Post #730653 by Tonga Tiki on Fri, Oct 31, 2014 1:34 PM

I got my response from Bum. I know that this thread seems to deal mainly with fassionola's part in replicating Mai Kai cocktails and not necessarily Donn's actual recipes. But I was curious to what his opinion was anyway. BTW I want to thank Hurricane Hayward for his tireless quest of providing the most accurate Mai Kai recipes possible. I have enjoyed his Mai Kai tribute cocktail recipes for years and they are a staple at my parties. Anyway, here is the Bum's opinion on fassionola:

Aloha Tonga Tiki!

I tried the original (gold) Fassionola in the early 1990s, when I found a bottle in a Burbank liquor store. It was awful: artificial tasting, vaguely passion fruit-orange. Using actual passion fruit is MUCH better. I have to think that the Don recipes that call for it in Phoebe's book date from the 1980s, when every restaurant chain started switching over to artificial mixers. In the 1940s Don would not have been using that stuff, IMHO.

The gold was the standard, but red would have been used for Hurricanes and the like. It had a cherry taste. Green was only used as food coloring for drinks that called for "green syrup," like the Cleopatra. It was kind of minty."

Hope that helps,

Bum

[ Edited by: Tonga Tiki 2014-10-31 13:35 ]