La Grande Passion Cocktail

This is the signature cocktail of La Grande Passion, a passion fruit liqueur designed by Grand Marnier as a specialty item back in the 1990s. It didn't sell well and was costly to make, but La Grande Passion appeared in classic and tropical recipes in cocktail books published in the two or so years that it was on the market.

I've recreated as closely as possible the original recipe, keeping in mind that Grand Marnier's recipe is a product of distillation and not infusion. Still, a strong infusion and careful straining and sweetening can copy such a meticulously crafted distilled spirit. More on how to make this spirit later. First the cocktail recipe:

• 1 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1 oz. Grand Marnier
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• sugar syrup to taste (optional and proportionate to the size of the lemon)

 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Now for the La Grande Passion recipe:

• 10 passion fruits
• armagnac
• 1 oz. dark chocolate shavings
• 1/2 cup sugar syrup

Add the seeds and pulp of 10 passion fruits to a large jar and fill the jar with a quality armagnac like Larressingle. Shave chocolate into the jar and store it in a dark and cool place for 30 days.

Strain the passion fruit and chocolate out of the infusion with cheese cloth, then strain out the smaller particles by pouring the infusion through a coffee filter.

Cook a 1:1 white sugar simple syrup and allow it to cool. Add 1/2 sugar syrup, stir and seal for 15 more days. (At this point you can transfer the infusion to a bottle for storage.)

Michael's Passion

I want this to be a Saint cocktail. In my view, not enough saints have a cocktail named after them. Putting the name Michael and the word passion together just suggests a holy experience for the drinker, ala Bach's St. Michael's Passion. Instead, the cocktail is most likely named after some guy in a bar somewhere, as they usually are. The drink itself doesn't disappoint, however.

The spiciness of dry vermouth and gin in such high proportion really tamps down La Grande Passion's passion fruit bitter tang. That is alright, when the liqueur adds a balanced, sweet richness. The color, as you can see, is amazing, as well.

La Grande Passion is a French spirit that is no longer on the market. I made my own knockoff with real passion fruit, armagnac, sugar and chocolate.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination gin used)
• 1 oz. La Grande Passion 
• 1 oz. dry vermouth
• orange twist

Combine all ingredients except orange peel in a mixing glass with ice.  Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the orange peel over the drink and drop it in.

Grand Passion

I've seen this name before, referring to La Grande Passion passionfruit liqueur, but this is the first time I've seen it done this way: no juices and a heavy helping of gin. Unfortunately a dry and spicy gin competes with the soft armagnac and passion fruit flavors. To make it worse, Angostura bitters have such a strong baking spice blast that you have to try very hard to detect passion fruit.

I'd like to try different variations of this cocktail: one that uses an Old Tom gin and some kind of citrus bitters. That might take care of the balance problem that I found. Another trick might be to increase the la Grande Passion proportion, maybe invert it to two-to-one passion fruit to gin. For now I am going to post the recipe and encourage everyone to adjust it to your preference.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. la Grande Passion
• several dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Hot Passion

I'm not a fan of fruited coffee cocktails. Sure, a spiced coffee with brandy or tequila is very nice if done right. I even like Grand Marnier in a coffee if it has whipped cream. Its just that adding passion fruit in the form of La Grande Passion to coffee only makes it slightly more bitter. And the recipe doesn't call for whipped cream, which would have made this so much better and I would have used it if I had it. Imagine, chocolate sprinkles and all! What a nice drink. Instead, I got a hot mess not a Hot Passion.

Part of my problem is that I don't have real La Grande Passion. Nobody does since it went out of production almost 30 years ago! My homemade version is a very filtered infusion, but that still doesn't prevent it from separating when added to hot coffee. You see passion fruit floaters in the cup. Creme de Grand Marnier would cover it up, but that also wasn't an option because it is now unavailable. If I ever do this one again, and I won't, I'll use whipped cream or shave chocolate on top (or both) to cover up the separation.

Another problem is floating the Creme de Grand Marnier. I'm sure the original product would have floated nicely, but I'll have to play around with the proportions and use heavy cream to get it light enough. You can make it by adding 1:2 proportion of Grand Marnier to heavy whipping cream and sweetening it with confectioner's sugar. Whip it rapidly until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid starts to foam. Again, separation is the enemy of this drink, and I feel like we are observing a dinosaur of the 1990s, extinct and as yet impossible to resurrect.

• 1 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion (homemade used)
• 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier (Royal Combier used)
• 1/2 oz. Creme de Grand Marnier (homemade recipe attempted)
• 6 oz. hot black coffee

Build drink in a warm coffee mug with passionfruit and Grand Marnier in first. Fill with hot coffee and float Creme de Grand Marnier on top. 

 

Kuai Cup

Not so much a tiki cocktail as a Hawaiian drink, the Kuai Cup really scratches that fresh pineapple itch. I squeezed a real pineapple for this drink and the only sweetness it needs beyond that is La Grande Passion, which I made just for these occasions (i.e. when I can't get passion fruit juice).

La Grande Passion is a passion fruit liqueur. Passion fruit itself is hard to get on the east coast. The fruits don't make it here and not many people know what they are or what to do with them. Put them in your Vitae Platinum rum from Charlottesville!

• 3 oz. light rum (Viate platinum used)
•  4 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. passion fruit juice (La Grande Passion used)
• pineapple slice

Combine all ingredients except pineapple slice in a shaker and shake. Strain over fresh ice in a double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with pineapple (I like the fronds too!)

 

 

Colloden Cheer

This drink commemorates a famous battle in Scotland's history. It is a fairly tropical drink with sherry notes. It calls for a hard-to-find ingredient, La Grande Passion, which is no longer produced. I assume it is a cognac flavored with passion fruit. I tried to replicate La Grande Passion with passion fruit rum for the passion fruit flavor, mixed equal parts with cognac. I don't know how the original drink tasted, but this was a good move. I chose Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition for its caramel notes and how well it plays with rum and sherry.

• 1 oz. scotch
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1 oz. dry sherry
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

 Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Colloden Cheer (Revisited)

I'm returning to this rich passion fruit cocktail because I now have La Grande Passion, a liqueur that used to be made by Grand Marnier. I should say that I made La Grande Passion, because the armagnac and fruit liqueur is pretty much unavailable. My original attempt at this cocktail was with a syrup made with passion fruit and brandy. This is much closer to the real deal.

• 1 oz. Scotch (Highland Park Spirit of the Bear used)
• 1 oz. dry sherry (Lustau fino used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz/ La Grande Passion (homemade liqueur used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Bubbling Passion

This sparkling wine cocktail is the passionfruit edition of of a Kir Royale! It uses the now extinct la Grande Passion liqueur that Grand Marnier used to make. In this resurected drink, the passionfruit comes through the bubbles even better than cassis, and you can even taste the chocolate notes--not bad for an easy bubbles cocktail.

• 1 1/2 oz. la Grande Passion liqueur
• sparkling wine or champagne
• lemon twist

Pour la Grande Passion into a chilled champagne flute and top with sparkling wine or Champagne. Twist lemon peel over the glass and drop it in.

China

 

I've made the Chinese Cocktail, which is also a red cocktail that is made with dark rum, colored with grenadine, and spiced with Angostura bitters. This is a little different and I think I might like it a little better if only because passion fruit really makes this cocktail pop. In fact, it is the only difference between the China and Chinese cocktails, and it is probably the only Asian ingredients. Of course I used my homemade La Grande Passion liqueur because it is hard to find passion fruit nectar right now. I kept the proportions the same, however, with the passion fruit flavor of my liqueur being strong enough--maybe even stronger than actual passion fruit nectar or juice.

Rum, for some reason, is the principal spirit in China-themed cocktails, including the Shanghai Cocktail that also includes grenadine to make it a flag-red color. Angostura bitters is full of Asian spices like clove, cinnamon, allspice and exotic barks. It tastes like Chinese five-spice mix!  Anise, in the case of the Pernod in the Shanghai Cocktail, is also a very Chinese flavor, so that also seems appropriate. I'm glad that I've been able to try all three of these very similar cocktails.

• 2 oz. dark rum (Pusser's used)
• 1 oz. curacao (triple sec used)
• 1/2 oz. passion fruit juice (homemade La Grande Passion used)
• several dashes grenadine
• several dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

The Mystery Cocktail

I want to call this drink La Mysterie just to make it more French. It uses two lesser known French liqueurs in such a unique way. It is both metropolitan Paris and representative of the far-flung colonial reaches of Asia and the pacific with rich passion fruit flavors.

Though La Grande Passion is extinct, it can still be reproduced. And even though pastis like Ricard are so herbaceous and dry, you can still taste the passion fruit sweetness coming back in this cocktail's extremely long finish.

• 1 oz. Ricard
• 1 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion (homemade liqueur)
• lemon twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to create cloudiness and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon zest over the drink and drop it in. 

Polynesian Sour

Though there's no traditional spirit from Hawaii or the Polynesian islands, La Grande Passion is probably the the closest a liqueur has come to being Hawaiian. It is, however, French and it is also out of production. I made my own version with armagnac and passion fruit. Now we have the most tropical of Sours ready for consumption on Waikiki Beach or just in your own backyard (or mine.) 

There's a lot going on here: sour lemon and orange juice backed by passionfruit's acidic bitterness, and soft, round armagnac and sweet sugar cane from rum. I'm using the Vitae Platinum rum again with it's light flavor and smooth body. Altogether, you get the impression of something very familiar--because it is just a sweet Sour--and something wholly exotic you've never experienced before.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae Platinum used)
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion (homemade recipe used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar syrup (or rock candy syrup made thicker with a rich sugar)
• pineapple slice

Combine all ingredients except pineapple slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Sour glass and garnish with the pineapple slice. 

Apassionata

Another French/Florida cocktail, the Apassionata is a blended drink using grapefruit juice, a nutty liqueur and the now extinct La Grande Passion. It has all the mistique of exotic fruits like passion fruit and grapefruit juice (the forbidden fruit of the new world) all in a setting where the legendary fountain of youth was rumored to be hidden--the Spanish colony of Florida.

• 1 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 3/4 oz. amaretto
• 4 oz. grapefruit juice
• maraschino cherry

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with cracked ice. Flash blend and pour into a chilled wine goblet. Garnish with cherry. 

Tortola Gold

What a discovery! I really enjoyed the interplay of tropical flavors, enhanced by rum and spread out and fortified by vodka. This long frozen drink really fits into the category of boat drinks, blended tropical drinks that get you smashed in the sun. The funny thing is that La Grande Passion used to be considered the easy solution to getting passion fruit flavor into your boat drink, something so commonplace at one time that it was served up to tourists. Now you can hardly find it and I have to make it myself to be able to pull off this one time mass marketed cocktail!

• 1 oz. vodka (Smirnoff #57 used)
• 1 oz. gold rum (Vitae barrel aged rum used)
• 1/2 oz. la Grande Passion (homemade used)
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. oz. lemon juice
• mint sprigs

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Garnish with mint sprigs. 

Pensacola

 Aah, the jungles of Florida. Wait! Pensacola is a populous beach town! But those beaches...

Aside from my confusion, the Penacola is actually a pretty straightforward beach drink. I'm going to say beach drink rather than tiki, because it relies more on a handful of fruit juices and a splash of a commercial passion fruit liqueur that only existed for two years back in the early '90s.

I still think of the '90s as Florida's heyday. Like that was the hot spot to vacation for like...everyone. There was the South Beach diet, snowbirds, botched elections. Anyway. this cocktail is as pink as a flamingo, and pretty tart. I'd say the La Grande Passion is not optional, but since it is hard to come by, you might do just as well with apricot brandy or maybe a pineapple liqueur. Don't pass this one up just because it looks basic. This is a must do if you happen to have guava nectar and rum.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae Platinum used)
• 1/2 oz. guava nectar
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. La Grande Passion (Homemade DIY LGP used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

 

 

Marie Galante

 

Marie Galante is not a person, its a place. A small Island in the French Caribbean that cultivates sugar and is famous for a chateau and windmills that used to operate on the estate. 

While this is a rum and grapefruit cocktail, it is  La Grande Passion that sets it apart from other drinks of similar design. It is at once exotic and very French. I like how elegant this cocktail is; it has a way of being unexpectedly bright and otherworldly in its look and flavor, as quality French spirits have a tendency to be. 

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1/8 grapefruit slice optional

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with grapefruit slice if using fresh grapefruit.

Port Light

This is one of those majestic tasting cocktails that are only possible with highly specialized ingredients like La Grande Passion and honey whiskey. Of course, I make a lot of my own ingredients, so what you see here is a cocktail made almost entirely from my knocked off spirits collection. And honey whiskey isn't a requirement at all. The recipe I'm providing allows you to use hone and whiskey separately.

The advantage of honey whiskey for a bartender, however, is huge. Honey is very hard to work with in an environment where you cannot easily produce heat. Now that I'm mostly bartending in my kitchen, I have electrical burners. But you won't often see a bar where the bartender heats up something before adding it to a drink, which is what you have to do when you use honey.

Cold honey becomes a chunk of sugar when you shake it on ice. It gets left behind in the shaker and the drink comes out too tart. That is why honey whiskey exists in the first place. You skip a step when building a drink if you don't have to add hot water to your honey. And there are a lot of honey whiskey products out there--Irish Mist being my longtime favorite. But get your own bottle of whiskey and add two tablespoons of honey to it and let that expand into the spirit. You'll have your own infinitely more drinkable (if it was cheap) whiskey and a go-to sweetener to boot.

• 2 oz. bourbon (or honey whiskey)
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1/2 oz. honey (50:50 mixed with hot water if you don't have honey whiskey)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 egg white (or double the recipe, make two and drink them both)
• several mint sprigs

Combine liquid ingredients including egg white in a shaker with cracked ice. Shake vigorously and pour into Collins glass. Garnish with mint.

Tom Tom

This tiki cocktail is strong, hence the name coming for the snappy percussion instrument. It beats you over the head with rum and flavor!

Of course you can put this in a Hurricane glass or whatever globe you like--it's frozen, after all. But I think that no one really wants to look at yellow slush and they might rather have some cool statuary to stare at as their vision starts to blur. 

I picked up some of my old favorite rums for this. Here is Plantation 3-Star recipe for the light rum instead of Haitian. I figured that Haiti is represented in the blend, so we are good. For brandy I had to resort to Mandarine Napoleon, which I made from Courvoissier, so it works pretty well. Even better with its tropical fruit and spice, actually. 

• 1 oz. Haitian rum (Plantation 3-Star used)
• 1 oz. coconut rum (homemade used: 1 oz. light rum combined with 1/4 tsp. creme of coconut)
• 1 oz. Brandy (homemade Mandarine Napoleon used)
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion (homemade version used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• orange slice
• mint sprig

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a Tiki mug or Hurricane glass. Garnish with the orange slice and mint sprig. 

Loma Loma Lullaby

 

A little dry, maybe, for a nightcap, the name just screams tropical beach drink. It's named after a beach on Fiji, after all.

There's a pair of pro tips included in this recipe. The first is that some recipes require just a half of an egg white to make. You can't get a half egg white, however. It's impossible. But if you are going to go through the trouble of measuring and getting the blender dirty, you might as well make two and use the whole egg white. 

The next tip is that blended drinks often taste less alcoholic--that's probably why they are a hit with new drinkers. Floating a potent rum like Cruzan 151 on top keeps your experienced drinkers from feeling like you gave them juice and slush. 

Why is there an egg white in this drink? Unlike strained cocktails or foamy ones, the egg white in blender drinks is really there in place of milk or cream. Think of it as non-dairy substitute.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum used)
• 1 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 egg white
• 1 tsp. 151-proof rum

Combine all ingredients except 151 in a blender with ice. Blend until frothy and pour into a chilled Whiskey Sour glass. Float 151 on top.