Pineapple Juice

How it's made

Pineapple juice is unusual among fruit juices in that the canned and bottled versions are genuinely useful rather than a compromise — the fruit is processed close to harvest and the result is more consistent than a pineapple of unknown ripeness. Fresh juice is more aromatic and noticeably more acidic; it also foams far better when shaken, because pineapple contains proteins that behave like a foaming agent.

Origin

Commercially canned since the early twentieth century, with Hawaii and later Southeast Asia as the dominant producers. Its arrival in bars is inseparable from the mid-century tiki boom.

What it pairs with

Rum above all, then coconut, lime, orgeat and warm spice — the tiki vocabulary. It also works surprisingly well with sherry and with mezcal's smoke. It does not work with coffee, and it overwhelms delicate floral flavours.

In alcohol-free drinks

• The most reliable body-builder in alcohol-free drinking: shaken hard it produces a genuine foam, which is most of what makes a mocktail feel like a cocktail
• Sweet enough to need a sharper citrus alongside it — almost every good pineapple mocktail also has lime or lemon in it