Hurricane
Tropical Fruit & Hibiscus
A Truly Intense Tropical Bevvy!
For those in the South, especially for those living in Louisiana, a Hurricane is a right of passage. Huh?! Right now you might be asking yourself, ”Are you talking about the storm or the cocktail?” Well, as a business based in Louisiana, I guess by default, we are sort of referring to both in this regard.
To understand the history of the Hurricane cocktail we must start by talking a little bit about Hurricanes and Hurricane Season. Bet you didn’t know there were actually 5 seasons instead of 4, (Spring, Summer, Hurricane, Fall, Winter), LOL!
For those who are unfamiliar with Hurrican Season, it falls between the months of June & November with storms convecting sooner or later in the season depending on the weather patterns of that year. Hurricane Season, on a not-so-favorable year brings wind & rain in the form of named Tropical Cyclones eg Hurrican Katrina or the most recent Milton, but on a good year, and where our cocktail history lesson begins, brings beautifully warm and sometimes brutally hot summer temperatures perfect for day drinking those delicious and often intensely tropical bevvys we love so much in the South.
Now with the metrological lesson out of the way, the true origins of the Hurricane cocktail are unknown. I know we say this a lot about the classic but sadly it is true for almost each and every one of them. The Hurricane, as a libation, can trace its roots back to various punch recipes and a long lost and incredibly delicious Tiki syrup called Fassionola. By long lost we mean there is no actual written notation of the official recipe to make Fassionola syrup just hearsay and general knowledge that was passed down by tiki drink master to tiki drink mater over the years. Fassionola, as a syrup, comes in 3 distinct but different colors/flavor profiles, green, gold, and red. Each color or flavor profile varies with different ingredients but as a whole they revolve around the use of tropical ingredients like passion fruit and lime, and in some cases cherry, pineapple, and even strawberry.
Now this is where the story really gets interesting. Fassionola syrup as we know it today was rediscovered or remastered in the early 1920s and subsequently popularized as a mixer for many different spirits, sodas, and evn occasions. This popularity as well as the “Tiki Bar Boom” of the 1930s and 40s resulted in a typhoon of taste sweeping the industry with bartenders creating libations centered around this lost but not forgotten syrup.
The Hurricane, or the birth of a storm, entered the picture in 1939 at the New York World’s Fair Bar aptly named The Hurricane Bar. This bar was designed to showcase new and cutting-edge cocktail culture and mixology. Monte Proser, the bartender emeritus at the Hurricane Bar, presided over all things libations, serving his own takes on Tiki drinks, punches, and classics, rooted in history and long-lost syrups such as the Fassionola and mixology techniques.
As the 1939 New York World’s Fair came to a close, word spread throughout the cocktail industry, prompting many bartenders and bar managers far and wide, to get on board, trying their hand at creating variations and versions of these tiki-based cocktails and punches. The most notable being the famed Pat O’Brien Bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans. With an abundance of rum in the 1940s and a need to utilize this rum in order to get access to other higher dollar spirits, the bartenders at Pat O’Briens create a libation that was tropical, sweet and most of all used a copious amount of run. Thus their variation of the Hurricane came to be, echoing in a cocktail renaissance throughout the industry and becoming the iconic bevvy one must have when traveling to New Orleans.
Today, countless variations of the Hurricane and Fassionola-adjacent cocktails and punches are everywhere. Admittedly some are damn good, with subtle flavors and nuance that make you want to order another round after another round but on the flip side, some simply put are over mixed with way to many ingredients and frankly taste like the color of the drink…ugh, sorry, hot take.
At the end of the day no matter how you mix it, we know that the Hurricane with its long-lost and mysterious past is a force to be treated with respect and enjoyed whenever the season is right.
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
TASTING & SERVING NOTES: Leisuremann’s Hurricane mixer pays homage to one of the world’s most delicious tiki drinks by keeping its history, flavors, and lore alive for all to enjoy. On first taste, you notice a bold but refreshing tropical note of passion fruit followed by subtle lime citrus and rounding out the equation is a deep sweetness from ripe strawberries and simple syrup. A Leisuremann’s Hurricane is best mixed with white rum or with a white rum alternative as a mocktail. Serve on the rocks using crushed ice in a Hurricane or Poco Grande style glassware. Garnish with an orange wedge or passion fruit slice and always remember your straw and Tiki umbrella. Cheers!
GIVING BACK IS KEY TO REBUILDING
As native New Orleanians, Chalmette & Metairie, Michaella and I know a thing or two about hurricanes and the brutal toll they take on individuals, families, and communities. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was that storm for us. Though safe, our families were displaced due to the power and sheer destruction Katrina brought forth on the city of New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast. As the years have gone by and time has healed the damage caused to our communities by our storm, we have always found ourselves wanting to give back and in a sense “pay it forward” not only to help those in need after a hurricane strikes but to give back to those who helped us when we needed assistance and strength years ago.
So this is why for every pack and jar of Hurricane mixer sold we will donate a percentage of the proceeds, at the end of every Hurricane Season, to local humanitarian organizations that aid in hurricane relief and rebuilding. The key word for us is “local” organizations. We don’t need our donations going into the pockets of “mega-corporations”, we need our donations going to those organizations that have boots on the ground and those individuals who truly need them. Cheers! ❤︎
