Any Florida native – or anyone who has lived in Miami for more than a few months – can tell you that we really only have two seasons. There’s the dry season, which lasts through most of what the rest of the country calls winter, and there’s the wet season. This is when humidity rises above 90% and abrupt thunderstorms appear every afternoon to parboil our vegetable patches, and leave our swimming pools overflowing and under-chlorinated.
That season overlaps with another that meteorologists know all too well. From the end of the school year to the end of Thanksgiving, we brace for hurricane season.
Beyond the shutters, generators, water bottles, tracking maps and “cones of concern,” experienced locals have their preferred ways to make the “hunkered down” segment of a major storm go by just a little more pleasantly, even if the power goes out.
(Courtesy of Swizzle Rum Bar & Drinkery)
Swizzle Rum Bar & Drinkery in Miami Beach serves a classic hurricane cocktail.
For some, frozen pie is a necessity. The more barbaric will opt for a case of room-temperature beer – at least, that’s what it becomes once the electricity is down and the rapidly thawing pie has been consumed. The storm-seasoned Biscayne Tippler, however, passes those nerve-wracking moments in the eye of the cyclone with one of the classics. As the wind howls, the shutters shake and the ice slowly melts, it’s the right time for the cocktail known as the hurricane.
Doing it right requires practice in calmer circumstances. And as we’re here at the peak of another season, there’s no better time than right now to practice making it. Let’s start with the basics.
Hurricane History
The hurricane cocktail is a kind of rum punch, the same family that includes the daiquiri, the painkiller and even the Royal Navy’s original rum ration, grog. You can see what’s probably the first cocktail called “the hurricane” in the 1939 Dick Powell/Ann Sheridan film “Naughty But Nice.”
A major part of the film’s plot revolves around the fact that Powell’s character, a teetotaling professor, can’t tell the difference between a drink made with six ounces of rum and the innocent lemonade he usually sips at social events. Later that year, a temporary bar at the New York World’s Fair named “The Hurricane” began serving a signature rum cocktail. Neither of those recipes survive.
But after World War II, the concept made its way to New Orleans, where tavern owners Benson “Pat” O’Brien and his partner, Charlie Cantrell, needed a way to get rid of the rum local distributors made them buy in bulk before they’d sell them the more popular (but scarcer) Scotch or bourbon.
(Cocktail Emporium)
Some concoctions calling themselves fassionola can be found online at places like Cocktail Emporium for $13.98, but you can certainly make your own.
They crafted a cocktail from four ounces of golden Jamaican rum and two ounces each of lime juice and fassionola, a passion fruit-based syrup that gave it its bright red color and delicious tropical flavor. O’Brien poured the concoction over ice in special glasses shaped like a hurricane lamp and handed them out free to sailors. As a promotion, it worked – O’Brien’s is still considered a landmark in the Big Easy.
The catch is that no one makes fassionola anymore. The closest thing commercially available is probably the hurricane mix sold at O’Brien’s. Dedicated cocktail scholars, however, have reconstructed the magic ingredient with delicious results. One rule of thumb is to keep your rum portion equal to your fruit juice portion. Another is to make sure the dominant flavor is passion fruit. Other fruits like berries, guava or mango are fine if you want to customize your own.
In addition to using fassionola in a hurricane, it also makes a tasty addition to cold soda water and can be used as a component in smoothies, daiquiris, or anything sweet and fruity.
Miami Hurricanes
Hurricane season affects the Biscayne Corridor at least as much as the Gulf Coast and the famous cocktail is served at bars across Miami.
In its traditional form – or close enough – the hurricane is a mainstay at Danilo Božovic’s Swizzle Rum Bar & Drinkery in Miami Beach. The Caribbean liquor that O’Brien was so eager to get rid of post-war is celebrated and elevated here. Cocktail wizard Božovic mixes hurricanes with Banks 5 Island, Plantation dark rum and EO grenadine. That’s a bit too fancy for a Mardi Gras go-cup.
You can also find locally made Coconut Cartel rum (as featured in this column in January 2021) highlighted in the classic hurricane recipe published in no less than Esquire magazine’s cocktail archives. The coconut water naturally infused in the spirit plays nicely with their take on the hurricane – rum, passionfruit syrup, lemon juice and maraschino cherries – which can also be sampled in frozen form at the Coconut Cartel slushy bar in Marlins Stadium.
(FlourChild.com)
Miami has put its own mark on the tropical cocktail combining five different rums.
You’ll find hurricanes on the menu at Bagatelle Miami in Miami Beach, and at Evio’s Pizza & Grill across town in north Miami.
But one of the interesting things that happened in Miami is that we did what we always do – took something from somewhere else, gave it a twist and made it our own. New Orleans can keep the hurricane; Miami’s version amps up the amount of rum and adds orange to make a Category 5 cocktail.
You’ll find it around town and across South Florida. Some versions get more wicked by adding triple sec, while others give it the turquoise tint of Biscayne Bay by swapping in blue curaçao.
However you prefer your hurricane, sip cautiously. It’s a fun drink and a fine way to burn off the tensions of a stormy season, but treat it with respect. Like any hurricane, it can be unpredictable.
CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE
INGREDIENTS
· 1/2 ounce dark rum
· 1/2 ounce light rum
· 1/2 ounce spiced rum
· 1/2 ounce coconut rum
(TheLittlestCrumb.com)
The Blue Hurricane substitutes fassionola syrup with blue curacao, giving this cocktail its bright blue color.
· 1/2 ounce 151 rum
· 1 ounce lime juice
· 1 ounce orange juice
· 1/2 ounce passion fruit juice
METHOD
· Mix juices and rums over ice cubes and shake well; pour into hurricane glass without straining.
· Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry. If you want it sweeter and redder, add a shot of grenadine (but try it this way first).
HOME FASSIONOLA
Based on an Amy Traynor recipe
INGREDIENTS
· 1 1/2 cups mixed berries, chopped
· 1/2 cup passion fruit pulp, fresh or frozen
· 1/4 cup pineapple juice
· 1/4 cup water
· 1 bag hibiscus tea (also sold as Jamaican sorrel)
· 1 cup sugar
METHOD
· In saucepan over low heat place berries, passion fruit pulp, pineapple juice and water; stir frequently as mixture warms.
· Once warm, add tea bag and sugar and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.
· Simmer until berries are soft, about 10 minutes; do not allow mixture to come to a boil.
· Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before straining into a jar.
· Traynor recommends adding a shot of vodka to keep your fassionola fresh and colorful.