melted in hot car in San Juan Reese’s Minis
• 1/2 cup (or so, depending … ) Coconut Bacardi
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk
• 1 cup ice cubes
• 5 seconds letting the honey flow

Blend & enjoy while watching snowy college football game.

There’s more story in this milkshake cocktail than ingredients. But in fact, that’s the secret ingredient.

The Reese’s came from my 6-year old, who was so thrilled to give me a present, even a bonus outside-of-the-99-cent-store present. They were melted into a blob of chocolate and peanut butter goo after we left them in the car while we spent the day at the beach near Condado in San Juan. The coconut Bacardi came from the factory tour, where we went with our local hosts, who told us stories of living on the island, the real deal, the behind the scenes, the way of life of the locals, as we sipped our free drinks at the tour.

We had the air conditioning on as it was 84 degrees fahrenheit in December. But we watched a college football game played in the snow, which at least gave us a bit of the sense of the snowy cheer of the holidays. I had run out of pineapples, which I had been using for my pina coladas, and was looking for something else to make. It all came together and the milkshake cocktail was a huge hit, two pitchers full gone by the second quarter. I have no idea who was playing. It didn’t matter. I didn’t need to remember who was playing, what was in the milkshakes, or anything. It was just the moment, the taste, the sweat from outside, the chatter of the crickets outside, it all came together to make the Dorado Choco Leche Bacardi drinks all the better.

I don’t know if I’ll learn, maybe when my cookbook bombs at the bookstore, that the main ingredient to food and drink is atmosphere. At least, it is in my kitchen. Enjoy every bite–or sip.