Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A HURRICANE FOR MARDI GRAS


HURRICANE
Drink Me
1½ measure dark rum 1 measure white rum
1 measure lime juice
2 measures passion fruit juice
1 measure pineapple juice
1 measure orange juice
½ measure blackcurrant syrup

Happy Mardi Gras! It’s Fat Tuesday and New Orleans is just one of the many places around the U.S. with parades and parties celebrating the last night before Lent, when all that fun gives way to Ash Wednesday promises of what will be given up until Easter. I’m giving up bad cocktails for Lent, so stay tuned.

I love N’awlins and hope to someday experience the craziness of Mardi Gras, but not this year. I’m stuck at home with the kid while the husband is at the Schvitz (that’s a topic for another blog.) So to conjure up the memory of wandering Bourbon Street in a fog, I made myself the classic New Orleans cocktail, the HURRICANE.

 There are many versions of the HURRICANE cocktail, but this one came highly recommended in 750 Cocktails, and it sounded easy, so I went for. Shopping for the ingredients wasn’t so easy though. It calls for passion fruit juice, which I could not find, so I used mango juice instead. I also couldn’t find blackcurrant syrup, but I had some blackcurrant liquor handy, which sounded close enough to me. So, I put the four kinds of juices and the two kinds of rum listed above, along with a touch of blackcurrant liquor, into a shaker. I added ice and shook it well before straining it into a glass that was half-full of ice. I topped it off with an improvised garnish.

 The mango juice and blackcurrant liquor worked just fine, and so did the dried pineapple piece I used for the garnish, since a slice of real pineapple did not magically appear in my fridge. The HURRICANE cocktail was damn tasty. It was fruity, sweet and very strong. Rum and juice is a classic combo, and this cocktail doubles the combo and takes it to new heights of delicious —excessively delicious. Too many of these and I’d be in danger of flashing my headlights, drowning in beads, and waking up to a hangover. Drinkers beware.


Drink Up^
Cocktail Connie

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