The perils of passion fruit

great source for your syrup and juice: http://www.auntylilikoi.com/

they ship 6 bottles per package so order accordingly

the syrup stays good forever in the fridge pretty much but the juice only lasts a short time once opened FYI

lemons, wtf?

storm, back away from that supposed original recipe, and stick w/the classic-- rum, passionfruit, lime.

I stick with the lemons as called for by the recipe. Have used limes in a pinch when I don't have lemons but overall I prefer this one with lemon.

The Grog Log recipe doesn't call for any sweetener beyond the passionfruit syrup, but with all that lemon juice a d depending on how burnt/bitter your 4 oz. rum choice is you may find that you need to add a little grenadine or simple syrup to hit the right balance. Because everyone assumes a Hurricane should be bright red a splash of grenadine will put the hue of the drink in that direction and add a little balancing sweetness. I'd say shake the drink up according to the recipe first, taste it and then make any necessary sweetener adjustments.

I find Jeff's Hurricane recipe -- which supposedly is authentic, as I've seen other sources for it -- very tart. I usually add some grenadine.

Last weekend in Indianapolis on a hotel deck overlooking a canal, I served hand-mixed Hurricanes (Grog Log recipe) for a small group of friends. Over the course of the evening we ended up using seven bottles of Appleton Estate 12YO, and nine bottles of Aunt Liliko'i passion fruit syrup. The first couple of Hurricanes were a bit tart. I considered adding a splash of grenadine to tame the tartness, but the remedy ended up being a little extra shaking in the cocktail shaker which provided just the right amount of dilution. The hue was a bit off, but the end result was an absolutely perfect tasting cocktail.

As noted a couple of times in earlier threads, the Aunt Liliko'i Passion Fruit Syrup is hard to beat, and my personal favorite. If needed, I can make a pretty decent version at home. First I use either C&H Pure Cane Organic Sugar or Domino Pure Cane Organic Sugar, and make gomme syrup. I then mix equal parts Goya Passion Fruit Pulp with the gomme syrup. Using gomme syrup may seem a little overboard, but it comes close to creating the nice mouth feel of the Aunt Liliko’i passion fruit syrup.

Here's what the Goya Passion Fruit Pulp looks like. I've been fortunate to find it in every Latino Grocer I've ever visited. It can be found in the frozen foods section. It seems to be pretty good stuff. The ingredients simply read "passion fruit pulp".

[ Edited by: DarthMalaguti 2013-08-25 11:12 ]

I've found the Goya pulp in the stores here in Northern Virginia. I think the last place I saw it was Wegman's by Dulles.

One if my local liquor stores now carries Finest Call Passion Fruit. I suppose I'll at least give it a try. With all the preservatives, it should have a shelf life of a few years. :)

I've used the Finest Call Passion Fruit and it's not bad. Not great, but not bad.

And if you are in the right climate, you could always just get yourself a passion fruit (I would suggest the black knight or Frederick cultivars) so you can have the fresh stuff. The vines are cheap to get and pretty easy to care for.

how many passionfruit does it take to get an ounce of juice?

seems like when i've bought them before they were all pulp no juice.

It kind of depends on the variety and how well they grow where you are.

For me, one to two purples (the kind you most likely found in the store) could do it. If you were making a bottle of syrup you might be able to use less.

But some varieties are much larger and... yeah...

Extracting the juice is not too difficult, but I normally just use the whole interior (seeds and all) for cocktails and strain as I pour or just leave them in.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Passion-Fruit-Juice

Just saw that Monin carries a shelf-stable Passion Fruit Purée. Wonder how that would fare as a passion fruit syrup.

Anybody try it?

Nice find! I'll have to check it out. Here's a link:

http://www.moninstore.com/passion-fruit-puree-6289.html

A quick check on Amazon shows that they don't have the passion purée, but they carry other flavors and they are all highly rated. No HFCS, but a few preservatives and some artificial colors. All in all it's probably a great solution if you don't feel like plunking down the money for regular purée that won't last long.

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-01-04 09:32 ]

I should also note, 27 different drinks in the Tiki+ app call for either passion fruit syrup or juice.

I just bought a Taiwanese brand of passionfruit syrup from my local chinese grocery.

will test and advise.

It'll probably taste like melamine and lead. :wink:

it keeps in the fridge just fine... ive barely used the reynolds that i have and its still ok

http://bgreynolds.com/products/passion-fruit

On 2014-01-05 09:39, nomeus wrote:
it keeps in the fridge just fine... ive barely used the reynolds that i have and its still ok

http://bgreynolds.com/products/passion-fruit

This prompted me to do a little investigation. It turns out sugar, like salt, creates an osmotic barrier, meaning it draws moisture out of bacteria. If the sugar content is high enough, bacteria can't live within it. Some molds can grow on top of it, but that's it. It's possible that the sugar content in the BG Reynolds passion fruit syrup is high enough that this is true. I put a bottle of it in my freezer and noted that it became thick but didn't freeze, likely because of the high sugar content. So it may be that the refrigerator is enough of a secondary preservative to keep it fresh for a long period of time, although not indefinitely.

Thanks for the tip, nomeus.

I haven't opened my BG Reynolds' Passion Fruit yet because its something I use so rarely and don't want to waste it. I have a Torani Passion Fruit Syrup open that I've hardly dented. I'd like to say that it is fairly decent but I can't comment on it - based on other Torani syrups its quite possible that it's trash. :D

Normally, I get Finest Call passion fruit puree, either from Lukas Liquor, or online from BevMo. Today I discovered that my local international food market carries Goya frozen passion fruit pulp. The Mexican grocery near me does not carry passion fruit in any form. So I'll be making my own syrup for the first time tonight. I'm a fan of the "Dr. Cocktail" Zombie.

Here's my first time making passion fruit syrup. I don't know if this is the correct strength or thickness, but it damn sure tastes good.

The frozen passion fruit pulp came from Global Foods International Market in Kirkwood, MO. I used 2 of the 4 packets of Goya frozen passion fruit pulp. 7oz pulp, 7oz turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw), 5oz water

Dump it all in a pan. Mmmmm!

Let it get to a fast simmer on high-medium heat. Stir it with a spreader.

I guess you can strain it. Or you could just pour it on ice cream. Or pancakes. Or in your mouth. Yeah, that sugary pulp does not taste at all like heaven in a spoon, either. Nope.

I ended up with a little over 12 ounces of strained syrup. Since I used turbinado, there is a little more molasses in it, so a warmer flavor, and darker color.

[ Edited by: Greg_D_R 2014-07-02 22:19 ]

Just tasted it after a night in the fridge. It blows away Finest Call Passion Fruit puree. The flavor is more full and natural. Mixing it will be the real test, later tonight.

Aunty Lilikoi

Great stuff. I buy it 6 bottles at a time, which fits in one box for shipping. Then I put 5 on the shelf and one in the fridge. Never had one go bad. The small bottles keep it fresher and they fit in the shelf of the mini fridge behind the bar right alongside the pineapple juice cans.

It can be too strong for some. So you pour a little less than called for and it goes even further.

B.G.'s product is good, but his shipping is crazy. I can get 6 bottles from Hawaii cheaper than the same amount from BG.

Running low on homemade passion fruit syrup, I just went on a crazy and mainly unsuccessful passion fruit shopping trip.

First stop, Northgate Gonzales market, Anaheim. No fresh, no frozen, no pulp, no juice, no syrup!

Second stop, Super King grocery store, Anaheim (Middle Eastern/Mexican/Asian). No fresh, no frozen, no nothing! Tons of weird looking pomegranate molasses though, just in case someone needs any of that.

Third stop, Garden Grove Market, Garden Grove (Vietnamese). No fresh, no frozen, BUT - syrup! Made in Sumatra. About 6 bucks. Sugar, no corn syrup. Will report back.
And also, frozen passion fruit juice (with sugar). Will report back on that as well.

On 2015-05-10 14:30, wupput wrote:
Third stop, Garden Grove Market, Garden Grove (Vietnamese). No fresh, no frozen, BUT - syrup! Made in Sumatra. About 6 bucks. Sugar, no corn syrup. Will report back.
And also, frozen passion fruit juice (with sugar). Will report back on that as well.

Wupput, good finds! Check the frozen foods section of Wal-Mart too - they do a pretty good job of stocking ethnic foods, and I've consistently found several frozen tropical pulps there. I haven't heard of any passion fruit shortage, so it's worth trying. Good luck!

On 2015-05-11 06:40, AceExplorer wrote:

Check the frozen foods section of Wal-Mart too - they do a pretty good job of stocking ethnic foods, and I've consistently found several frozen tropical pulps there. I haven't heard of any passion fruit shortage, so it's worth trying. Good luck!

No amount of passion fruit products is worth the level of disdain I feel for the human race after 5 minutes in a WalMart! I'd rather pay crazy shipping costs than the 3 years I lose off my life every time I step into one of those places.

Jentiki, you're not the only one to feel that way. I hesitated to mention the dreaded WM word, however there are a number of things which they are very well stocked up on. Fruit pulps is often one of those things.

We have a supermarket here in Port St. Lucie, Fl that caters to the hispanic and caribbean ethnic groups, Bravo Supermarkets. They have the passion fruit pulp (a number of brands) and I usually pick some up here. Today I was in the soda isle and what did I see on the top shelf? La Cena brand syrups. Found this one and picked it up:

Haven't had a chance to try it yet, I usually make hurricanes and pieces 'o eight with it.

La Cena has a slew of different syrups ( http://lacenafoods.com/Products63.html ) and Bravo carries most, if not all of them. I'm kinda wondering how the coconut syrup stands up to Coco Lopez (probably not well) or TV's KoKo Creme (never found it here, so wouldn't know if I tried). The sugarcane syrup looks interesting but is black as hell....probably has some mollasess taste to it.

howlinowl

[ Edited by: howlinowl 2015-05-11 09:50 ]

forgot to list the ingredients:

Filtered Water
Sugar (Yay! No corn syrups!)
Passion Fruit pulp
citric acid (for tartness)
Xhanthan gum
1/10 of 1 percent sodium benzoate (preservative)

howlinowl

JenTiki, I feel the same way about Walmart. Maybe I need a couple of strong drinks at home - then go to Walmart and look for passion fruit pulp? (with a designated driver of course....)

Yes! The La Cena tastes exactly like the passion fruit syrup I make from the pulp. It's only about a buck or so more than the pulp...saves me the trouble of making my own. I'll be buying more.

howlinowl

First the bad news. The Passion Fruit syrup I bought from the Vietnamese market, the one made in Sumatra, was just ok. By that I mean better than most commercial brands, but not near as good as homemade or Aunty Lilikoi.

Now the good news. Orange County Passion Fruit score!! From this fine purveyor of exotic Oriental goods:

The ABC Supermarket in Westminister, which is surrounded by delectable Vietnamese eateries by the way, was selling bags of 5 frozen Vietnamese passion fruits for $2.49. If my calculations are correct that is somewhere in the range of 50 cents per fruit! Contrast with the price at Whole Paycheck, er... Foods, of $3 per fruit, or even the Farmer's market price I paid of $5 per pound.

So, after defrosting in the fridge for a couple of days, the moment of truth came and I cut one open. It was bursting with seeds and pulp. In fact, all of them were. By the time I had removed the pulp from each of my 15 passion fruit I had this:

Never having seen so much pulp, I tried to figure out how much syrup to make and ended up using 3 cups water and sugar. I went for the syrup boil, then add half the pulp, then bring to a quick boil, then remove from heat and add the rest. Which looked like this:

And a few hours later, like this:

Not sure how many ounces of syrup that is, but at least 50. Total price of all ingredients? Under $10. Taste? Tiki-worthy!

[ Edited by: wupput 2015-05-31 21:53 ]

My first time making passionfruit syrup this weekend. I used Frozen Chiquita Passion Fruit Pulp:

1:1:1 - sugar:water:pulp by weight. Half the pulp mixed in while the sugar dissolved, half added afterwards off the heat.

So one sachet gave me about 400 ml of syrup (this is a 750ml bottle):

The result - very sweet, with an intense flavor of passionfruit. The color and consistency are almost exactly the same as the BG Reynolds, but in blind taste tests, all my family preferred the home made.

Also makes a great Trader Vic's Grog :)

I'll definitely be making this in future instead of buying ready made, as I do with all simple syrups and grenadine. (Orgeat, however, is more trouble than it's worth). Will be trying Falernum next.

Thanks for posting your results. I've grown tired of the flavor of Monin and the BG Reynolds is good but pricey with a very short shelf life. I've found myself cutting drinks that call for passion fruit out of my repertoire lately because of this. Any idea the shelf life on your syrup? Do you plan to add a neutral grain spirit to prolong it?

I did add a little Everclear to the syrup, as I do with all the ones I make to help preserve. I am not sure how long it'll last in the refrigerator, probably longer than it will take for me to use it all. But as it's so quick and easy to make, and the frozen pulp is cheap enough, I'm not too concerned about wastage.

Made my first batch of homemade passion fruit syrup from Goya frozen pulp mixed with simple syrup and with the help of a couple friends put it to the test against Monin.

In a blind taste test of the syrups on their own, the homemade was unanimously picked as fresher and better tasting than Monin. One participant noted something tasted "off" with the Monin. I agree, I don't know if it's the preservatives, but there is a taste that just doesn't sit right with me that seems to dominate any drink I put it in.

We then put them to the test in mixed cocktails. Decided on two drinks with minimal ingredients that will highlight the passion fruit: Trader Vic Grog and Hurricane. Using exact proportions of all the ingredients and Coruba as the rum, I made one with Monin and one with homemade syrup for each drink, and of course did not reveal which was which. We all selected the ones with homemade syrup as the better drink.

The 14 oz (by weight) package of Goya pulp was about $4. I used half of it mixed with equal parts sugar and water to yield about 16 oz of passion fruit syrup. Monin is 10 bucks for 750ml (approx 25 oz). So homemade is less than half the price, really quick and easy to make, and a much superior product.

Will probably do a comparison against BG Reynolds soon to see where it stands.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2015-07-21 22:38 ]

I just want to thank everyone for the info on homemade passion fruit syrup. I am inspired by this to finally make some rather than buying any ready made brand. Gotta try these cocktails!

I hope to post some photos on my efforts in this area soon. I tried two different methods of filtering the syrup, one worked VERY well but was VERY slow (coffee filter) and the other worked decently well and was surpisingly fast (a mesh fry pan "splatter screen" from the Dollar Store) and didn't impact flavor at all.

By the way, the homemade stuff does have great flavor, as reported by Mike Hooker earlier.

Ace, I used one of those handheld mesh strainer things (not the flat pan ones, but with a rounded bottom) and it worked fine for me. I just had to pour a small amount at a time, let the fluids drain through, rinse it out and repeat several times. I planned to take pics of the whole process but alas I rushed to get this done before heading to work so it would be ready for consumption when I got home. I've already used about half the bottle in a few days.

A buddy is bringing a bottle of BG Reynolds passion fruit syrup this week to do some more comparisons and I have a bottle of Aunty Lilikoi coming my way as well. Another friend says he has a juicer that we can make our own pulp from. That's some next level shit. Wonder if it's worth the extra effort. We'll find out...

Mike, that's good feedback. My "strainer" was one of the flat ones, a grease splatter guard. I had good enough results that I didn't make any plans to go further with my syrup making, but you are definitely taking it to the next level. Looking forward to hear of your results. I'll look for my pics tonight -- filled my phone to capacity and had to move stuff off for sorting/deleting/saving, so they're not handy at the moment...

I'm looking forward to your comparisons with Aunty Lilikoi, BG Reynolds, and your home-made syrup. Theoretically fresher homemade is better, but you never know. The Aunty Lilikoi gets good reviews here.

By the way, my coffee filtered syrup was fairly clear. My strainer-made syrup was a bit cloudy, but fine. It gives cocktails a nice flavor and adds a bit to the color. I have a feeling my syrup won't last super long either...

To clarify in my last post --- my syrup won't last super long because I'll use it up quickly, not because it will go bad on me. I spiked each 16oz bottle with two ounces of Everclear, and it's a great syrup life extender.

Now if I can only get my local Total Whine to re-stock their rum section, grrrrr... Maybe it's just my store, but they have cut back significantly on rums, and they moved the whole section to a different part of the store. I hope it's temporary...

On 2015-07-22 12:00, AceExplorer wrote:
To clarify in my last post --- my syrup won't last super long because I'll use it up quickly, not because it will go bad on me. I spiked each 16oz bottle with two ounces of Everclear, and it's a great syrup life extender.

I only put a 1/2 oz of Everclear in mine. Didn't know what amount would extend the life without altering the taste so I started small. I noticed last night while reading Sippin Safari that the Bum states homemade passion fruit syrup "will last two or three days in the fridge" and he makes no mention of a neutral grain spirit to extend the life. Is there a formula we should be following for homemade syrups?

On 2015-07-22 12:00, AceExplorer wrote:
Now if I can only get my local Total Whine to re-stock their rum section, grrrrr... Maybe it's just my store, but they have cut back significantly on rums, and they moved the whole section to a different part of the store. I hope it's temporary...

As for your Total Wine concerns, we just got our first store here in Austin recently and I was excited. I'd been to a location in Dallas and one in Jax and thought they were pretty nice stores. I actually took pics of a bunch of price tags on products I regularly stock at my usual shop, Specs, and then went into TW to compare. Their prices were almost identical but selection was slimmer. And most surprisingly they didn't carry Appleton 12 year, which I needed. It's way on the other side of town so I likely won't be going back any time soon. Sadly the Spec's store that's on the direct path between my house and work just did a floor move and seems to have limited their rum section. This location used to be the supplier for local bars and got specialty products from time to time. They built a new warehouse that's not open to the public and in the process things like Coruba, Clement, and BG Reynolds that I used to have no trouble getting are now off the shelves. Oh the struggles we face.

Back when I first started making syrups, I spoke to the Bum at several Hukilaus about some of the recipes I was following. He told me generally "an ounce or so," but I eventually bumped it up to 2oz of Everclear because he didn't have a real formula of how much PGA per how many ounces of syrup. I settled on two ounces per 16 of syrup because it was a decently large percentage, it has only a minor influence on the flavor of the syrup, and that effect is overcome by the greater freshness and flavor intensity of the homemade syrups. Having tried my one-and-only bottle of Taylor's Velvet Falernum against homemade falernum, and finding it TOO WEAK to actually be falernum in my book, reinforced this "homemade is better" belief. I have no problem with the 2:16 ratio, and it has had no noticeable impact in my drinks. (Maybe my tongue is dead? ha)

On Total Whine - they are very inconsistent at times. They move stuff around for (to me) random reasons. They frequently don't replenish their rum and gin stock in time and force me to go to other liquor stores or mail-order more often than I want. (When they recently relocated all their rum, I've thought about bringing a tape measure to see if they increased or decreased the amount of shelving devoted to rum.) They have no idea what Lemon Hart or Hamilton's is. They suck at special orders for me which other smaller liquor stores seem more able to do. So I would welcome more competition in my city - we would certainly benefit from it. But they do have a good selection of wines and beers. Too bad for them that I swapped most of my beer and wine consumption for cocktails when I discovered tiki.

AceExplorer and mikehooker I have enjoyed your conversation and additional thoughts on this today. I have one of those round strainers which I will use. Hmmm, I have enjoyed Taylor's Velvet Falernum but now I think I want to try to make some of that, too! Also, sorry to hear about that chain store's shrinking rum supply. What we need is a new store called Total Rum!

Jeff, glad we're motivating you to make your own syrups. For the most part it is a fun, relatively quick, simple, and very rewarding experience. Here's my current arsenal of rich sugar syrup, grenadine, cinnamon syrup and passion fruit syrup.

I've made fashionola in the past which was documented in another thread. One time I tried doing orgeat the cheater way with carton almond milk and wasn't that happy with the results. I prefer BG Reynolds over that but one day will do the full blanching method. I'd like to do my own falernum and allspice syrups at some point too but have plenty of fee bros, velvet and St Elizabeth at the moment.

Make sure you share your results with us once you start the process and let us know if we can help in any way.

Mahalo, Mike! Lots of fine looking syrups there I'd like to make. I look forward to getting into this process. I'll post on the progress.

It seems to be passion fruit season so if you plan to make your own now is a great time. I saw passion fruits for $5 per pound at the Buena Park farmer's market the last few weeks and even cheaper in Vietnamese grocery stores in Garden Grove and Westminster CA. Pick the fullest feeling purple ones.