You are like a Hurricane…

The Hurricane.

Since we’ve recently covered New Orleans’ other two famous cocktails, the Sazerac and the Vieux Carré, we should probably complete the trilogy. Especially since summer is almost upon us – for the Hurricane is a most illustrious warm weather drink. The Hurricane is certainly the most tropical drink ever to emerge from an Irish bar and is a well established Tiki staple. Picture a scene: New Orleans, the middle of WW2, the USA has stopped producing whiskey for the duration and bar owner Pat O’Brien needs whiskey for his bar. Suppliers are forcing him to purchase (more plentiful) rum with every bottle of whiskey so Pat’s bar is overflowing with rum. And sailors. If only he could think of a solution… Based on Pat’s solution we might also deduce there was an abundance lemons and passion fruit syrup too, as the original recipe was a fairly bonkers four ounces of rum, two ounces of lemon juice and two ounces of passion fruit syrup, shaken with ice into a Hurricane glass. You can make the original if you want – it’s pretty good but very potent. Alas the original recipe quickly descended into the farcical super sweet, chemical cherry flavour version served today. We shall ply the middle ground with my house version of the Hurricane that keeps the character of the original without sending us to Davy Jones’ locker. Notice that the proportions of the main three ingredients are unchanged. As long as you can get your hands on some decent passion fruit syrup this is a very easy drink to make. The Hurricane is a great drink for a BBQ or outdoor party especially as it lends itself well both to being batch up in advance as well as to being “lengthened” with soda water for those that prefer a milder drink. If fact eliminating the rum altogether and adding yet more soda creates a cracking 0% mocktail. Let’s name that the Gentle Breeze.

Hurricane (Proof version)

2oz dark rum (Myers or Captain Morgan Black both work well)

1oz passion fruit syrup (see note below)

1oz fresh lemon juice

1oz orange juice (good quality carton is fine)

0.5oz grenadine (home-made or commercial*)

Shake with ice and pour into an iced Hurricane glass

Top up with soda (optional)

Garnish with whimsy

Toast Pat O’Brien creator of the Hurricane.

Notes:

Good passion fruit syrup can be tricky to find. I use Finest Call brand which is, let’s just say, by far their best product. While it’s a US brand it sometimes shows up in Europe. Monin make a passion fruit syrup but it’s a bit weak on flavour and should be your last resort (it’s a pity as their other syrups are pretty decent). If you have better options where you live please use those.

UPDATE: These days I make my own passion fruit syrup and find it much tastier than any of the commercial ones.

*If you use a commercial grenadine your Hurricane will be a more pink/red colour.