Celebrating Mardi Gras with the Hurricane

The Hurricane is one of the most identifiable pictures in mixology and one of New Orleans most notorious mixes. Although its history can get a bit murky, it’s irrevocably tied to Pat O’Brien’s landmark bar in New Orleans’ French Quarter. As the story is told, whiskey could be quite challenging to come by in 1940s America, whereas rum, especially in the port town of New Orleans, was abundant. With these circumstances, Pat O’Brien and his partners decided a specialty cocktail built on a hearty dose of rum was the perfect solution. Put it in a tall, eye-catching glass reminiscent of hurricane lanterns and what do you have? A Hurricane! Celebrate Mardi Gras and let the good times roll the NOLA way with one of your own!

The Hurricane has seen many iterations since its inception, but one of the most defining features of it from the recipe’s first publication was the use of Fassionola syrup. This syrup has since been more or less lost to the ages, but its use established the Hurricane in the Tiki pantheon. With this placement, passion fruit syrup has been shown to do the job just fine, but feel free to whip up your own variation on the tropical, red mid-century syrup if you like! 

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