Hurricane (New Orleans)

For this cocktail, you'll mix light and dark rums, passion fruit juice, orange juice, lime juice, simple syrup, and grenadine. It is one of the tastiest tropical cocktails and the fruity combination is hard to resist. The hurricane cocktail's origin is traced back to the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. Though it's unknown what was in the drink (rum is suspected), it was reportedly served at the Hurricane Bar and named after the hurricane lamp-shaped glasses it was served in. This style continues to be known as a hurricane glass and is the most popular way to serve the drink. Fast-forward a few years to New Orleans at Pat O'Brien's, where the famous version of the drink was invented. After World War II, brandy, gin, and whiskey supplies were slim, but rum was readily available. With an overstock of rum, the owners of Pat O'Brien's (Benson "Pat" O'Brien and Charlie Cantrell) reportedly asked head bartender Louis Culligan to create a drink that featured rum. Culligan's original hurricane recipe was published in Cabaret (a now-defunct magazine) around 1956. It was incredibly simple: 4 oz of gold rum with 2 oz each of lemon juice and Fassionola syrup.

½ lime
2 oz light rum
2 oz dark rum
2 oz passion fruit juice or purée
1 oz orange juice, freshly squeezed
½ oz simple syrup
½ oz grenadine

Garnish:
orange slice
Maraschino cherry

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, squeeze the juice from half a lime.

Pour the two rums, passion fruit juice or purée, orange juice, simple syrup, and grenadine into the shaker.

Shake well, until the outside of the shaker tin becomes frosty.

Strain into a hurricane glass filled with fresh ice.

Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry. Serve and enjoy.

Makes 1 cocktail.

Cook's Notes:

• Passion fruit juice is not one of the most popular juices on the market; passion fruit purée or syrup is more common. These can often be found at stores specializing in natural food and international foods, and the syrup may be in a liquor store's mixer section. Frozen passion fruit concentrate or passion fruit nectar are other viable substitutes. You can also make juice or purée from fresh passion fruit, and this makes an excellent hurricane. However, the fruit's season is short, and it can be expensive.
• To juice passion fruit, cut the fruit in half and scoop the pulp, seeds, and juice into a blender. For 5-6 fruits, add about 1/3 cup sugar (adjust to taste as some passion fruit varieties are very tart) and 1 qt of cold water. Blend at low speeds until the juicy seeds break up, and you have a liquid purée. Strain the pulp and broken seeds using a fine-mesh strainer or sieve, pressing out as much juice as you can. Bottle and refrigerate the juice and discard the pulp.