Blue Hawaii

Piña Colada

A Piña Colada is white rum, pineapple and cream of coconut blended with ice: 50ml white rum, 50ml fresh pineapple juice and 30ml cream of coconut, blended for 10 to 15 seconds with a cup of crushed ice and poured into a hurricane glass, with a pineapple wedge and a cherry. The measures are the IBA’s own. A few drops of lime are optional, to correct a sweet batch. The Caribe Hilton in San Juan credits its bartender Ramón “Monchito” Marrero with the drink in 1954, as Difford’s Guide reports; Difford’s adds that Marrero himself claimed 15 August 1952. It depends on Coco López, the sweetened cream of coconut Ramón López Irizarry developed in 1949, by Imbibe’s account. There are rivals: Ricardo García, also at the Caribe Hilton, claims to have invented it, with 1954 the year Punch gives, and the Barrachina restaurant, by its own account, names Ramón Portas Mingot in 1963. Punch says the Piña Colada was declared Puerto Rico’s national drink in 1978. Cream of coconut is the ingredient that decides it: thick, sweet and rich in fat, never coconut milk. Each one carries about 2.0 UK units.

Jungle Bird

A Jungle Bird is 45ml of blackstrap rum, 22.5ml of Campari, 45ml of fresh pineapple juice, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 15ml of demerara syrup, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a double rocks glass, with a pineapple wedge. About 2.4 UK units. These are the IBA’s measures. It is credited to Jeffrey Ong, beverage manager at the Aviary Bar of the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, where it was poured as a welcome drink for guests; Difford’s Guide dates it to the hotel’s opening on 6 July 1973. The recipe reached print in John J. Poister’s New American Bartender’s Guide in 1989. Campari is what sets it apart. Pineapple has the body and sugar to carry the bitterness, and a heavy rum underneath holds both.

Mai Tai

A Mai Tai is aged rum, lime, orange curaçao and orgeat: 30ml amber Jamaican rum, 30ml Martinique molasses rum, 30ml fresh lime juice, 15ml orange curaçao, 15ml orgeat and 7.5ml sugar syrup, shaken hard and strained over crushed ice in a double rocks glass, with a spent lime shell and a sprig of mint. This is the IBA specification. There is no pineapple or orange juice in it. Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron said he created it in 1944 and gave the first two to friends from Tahiti, one of whom said “Mai tai roa ae”, which gave it the name, as Famous Hotels quotes him. The Oxford Companion places his restaurant in Oakland and adds that Donn Beach’s widow, Phoebe, wrote in 2002 that he made a Mai Tai in 1933, though the Companion finds good reason to doubt that Vic copied it. Orgeat is almond syrup, so the drink contains nuts. A glass holds about 3.0 UK units.

Hurricane

A Hurricane is 60ml of dark rum, 60ml of white rum, 45ml of passion fruit syrup, 30ml each of fresh lime and orange juice, and 15ml each of grenadine and simple syrup, shaken hard and strained over crushed ice in a hurricane glass. Garnish with orange and a cherry. At about 4.8 UK units it is a strong drink, a third of a week’s guideline in a single glass. The Hurricane most people know is Pat O’Brien’s, the New Orleans bar, where the Oxford Companion says it was introduced and head bartender Louis Culligan is credited with creating it. Difford’s Guide thinks it originated in 1939 at The Hurricane Bar in New York. The usual account is O’Brien’s own: during the Second World War whisky was only available to a bar that bought large amounts of rum, and the drink was a way to use it, served in a glass shaped like a hurricane lantern. Premixed versions later became the standard serve in the city. Made with fresh juice and a passion fruit syrup with real fruit in it, the Hurricane is a tart, balanced rum punch.