Cocktail #16: The Hurricane

Happy tiki Tuesday! This week we have the ultra-simple (or so it seems) hurricane. 

Jeff Berry credits the hurricane to Pat O'Brien's Restaurant - an Irish-themed restaurant (which is still operating!) - in New Orleans, circa 1960s. This drink has become one of the most common exotic cocktails on menus around the world. I've ordered hurricanes before that neither looked nor tasted anything like this one. 

I believe this is the only drink in my little journey so far that only uses three ingredients:

2.00 oz. fresh lemon juice
2.00 oz. passion fruit syrup
4.00 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used trusty old Myers's)

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with about 2 cups of crushed ice, shake until the shaker gets frosty, and pour, unstrained into preferably a 15-oz. hurricane glass (which I did not have, so I used a large Pilsner glass), and garnish with a drink umbrella (I "distressed" my umbrella because, well, it's a hurricane!) and a slice of citrus.

It had to happen some time - this is the first drink in 16 weeks that I really did not like at all. Not sure what happened - I measured carefully, though I bet my lemon could have been a little more fresh. Each sip started with a heavy taste of passion fruit, quickly followed by what I thought was overly sour or too much lemon. The rum was nearly lost between the passion fruit sweet and lemon sour. Each sip inspired a bit of a pucker. I suppose it's a good lesson - the simplest cocktails can sometimes be the most difficult to get right. One must ensure she is using the best, most fresh ingredients, and measure carefully.

I won't be making (or ordering) another one of these any time soon. So it goes - drink and learn!

Sticking with the hurricane theme, sit back and relax with a little Keely Smith as she sings "Stormy Weather." Cheers!

Cocktail #9: Hawaiian Eye

In 1963, bartender Tony Ramos created this drink, the Hawaiian Eye, while working at the China Trader restaurant in Toluca Lake, CA. According to Jeff Berry's Intoxica! "in its heyday, the China Trader boasted a widescreen waterfall window" and apparently Bob Hope, Lee Marvin, and Jack Webb were regulars. Other regulars included the cast of the 1959-63 series Hawaiian Eye set at the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki. Berry notes, "Ramos created the 'Hawaiian Eye' cocktail especially for the cast, who would take over the China Trader bar four or five nights a week when filming interior scenes on Warners lot" in nearby Burbank.

This weekend, I was looking for a relatively simple drink, as well as one for which I could use my recently acquired tulip glassware. This is a great example of a tiki drink that is really simple, and you don't need a lot of hard-to-find rums or ingredients to make. Here's the setup:

0.5 oz. fresh lime juice
0.5 oz. sugar syrup
0.5 oz. falernum
1.0 oz. gold Puerto Rican rum (I used the widely available Bacardi)
0.5 oz. white Hawaiian rum (or substitute white Puerto Rican rum; I used Cruzan Virgin Islands rum)

Blend all the ingredients with 8 oz. crushed ice for 5 seconds and pour into a tulip glass.

I chose to try my best to live up to the name of this blog by garnishing with a thin slice of pineapple, skewed with a cherry; three pineapple leaves; lots of mint (our balcony garden is now overflowing with it); and a cocktail umbrella.

The result is delicious. The drink is mellow and smooth, an easily drinkable concoction that is neither too sweet nor sour, which I suspect is helped by the spicy notes of the falernum.

I'll leave you with a short clip from Hawaiian Eye - enjoy!