Passionfruit Daquiri

Ron Venado is a Guatemalan rum that is mild on flavor and a little sweet. I used it to make a Daiquiri with a passionfruit syrup I picked up at a bodega. This cocktail was especially pleasing to those restaurant employees from South America. The passionfruit and the rum itself were a little piece of home.

• 2 oz. Ron Venado light rum
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 3/4 oz. passionfruit syrup
• dehydrated lime slice

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Float the lime slice on the surface of the drink.

Grand Passion

This drink gets a unanimous applause for being an excellently balanced cocktail. It's post-tiki in the sense that it has a lot of the passion fruit and citrus flavors but uses gin and is served up. I made this passion fruit syrup myself by cooking down passion fruit nectar, but you can buy a Monin syrup, which works just as well.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. dry vermouth
• 1 oz. passion fruit syrup
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• orange peel

Combine all ingredients except orange peel in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. 

Eye Of The Hurricane (Non-Alcoholic)

The eye of a hurricane is the calm center, so it is an appropriate name for the non-alcoholic version of the famous Hurricane. But minus the alcohol, there's little the drink has in common with its stronger twin. Passion fruit syrup seems to tie them both together, and that is noticeable, but this drink has fizz. Not just any fizz, flavored soda. The recipe calls for bitter lemon soda, but I thought cherry and lime soda would be even better since the drink already has lime flavor and the cherry just makes its presence known.

• 2 oz. passion fruit syrup
• 1 oz. lime juice
• bitter lemon soda
• lime slice

Combine juice and syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled highball glass. Garnish with lime slice.

Mermaid's Song and Tropical Storm (Non-Alcoholic)

Today I'm posting two non-alcoholic drinks as part of my new interest in virgin cocktails. Virgin drinks are really becoming popular at restaurants where they can be served to kids or pregnant mothers, and still be high quality cocktails. They also include the drinker in the fun of having something special from the restaurant, not just a bottled soda or juice. Both of these drinks use passion fruit juice, which makes them very tropical. With just small differences in their proportions, they are very similar, so they get one posting. If you have all the ingredients for one, you can do the other.

Mermaid's Song (Left)

• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. passion fruit juice
• 1 oz. coconut milk
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• maraschino cherry

Combine all ingredients except cherry in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled white wine glass. Garnish with the cherry.

Tropical Storm 

• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. passion fruit syrup (made from juice)
• 1/2 tsp. orgeat (almond) syrup    
• pineapple spear (optional)

 Combine all ingredients in a highball glass full of ice and stir. 

Mister Pip's St. Thomas Special

So the verdict is still out on whether Mister Pip was a real person. My guess is that he was a St. Thomas island inkeeper or bartender and had this recipe to his name. And I must say it is a really good drink to be associated with for perpetuity. There's a lot of colonial trappings in this drink. Dark rum, nutmeg, and tropical fruit, to name a few. Lyon rum really shines with the nutmeg dusting on top. I was very impressed with how well the flavors tied together to make one solid, if a little dessert-like, drink.

• 2 oz. dark rum
• orange juice to top
• 1 tbsp. passion fruit syrup
• ground nutmeg

Combine rum and syrup with ice in a mixing glass. Stir and strain into a Collins glass over ice (or crushed ice in a tiki). Fill with orange juice. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Passionate Daiquiri

Passion fruit syrup makes this daiquiri the exotic drink that it is. And out of all daiquiris I've made this summer, this was my favorite. It has that certain something that's hard to identify--good rum and fresh squeezed fruit juice. If you get your hands on a passion fruit or puree or juice, you must do this!

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. passion fruit syrup

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

Borinquen

Borinquen may be the old Spanish name for Puerto Rico, but Plantation rum comes from other Caribbean isles. Passionfruit syrup makes this drink as exotic as it sounds. I used 2 oz. of passion fruit puree and 2 tablespoons of sugar to create the syrup--by bringing it to a quick boil and dissolving the sugar by stirring. This sweetened the passion fruit puree, as it was almost too tart to drink.

I don't have 151-proof rum, but I used Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Passion Fruit to further bolster the drink and solidify the passion fruit flavor. Here's how it works out.

• 2 oz. light rum 
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. passion fruit syrup
• 1 tsp. 151-proof rum (Parrot Bay Passion Fruit used)

Combine all ingredients with cracked ice in a blender. Blend at low for 10 seconds. Pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass (or tiki!)