Post #730502 by Hurricane Hayward on Wed, Oct 29, 2014 1:57 AM

I would not expect a positive response from the Bum, assuming he has time to respond. I'll bet his advice would be to not bother with fassionola. And I would agree to a point (especially when you consider its artificial ingredients). It's not mentioned in any of his books, and I get the feeling that he feels it's unnecessary. It's too obscure to include in his published recipes and expect readers to be able to find it. And it's fairly easy to use passion fruit syrup and/or grenadine in most of the classics that may have used fassionola at some point.

However, you can't deny that it was indeed one of Donn Beach's many secret ingredients, though it's rare to find in print. Beyond references in old Hurricane recipes, I've only seen it mentioned in "Hawaii - Tropical Rum Drinks & Cuisine by Don the Beachcomber." It's included in five drinks in that book, which inspired me to track it down at The Mai-Kai, where Donn's old recipes are still followed religiously. That led me to include it in five current drinks and two retired drinks in my tribute recipes.

Which leads us back to the question of which of the Jonathan English products is preferred. I've long used the "Red" Tropical Gold product, which I've recommended in all of the aforementioned drinks. But I just picked up a bottle of the other Tropical Gold fassionola. The only major difference on the bottle is the word "red" is not included. It looks (and tastes) very similar. It's indeed not as red, though in the bottle it's hard to tell the difference.

I'm in the midst of some head-to-head comparisons. So stay tuned for the results.