old painless is waiting

1 1/2 oz Overproof White Rum (Privateer Tres Aromatique)
1 oz Coconut Water
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Pineapple Syrup
1/4 oz Curaçao (Pierre Ferrand Dry)
6 drop Absinthe, Herbsaint, or Pastis (St. George Absinthe)

Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

When I thought about the coconut water and pineapple syrup in my fridge, I considered doing a less opaque Piña Colada-Daiquiri riff. To take it up a notch, I thought about how the Painkiller is an orange juice extension of that drink, and I considered Paul McGee's frequent swapping of curaçao for orange juice in classics like the Fog Cutter and Penang Afrididi #1. With the three alternatives to the Painkiller's coconut cream, pineapple juice, and orange juice in place, I added lime juice to balance the sweetness, and later a hint of absinthe to give it some needed depth. For a name, I went with a reference from the movie Predator for this abstraction of the Painkiller: Blane Cooper called his M134 Mini-Gun "Old Painless." Moments before Cooper's final confrontation with the alien, he declared, "Old Painless is waiting."
The Old Painless is Waiting greeted the nose with rum, woody spice, and orange aromas. Next, lime and coconut water on the sip shot into rum, pineapple, and orange flavors on the swallow. Overall, the result was a lot more ethereal and closer to a Daiquiri than the classic Painkiller.