In cocktail passion, one new ingredient leads to another. About a year ago, my friend Michael and I swapped some spirits—he gave me akvavit, I gave him Cognac—and I found cool akvavit recipes, some of which called for coconut water.

No, not coconut *milk*—coconut water. It’s turbid-looking water that tastes a lot like coconut, but don’t let my description put you off. It’s useful, especially for tropical and tiki cocktails.

Coconut water doesn’t cost much at all, but at Wegmans (the alpha-store here in Western New York) you have no choice but to buy a pint of it at a time. After you open it, the label says, you must use it within two days or toss it, but you only use an ounce or two at the most in almost any cocktail. So naturally, before Day Three arrived and the fluid became deadly (so they’d have us believe), I went looking for other recipes that include coconut water.

Some are just okay; this one’s GREAT! Make one mid-winter, even here in the frigid February tundra that is almost Canada. Put on some steel drum music or some Jimmy Buffett, take a sip, close your eyes, and you will be transported to a beachside bar in the Caribbean.

EL COCO

2 oz Light rum (I used Four Square’s Probitas)

1 oz Coconut water

¼ oz Fresh lime juice

¼ oz Simple syrup

Stir all ingredients with ice, strain into chilled Martini glass, garnish with lime zest twist.