New Orleans, Louisiana · 1940s
Hurricane
Born from a rum glut nobody could sell.
- Created by
- Pat O'Brien's, French Quarter
- Tastes like
- Passion fruit, tart and loud
- Glass
- Hurricane glass
- Garnish
- Orange half-wheel and a cherry
Ingredients
- 2 ozdark Jamaican rum
- 2 ozgold Puerto Rican rum
- 1 ozpassion fruit syrup
- 1 ozfresh lime juice
- 1 ozfresh orange juice
- 1/2 ozsimple syrup
- 1 tspgrenadine
Method
- 1.Shake everything hard with ice.
- 2.Pour unstrained into a hurricane glass and top with crushed ice if it needs the volume.
- 3.Garnish with the orange and cherry and serve with a straw.
During the Second World War, whiskey was scarce and rum was not. Distributors made bars take large quantities of rum — by most tellings as many as fifty cases — to earn a single case of whiskey. Pat O'Brien ended up with a cellar full of product his French Quarter customers did not want.
So he mixed it into a passion fruit punch, poured it into a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp, and handed it to sailors. The glass became a souvenir, the souvenir became a landmark, and the drink has been carried up and down Bourbon Street ever since.
Its reputation suffers from what it usually is: premix, red dye, and a long night. Built with real passion fruit and fresh citrus, it is a legitimately excellent rum punch with a genuine claim on the canon.
Thatch note
Passion fruit syrup is the whole drink. If you can find a purée instead, use 1 oz of purée and 1 oz of simple in place of the syrup and the difference is not subtle.