The Swimming Pool...
Make a splash with this lazy blue cocktail
Gently paddling around the edges of what could be considered Tiki, the Swimming Pool was created during an age where ‘fancy’ drinks were becoming relegated to the ‘paper umbrella brigade’. However, it’s so close to staples like the Blue Hawaiian and the Pina Colada – yet with its own unique twist – that surely this delicious drink with it’s beautifully over the top blue float, deserves a place beside them?
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Swimming Pool - The Original Recipe
A pineapple swirl of coconut cream and holiday blue horizons. Invented by Charles Schumann this refreshing tropical drink brings summer vacations straight to your door, no matter the season.
Servings 1
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 oz White Rum
- 2/3 oz Vodka
- 1/3 oz Blue Curaçao
- 2/3 oz Cream of Coconut
- 1/3 oz Sweet Cream
- 1 1/3 oz Pineapple Juice
- 1 Fresh Pineapple Wedge
- 2 Maraschino Cherries - with stems if possible
Method
- Pour all ingredients into a shaker - apart from the Blue Curacao. Then add enough crushed ice to show above the surface of the liquid.
- Shake vigorously for around 20 seconds to ensure the cream is fully mixed, strain and pour into a chilled Hurricane or Highball glass filled with crushed ice
- Then, carefully pour the Blue Curacao over the drink so it filters down through the cocktail. If it continues to sit on the surface, give it a very slight stir, just enough to help it dissipate, but not enough to blend it in.
- To make your garnish cut fresh pineapple into a wedge (leave the outer skin on for a nice contrast), place two cherries onto a cocktail stick and push into the pineapple, make a slit in the bottom of the wedge and place onto the side of the glass.
Notes
Coming from the same family as the Pina Colada, it’s often confused with the Blue Hawaiian, though its origin and flavour profile are considerably different.
We went for the original 1979 recipe, as it's slightly ‘rummier' than it's latter-day version and nicely offsets the sweetness of the cream and the pineapple.
Variations
- 1991 Revision: If you want to bring it closer to the flavour profile of Charles’s updated version, try the following measures:
- 3/4 oz white rum
- 3/4 oz vodka
- 1/4 oz blue curaçao
- 3/4 oz coconut cream
- 3/4 oz cream
- 2 oz pineapple juice
- Layer it up: An alternative to putting the blue float on last is to put the Blue Curacao in the glass first and add the rest of your mix on top. It doesn’t create the same marble effect but it does layer up nicely. Taking this a step further you could blend your drink first (instead of shaking) and then layer on top of the Blue Curacao.
- Non-alcoholic: Simply remove the spirits and substitute Blue Curacao Syrup (which retains both the orange flavour and the colouring) for the alcoholic liqueur used in the original. Tasty! And if you blended it you’ve basically got yourself a tropical flavoured blue smoothie!
Origin
Charles Schumann - ex-couture model, multi-linguist, boxer, surfer, trained journalist and oh, one of Munich’s most renowned bartenders - created the Swimming Pool in 1979, though it didn’t see formal recognition till a few years later. After a stint in the Security Police and the military, he opened Schumann’s American bar in 1982. A couple of years after that he published 'Schumann’s Barbuch’ then in ’86 he released 'Tropical Bar Book: Drinks and Stories' where the Swimming Pool recipe first came into publication.
In 1991 he released 'American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks’ and it was in this publication that he reduced the proportion of rum in favour of pineapple juice - giving us the version that you’re most likely to find in bars today.
Our favourite of his books?
Both are illustrated throughout with Gunter Mattei's gorgeous hand-coloured engravings and although ‘American Bar’ is one of the ‘bibles’ that any modern day barperson should have, the quirkiness of ‘Tropical Bar Books’ stands out for us. It’s not just a recipe book (though there's 152 of them in total) but a commentary on many aspects of the tropical drink, taking the reader on a journey through the Caribbean, accompanied by ‘drinking’ tales and anecdotes (peppered with bar talk and bordellos) from writers the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene and Jane Bowles. Although it covers nothing on Donn Beach, Trader Vic or Tiki per se, it takes a serious look at rum and the many wonderful libations that are possible with it. Oh, and it also has a map. You can’t have a book on the Caribbean without a map. It wouldn’t be anywhere near as piratey if it didn’t 😉
We put a whole lotta love, lime and rum into our work, so if you think your friends would find this article useful, we’d be thrilled if you could share it with them!
Thank you. Mahalo.
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