I've recently been obsessing for the first time ever, over a tropical fruit.
Passion fruit and all of its tangy goodness.
Turns out, I'm not the only one. I keep seeing it in drink recipes everywhere. There's no point in trying to claim ownership over a trend or its birth in this city. I can at least attest to the fact that when the love affair started it felt organic. I did not realize I was following a trend. I really wanted burgers and bitter beer in 2009, I was genuinely craving tacos in 2011 and I've even gotten down with kale lately.
I was also on board when everyone here lost their s#*t because we all new that Loblaws (a Canadian grocery chain) had been selling croissant/donut hybrids long before the American one that became such a famous food trend. There was outrage here. Outrage! (well, Canadian outrage so nobody said anything, but we all knew...)
My point was supposed to be that we have a weakness for trends and that weakness has fallen on the passion fruit. If you haven't been seeing it yet, now that you've read this you're going to start noticing it everywhere. The trend is on.
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| PHOTO: GIUSEPPE PORZANI/FOTOLIA.COM |
If you can get them like this, go for it!
I normally urge everyone to buy fresh but in this case, unless you are somewhere that Passion fruit is grown or so close to it, that it ships well, just use juice or puree. Any whole fruit I'd be able to get would be mostly dead, overly sour or flavourless, not what I want to add to this delicious drink. I happened to have a bottle of the puree from Sicoly in my freezer, but I have used an 100% juice from other brands and they will work as well. You can find several brands at any major grocery store.
This Tiki recipe is one I overlooked until I decided I needed to live a passion fruit lifestyle. It's Beachbum's Own and it's one of Beachbum Berry's original creations. I have no mind to mess with an already great recipe but as I have talked about before, it's important to know how to make confidant substitutions based on what you have available. Even Beachbum himself, published the recipe twice, once with passion fruit puree and once with passion fruit syrup.
I didn't have OJ or pineapple juice, but I did have clementines and frozen pineapple chunks. These both seemed reasonable. Also in the original, there is a mix of Demerara and Puerto Rican rum. However, I had just gotten a brand new bottle of the El Dorado 3yr white rum and was dying to mix something up. Technically speaking I've used two Demerara rums, a white and a dark.
When I'm working with existing recipes, I usually approach substitutions this way. Keeping the spirit (see what I did there?) of the original recipe, while working with what I've got. You should do the same. I fully encourage you to take my recipes and make them using what you've got as a staring place.
I still think of drink recipes as formulas, very much like recipes for baking. You can easily switch walnuts for almonds but trying to change the amount of baking powder will take some trial and understanding of the possible reactions.
Since I had the pineapple chunks anyway, I thought it was best to use the opportunity to break out the torch. What's more Tiki than fire?
You don't have to torch the pineapple garnish for this to be an amazing drink. I really love sweet & sour, this is one of the best examples of that in a Tiki drink. The other being a Zombie, my absolute favorite Tiki of all time. This passion fruit drink offers a full, round flavour, but at the same time it's very refreshing. That's a really difficult combination to create. So, let's all enjoy the genius of Beachbum Berry and jump on the passion fruit bandwagon by making this awesome Tiki drink.
Beachbum's Own
1 1/2 oz light rum, El Dorado 3yr
1 oz Demerara rum, El Dorado 5yr
3/4 oz Licor 43
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz pineapple juice or 4 thawed chunks
3/4 oz fresh clementine juice (or OJ)
3/4 oz passion fruit syrup ( mix 2 oz passion juice with 2 oz sugar)
Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker, fill 3/4 full with cracked ice. Shake well, strain into a tiki mug or 12 oz tumbler filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fresh pineapple and orange slices.
Have you jumped on the passion fruit trend? Is it happening where you live too?
Let me know in the comments below.
