The perils of passion fruit

Wupput, thanks for the heads up, I will check some local places tomorrow! I really want to make this from scratch, as they say.

[ Edited by: Jeffitiki 2015-07-27 20:49 ]

I don't recall if earlier in this thread someone had made the syrup from scratch using the fresh fruit and I'm too lazy to read back through it all again, but in Sippin Safari I think Jeff states it's hardly worth the effort cuz you get so little juice out of the fruit and it will cost a fortune to squeeze enough to make a syrup, which is why he recommends the frozen pulp. Can anyone attest to the contrary? I'd like to try it that way at some point as a friend of mine has a crazy juicer that will make the labor part of it easier and obviously I'd love to try a batch at it's absolute freshest.

In other news, I just got a bottle of Aunty Lilikoi so I'll be putting that to the test soon.

Good post Mike. If they are cheap enough at the produce store I may go for it, but I'd love to go easier with the frozen pulp. Either way fine libations await!

Cheers!

When we did our first passion fruit showdown we chose the Trader Vic grog and hurricane as the simple ingredient cocktails and honestly neither of those drinks do much for me. They showcase the passion fruit but there's no wow factor in either of them. The next night I made myself a pieces of eight and it was freakin delicious and only required four ingredients. Not sure if it was the Havana Club I used that made it so special but I thoroughly enjoyed it. And the next one. Will have to try it again using Flor de Cana or another white to see if it holds up.

Mike, I'd have to say that advice is completely wrong. I've made syrup from fresh passion fruits several times and each time it made large quantities of EXCELLENT tasting syrup for very little money.

Passion fruits are very light, so 2 pounds of passion fruits ($10 or less around here) yields you tons and tons of pulp. Extracting the pulp is as easy as cutting open the fruit and scooping out the insides. I don't actually understand why anybody WOULDN'T use the fresh fruits as a base unless there is lack of availability.

I do remember somebody telling me that fresh passion fruit at Whole Foods was like $5 per fruit so in that case, yes, that would be insane. But if you can get them for a reasonable price per pound, it is SO worth it.

Put it this way. I made some yesterday. I used 6 passion fruit, which cost me around $2-3, and got about 12 oz of really fine tasting syrup. My issue is that the kids have realized how wonderful passion fruit soda is so I need to make extra batches for them!

wupput can you post your recipe? Using fresh fruit sounds like a good idea to me!

Sure. I make a simple syrup - say 2 cups water and 2 cups Turbinado sugar. While that's heating up I just cut the passion fruit (I'd try to use about 10-12 for that amount, but they vary greatly in pulp content) and dump and scoop all the pulp including seeds into a bowl. When the syrup has boiled I add all the pulp and seeds, mix, and reheat slowly to a boil. As soon as it begins to boil I turn the heat off and let it sit, stirring occasionally. I let it cool for about 2 hours stirring every 20 minutes or so. Then I pour it through a wire mesh strainer (to get the seeds out) into a mason jar. If I think I won't be using it very quickly I normally add some white rum to help preserve it.

So:
2 cups water
2 cups Turbinado sugar
10-12 passion fruit (more if they're small or mainly empty)
strainer
mason jar
rum

2 hours work (hardly any of it actually working).

I posted a few pictures a few pages back on this topic thrad.

Thanks wupput.

So for those using the frozen pulp, what's the difference between boiling it with sugar & h2o vs just mixing it with sugar syrup?

Thanks Wuppet for chiming in with your input and instructions! I just re-read the Bum's blurb about passion fruit syrup in the glossary of Sippin Safari (I think it might be the same in Remixed) and I mis-remembered. He states to not use commercial brand passion fruit JUICES to make the syrup, although his instructions to make the syrup call for frozen pulp and he makes no mention of using fresh fruit which I find puzzling if it's as cheap and easy as you say. I must have heard the part about the fruit not yielding much juice from somewhere else. I personally have never handled the actual fruit and didn't realize the apparent ease of juicing it as a friend said he has a great mixer we can use. If $3 of fresh passion fruit can yield around 12 oz of syrup, count me in!

On 2015-07-28 16:04, happy buddha wrote:
Thanks wupput.

So for those using the frozen pulp, what's the difference between boiling it with sugar & h2o vs just mixing it with sugar syrup?

I actually just mixed the pulp with sugar syrup and then strained it as I was pressed for time and couldn't wait around for cooling before I had to get to work. I'm not sure if boiling it down with sugar and water would make it more concentrated or any better. I'm happy with my results but perhaps it could be even better with a slight reduction. The instructions in Sippin Safari simply say to mix thawed frozen pulp and simple syrup.

Thanks mike. I'm trying it both ways for comparison. Even just with the straight sugar syrup mix, I can honestly say I won't be buying any bottles of passion fruit syrup again. The difference is incredible. I think a gum syrup, as someone suggested, would be fun to try.

On 2015-07-28 16:49, mikehooker wrote:
Thanks Wuppet for chiming in with your input and instructions! I just re-read the Bum's blurb about passion fruit syrup in the glossary of Sippin Safari (I think it might be the same in Remixed) and I mis-remembered. He states to not use commercial brand passion fruit JUICES to make the syrup, although his instructions to make the syrup call for frozen pulp and he makes no mention of using fresh fruit which I find puzzling if it's as cheap and easy as you say. I must have heard the part about the fruit not yielding much juice from somewhere else. I personally have never handled the actual fruit and didn't realize the apparent ease of juicing it as a friend said he has a great mixer we can use. If $3 of fresh passion fruit can yield around 12 oz of syrup, count me in!

It's a super easy fruit to get pulp from because the fruit is contained in a sort of hard but easy to cut outer shell. You cut the shell in half with a spoon you can just scoop all the pulp out in seconds. But availability might be the issue. Southern California has a large Southeast Asian community with ethnic grocery stores, so you can find fresh whole fruit in Vietnamese or Thai stores and I've even bought whole frozen fruit in them when the fresh fruit is out of season. People tell me passion fruit is a vine that is super easy to grow and spreads like wildfire, so my plan is to start growing my own soon. But in other parts of the country the situation could be totally different. I think you're good either way - if you can find the fresh fruit it's easier to get the pulp out than it is to squeeze a grapefruit, and it's easier to make passion fruit syrup than orgeat or pimento dram or falernum or anything, but I'm sure the frozen pulp works just fine too. Now time to make some Hurricanes with my syrup!

Yeah I think fresh would be a great way to go. I can't seem to find a single fresh passion fruit in miles though.

For the record, it seems the boiled method yields a richer, sweeter syrup than just mixing straight. But the problem there might be spoilage? How long does this stuff keep in the fridge? I think either one wins over pre-bottled for my tastes though. Hands down.

Ok after sampling more cocktails than was wise for a Tuesday night, my completely biased opinion is this:

BG Reynolds & Finest Call make a very serviceable passion fruit syrup, but if you want that fresh passion fruit taste to really punch through, can't beat homemade. Not rocket science I guess...

fresh passion fruit is not hard to find here, it's in the chain groceries, but somewhat pricy, i think a dollar or more per fruit. the kind w/purple husk. nice fragrance but very little pulp or juice in them, i've bought them before and found frozen Colombian passionfruit pulp is way easier for syrup making.

So, I'm wondering what people's take on Perfect Puree's passionfruit concentrate is?
It's what I've been using, and generally the only thing I see people saying is that it's expensive, but I think that might be a misnomer. It's $25 a jar, for 30 oz by weight, but it's a 200% concentrate. This means that if you add 30 oz of water by weight you have standard passion fruit juice. So, a 60 oz jar is $25. The question I'm having with it is how much sugar should be in a passionfruit syrup? Perfect Puree's concentrate once diluted contains 7g of sugar for every 56g of juice, or 12.5% sugar content. BG Reynolds Passionfruit Syrup contains 17g of sugar per ounce or 56.6% sugar content, Monin Passionfruit contains 24g of sugar per ounce, or 80% sugar content. Should I be making a true 1:1 syrup then, or one slightly higher like BG Reynolds, or much higher like Monin?
If I do want a true 1:1 then I should be using 87.5g of sugar per every 100g of Perfect Puree Passionfruit juice (diluted concentrate), making the final sugar content 50%.

Thoughts?

[ Edited by: dfpratt09 2015-08-18 12:08 ]

dfpratt09, it really depends upon your own personal taste. Also, what works best in the particular cocktails that you make most often.

I like to have several different syrups on hand with different levels of sweetness or intensity. My own personal preference has changed over the years, and I've also discovered that some cocktails benefit from a syrup that's at the sweet end of the spectrum, while another may work best with a more tart syrup.

For example, I just posted a revamped recipe for the Sidewinder's Fang at The Mai-Kai that works best with the super sweet Monin:
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2012/05/10/mai-kai-cocktail-review-bring-a-friend-and-sink-your-teeth-into-the-classic-sidewinders-fang/#ancestor

But if I made a Rum Barrel, I'd probably use my homemade syrup, or something more tart. If you're not as obsessive as some of us, just make a homemade syrup that's somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and it should work fine.

FYI, I currently make my homemade syrup with 2 cups of organic sugar, 1 cup of purified water and 1/2 cup of thawed passion fruit pulp. I bring it to almost a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer and let it reduce for at least 10 minutes. I then let it steep for several hours before bottling and refrigerating. I like my syrup on the sweet side, and of course this works best in Mai-Kai cocktails.

I have no idea if this method is better than simply combining the pulp with a cooked simple syrup since I haven't tried that. I'm neither a chef nor a food chemist, but I suspect that letting the pulp and sugar come together while heating, along with letting it simmer, may make for a more cohesive and thicker syrup. It always seems to keep its syrupy consistency for quite a while with no additives.

The Week in Tiki * Mai-Kai Cocktail Guide

The official blog of The Hukilau

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2015-09-16 12:27 ]

Working in downtown SF and living near Berkeley I have loads of great locals where I can get pretty much everything I need and then some, and usually within walking distance.

Everything except passion fruit syrup.

Trying to find this stuff around here has been frustrating to the extreme. I've been trying for months and months - it's rarer than hen's teeth. I know I could order online but that is somehow much less satisfying than walking out of a store with it, kind of like record shopping.

Well, when it rains it pours, London buses, lightning strikes twice, etc.

Whilst buying my weekly large bottle of Small Hand orgeat I saw Ledger's FINALLY got the SH passion fruit in, so I happily grabbed one. On the way home I stopped at the Ranch 99 market for some limes and after my millionth sweep of the aisles finally located the bottle on the right. I KNEW they had to have some! This is why I was never able to find it before:

It's always been behind floor stock. You can just see the yellow cap behind the honey display and the boxes to the left of it.

I've not yet gotten into the Small Hand syrup but have put the Sarang Tawon syrup through its paces. It's from Indonesia and has no HFCS, only sugar. It's STRONG - really packs a punch and tends to dominate the drink. This rather surprised me. However, dial whatever the recipe calls for back by 1/4 oz. and it's lovely.

There's quite a price difference between the two (like, almost $10) so I'm almost hoping I don't like the SH version much...

On 2015-12-22 10:10, HopeChest wrote:
Working in downtown SF and living near Berkeley I have loads of great locals where I can get pretty much everything I need and then some, and usually within walking distance.

Everything except passion fruit syrup.

Trying to find this stuff around here has been frustrating to the extreme. I've been trying for months and months - it's rarer than hen's teeth. I know I could order online but that is somehow much less satisfying than walking out of a store with it, kind of like record shopping.

Well, when it rains it pours, London buses, lightning strikes twice, etc.

Whilst buying my weekly large bottle of Small Hand orgeat I saw Ledger's FINALLY got the SH passion fruit in, so I happily grabbed one. On the way home I stopped at the Ranch 99 market for some limes and after my millionth sweep of the aisles finally located the bottle on the right. I KNEW they had to have some! This is why I was never able to find it before:

It's always been behind floor stock. You can just see the yellow cap behind the honey display and the boxes to the left of it.

I've not yet gotten into the Small Hand syrup but have put the Sarang Tawon syrup through its paces. It's from Indonesia and has no HFCS, only sugar. It's STRONG - really packs a punch and tends to dominate the drink. This rather surprised me. However, dial whatever the recipe calls for back by 1/4 oz. and it's lovely.

There's quite a price difference between the two (like, almost $10) so I'm almost hoping I don't like the SH version much...

That stuff on the right is my go-to for passion fruit syrup now that my local ralph's has dropped passion fruit pulp to make room for a second rack of...mamey pulp? WHO'S BUYING THAT UP AT SUCH A RATE THAT THEY NEED TWO FRIGGIN RACKS WORTH OF IT?

I'm not bitter I swear.

More to the point: I've found that it's veeeery rich and concentrated. Making Jim's Specials and Beachbum's Owns with it I found that cutting it 25%-50% with plain SS was the way to go. Used in the volume called for, it completely dominates most drinks and turns them into glorified passionfruit nectar.

On 2015-05-11 09:49, howlinowl wrote:
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 ]

Well, that didn't last long. Looks like Bravo has stopped carrying the La Cena brand of syrups. They have some other brand.....Something Poly or Poly Something....but either Bravo doesn't carry the passion fruit or Poly-something doesn't make it. Back to mixing my own from pulp.

howlinowl

howlinowl, the home-made syrup is actually pretty good, so if I were in your shoes, I might not be too worried. Others here have generally had positive things to say about the home-made syrup. I have only made one batch, and so far I don't have any complaint. I will have to test side-by-side with the Monin syrup I have been using before I made my own. Wait -- I'm pretty sure that I gave away my bottle of Monin's at a party a couple months ago... Hmmm... Drat!

Revisiting a couple old posts on this thread....

On 2015-06-22 09:31, Scaramouch wrote:

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.

The couple of batches of PF syrup I've made were done with equal parts sugar, water and pulp by volume, not weight. I'd be curious to try it the other way. Not sure if that will yield a sweeter syrup, a thicker consitency, or what the differences will be. Since I don't have a kitchen scale, does anyone know what the approximate measurements of each would equate to in ounces if doing equal parts by weight?

On 2015-07-22 12:00, AceExplorer wrote:

I spiked each 16oz bottle with two ounces of Everclear, and it's a great syrup life extender.

Ace, I'm still trying to find the right balance of PGA to syrup that allows maximum shelf life without effecting the flavor of the syrup. I only put 1/2 oz Everclear in my first batch and it did not effect the flavor at all. I used it up so quickly that shelf life was not an issue that time. My second batch I ended up tossing because I upped the Everclear to 2 oz as you suggested and it was very noticeable. I realized too late that my batch of passion fruit may have only been 14 oz (not 16), so that may have been the issue. I should have cut the PGA back a tad but still think 2 oz is too heavy.

When I do other syrups like sugar or cinnamon I don't bother to spike them cuz I go through them much quicker and they seem more stable, but I have a bottle of Grenadine from many months ago that is still mold-free and tastes just fine. I'm guessing I added one oz PGA to that one which makes me think 1-1.5 oz per 16 oz syrup is the safest bet to maintain freshness and the flavor of the syrup.

On 2015-07-22 11:56, AceExplorer wrote:

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.

I went through my bottle of Aunty Lilikoi very quickly. Unfortunately I never did a side by side comparison of it with BG or homemade but I must say it's a quality product. The sweetness is more subtle and it does not dominate drinks like Monin does. Geez, I used Monin the other night cuz it was all I had and my palate just can't handle it anymore. Maybe cutting the called for proportion in half will do the trick but I no longer feel the need to keep that stuff on hand. I used to put it in batches of Rum Barrels for parties since it was cheap but homemade is actually cheaper and so much better.

Oddly though, I don't think I've made a rum barrel with homemade passion fruit yet. I did make one last week with Lilikoi and it was one of the best I've ever had. I'm thinking as far as "commercial" syrup is concerned, Lilikoi is probably the best option. I need to wrangle another bottle to compare it with homemade and see if it's actually worth the expense but I'm guessing homemade is ultimately the way to go.

On 2015-09-16 12:26, Hurricane Hayward wrote:

FYI, I currently make my homemade syrup with 2 cups of organic sugar, 1 cup of purified water and 1/2 cup of thawed passion fruit pulp. I bring it to almost a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer and let it reduce for at least 10 minutes. I then let it steep for several hours before bottling and refrigerating. I like my syrup on the sweet side, and of course this works best in Mai-Kai cocktails.

It always seems to keep its syrupy consistency for quite a while with no additives.

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2015-09-16 12:27 ]

How long is quite a while? Do you get a couple months without additives?

On 2015-12-23 11:53, AceExplorer wrote:
I will have to test side-by-side with the Monin syrup I have been using before I made my own. Wait -- I'm pretty sure that I gave away my bottle of Monin's at a party a couple months ago... Hmmm... Drat!

I wouldn't bother picking up a new bottle of Monin for the sake of comparison if I were you. I have a couple ounces left in my bottle and I'm contemplating just tossing it tonight after I make a new batch of homemade, assuming my rum barrel tastes as it should, which I'm confident it will.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2015-12-23 12:33 ]

Mike, I think you're right about skipping the Monin for comparison purposes. I had very good success with the home-made.

I want to post some photos of how I filtered the finished product. I found a pretty decent timesaver given how difficult (or impossible) it is to "filter" the syrup with coffee filters. Even using cheese cloth is challenging given how quickly the pulp likes to plug the filter material.

Now where are those photos.... In my phone somewhere....

Rum Barrels with the home-made syrup is the only way to go. Since I started making it, I see no reason to buy a bottled brand. Auntie's is the best, but I think home-made has it beat, at a fraction of the cost. And I have yet to have any problems with spoilage. Plus you can adjust the sweetness/tartness to your taste.

My super market no longer carries frozen passion fruit pulp. Tried another location with no luck. Checked the Asian market where I get my limes. Nada. Will check mexican markets next. I never imagined this becoming an issue. Too bad Lilikoi can't be found in stores. Was hoping to make some drinks for the fam over the holidays and now need to rethink the menu cuz I'm not gonna buy another bottle of Monin.

What's wrong with the Monin? other then being on the sweet side
it is made of real sugar, natural flavors & has a better taste then most of the alternatives.

ATP: I just posted this the other day...

On 2015-12-23 12:29, mikehooker wrote:
I used Monin the other night cuz it was all I had and my palate just can't handle it anymore. Maybe cutting the called for proportion in half will do the trick but I no longer feel the need to keep that stuff on hand. I used to put it in batches of Rum Barrels for parties since it was cheap but homemade is actually cheaper and so much better.

It just dominates every drink I put it in. I've used it for years but now that I've tasted better alternatives, I no longer enjoy it or care to have it in my bar. My dilemma now is that I suddenly can't find the frozen pulp to make my own.

Agreed, there is no comparison to a good home made Passion Fruit syrup
and the Monin is very sweet, so you do cut back on the amount used per drink
but as far as store bought goes when you can't find B.G. REYNOLDS, I have had pretty good luck
with the Monin.

I bought a half gallon jug at one of the larger Asian supermarkets in Portland. It was $11 and should last a lifetime. Been using it three years already.

I just posted a message in another "juices" thread with some photos of Ceres brand tropical juices. They sell passion fruit juice sweetened and diluted with pear juice.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=42247&forum=10&vpost=756536

1. Technically their juices are "blends" because of the added pear juice. I think that the pear juice is used as a thinner/diluent to make a real juice. If you've made your own passion fruit syrup from scratch, you'll know how thick the pulp alone is. The pear juice may be fairly flavor-neutral.

2. They have wide North American distribution, and resellers are included in the post. If you are far away from their resellers, you can buy them through Amazon.

I will likely do a side-by-side test of their passion fruit juice versus my home-made passion fruit syrup. I want to use more than one tester, in a blind-taste scenario. When I do, I'll post results here.

Cheers!

On 2015-12-22 10:10, HopeChest wrote:
Working in downtown SF and living near Berkeley I have loads of great locals where I can get pretty much everything I need and then some, and usually within walking distance.

Everything except passion fruit syrup.

Trying to find this stuff around here has been frustrating to the extreme. I've been trying for months and months - it's rarer than hen's teeth. I know I could order online but that is somehow much less satisfying than walking out of a store with it, kind of like record shopping.

Well, when it rains it pours, London buses, lightning strikes twice, etc.

Whilst buying my weekly large bottle of Small Hand orgeat I saw Ledger's FINALLY got the SH passion fruit in, so I happily grabbed one. On the way home I stopped at the Ranch 99 market for some limes and after my millionth sweep of the aisles finally located the bottle on the right. I KNEW they had to have some! This is why I was never able to find it before:

...

I've not yet gotten into the Small Hand syrup but have put the Sarang Tawon syrup through its paces. It's from Indonesia and has no HFCS, only sugar. It's STRONG - really packs a punch and tends to dominate the drink. This rather surprised me. However, dial whatever the recipe calls for back by 1/4 oz. and it's lovely...

Thanks to your post, I picked up a bottle of the Sarang Tawon last weekend at the 99 Ranch market near me and I love using it. Thanks for the tips on TC to cut back the amount to keep the drink from getting too sweet. This is a vast improvement over the Finest Call puree I had resorted to before.
Cheers!
:drink:

On 2015-12-30 11:39, finky099 wrote:

Thanks to your post, I picked up a bottle of the Sarang Tawon last weekend at the 99 Ranch market near me and I love using it. Thanks for the tips on TC to cut back the amount to keep the drink from getting too sweet. This is a vast improvement over the Finest Call puree I had resorted to before.
Cheers!
:drink:

Brilliant! Glad that got you sorted out, mate. I'd actually always been slightly curious about that Finest Call puree so it's good to know this is a step up without wasting unnecessary cash like I did with Bols apricot brandy (UGH).

I don't know how much your market had the Sarang Tawon for but I have since used the ST and Small Hand back to back and I have to say that there really isn't a big difference between the two in a mixed beverage. Nowhere near enough a difference to have a distinct preference. Where I am (and using my pic as a reference), I can get three bottles of the Sarang Tawon for the price of that one small bottle of the Small Hand - that's a HUGE difference.

I've a fridge door laden with bottles of damn near every Small Hands product there is and I go through one of their big bottles of orgeat every week, but I feel that the Sarang Tawon is the no-brainer way to go if you can get it.

For comparison's sake, I've gone through several bottles of both at this point and feel compelled to update. Hopefully I can explain this properly...

I find myself cutting the Sarang Tawon by slightly over 50% to get the right balance in drinks. A little goes a LOOOOONNNNNNG way. At first I was making up the difference with simple syrup but now I skip that altogether. I also found that if you grab the rock candy syrup by accident to make up the difference instead of simple syrup you may as well have not cut the Sarang Tawon at all and gone full strength. My squeeze bottles are labelled now.

From my first uses I was cutting back on the Small Hand just like I was the Sarang Tawon. It would either be right on the money or weak enough for me to wish I had bumped up the amount. As a result I started cutting back less on the SH than the ST and what I found surprised me - it seemed like there was a point where the SH stopped just getting more and more concentrated (unlike the ST). It was like going from .75 oz of Small Hand to a full ounce didn't up the passion fruit level inasmuch as it just seemed to give a lot more body to the overall flavour profile.

In the end I found the Small Hand to be pretty spot on with 1:1 ratios and giving drinks a subtle richness. The Sarang Tawon is something you need to work at taming for a good balance.

I think it's time to finally break down and order some Auntie Lilikoi PF syrup before trying my hand at homemade.

Waiting for my syrup to cool so I can bottle it . I’m taking it down to San Diego -gonna use it in the Rum Barrels I concoct after returning to Humpreys from the Bali Hai tomorrow and monday.
I use the Goya pulp. It’s 14 oz. (weight), about 12 fluid ounces which I bring to a low boil with equal amounts of simple syrup. You end up with about 36 ounces of very good syrup. Lasts for months in the fridge.
Cheers

On 2016-01-30 21:11, nui 'umi 'umi wrote:

I use the Goya pulp. It’s 14 oz. (weight), about 12 fluid ounces which I bring to a low boil with equal amounts of simple syrup. You end up with about 36 ounces of very good syrup. Lasts for months in the fridge.
Cheers

This is exactly how I've been doing it and have enjoyed it plenty, but the other night I decided to experiment a little more. First, I made a cold process batch (equal parts pulp/sugar/water by volume, shaken like crazy, then double strained) because that was the half assed hurried way I made it my very first time and it tasted good to me. I've boiled each batch since, but ultimately was trying to determine if heating, waiting and making a mess was entirely necessary as both ways tasted just fine to me. So I put a boiled batch to the test and actually found the cold process to taste slightly better. The heated one was still great but had a little extra sourness to it.

Next, I compared the favored cold process (1:1:1) to Hurricane Hayward's version posted on the previous page (2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, 1/2 oz pulp, boiled, etc). This, being a rich syrup, had the texture of Monin with a milder but very delicious flavor. I suddenly realized the equal parts method I'd been doing really just made passion fruit juice, not syrup. Head to head and in mixed cocktails, I preferred Hayward's ratio over a simple 1:1:1, cold or heated.

I may do one more comparison batch before I declare that one the unanimous winner. Thinking 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water and 1 cup passion fruit. It may lose some of the thick consistency but should bring more of the passion fruit flavor to the forefront.

Tanks Mike,I like these kind of experiments.

I made another batch of passion fruit syrup the other night, this time using a 2:1:1 ratio and it may be my favorite yet. I boiled down 2 parts sugar to one part water to make a rich sugar syrup, then added 1 part passion fruit pulp and let it simmer for around 10 minutes, took it off the heat, then double strained and bottled when it was cool. This is a slightly thinner consistency than Hayward's 2:1:1/2 recipe but the passion fruit really sings with these proportions. Having recently compared a cold vs boiled process and finding that the heat adds a little sourness to the syrup, I decided to add the pulp after the sugar was dissolved and stopped bubbling. Whether or not that has any real impact I don't know but it turned out great.

My next batch will use Mikes latest version.
Mahalo Mike!

On 2015-12-23 10:07, howlinowl wrote:

On 2015-05-11 09:49, howlinowl wrote:
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 ]

Well, that didn't last long. Looks like Bravo has stopped carrying the La Cena brand of syrups. They have some other brand.....Something Poly or Poly Something....but either Bravo doesn't carry the passion fruit or Poly-something doesn't make it. Back to mixing my own from pulp.

howlinowl

Cruised thru the beverage section of Bravo the other day.....they now have the Poly Passion fruit syrup. Picked up a bottle, but have not tried it yet. I still have a half bottle of homemade to finish before cracking this one.

howlinowl

I planted a PF vine last spring and got a couple of blooms and that was it. This year the vine has covered most of a 40’ x 6’ block wall and the vine has produced hundreds of flowers so I am anticipating lotsa fruit.
Cheers

My vine now has many good sized fruit. Not due to ripen til late summer. Can hardly wait.
Cheers

Are yours the purple or the yellow kind? And do both varieties taste the same?

My neighbor has a ton of the yellow-ish orange passion fruit growing in his back yard. He gave us some a couple months ago and we tried them off the vine and they were way under ripe. They're getting bigger and more plentiful now so he gave us a bunch more. Got busy and forgot about them for a few days. Then noticed they started getting real pruney so we cut em open and they tasted very bitter and not at all like the passion fruit flavor I know from consumer products or the syrup I make from pulp. What should they look like when you pull them? And do you need to use them right away? Curious if they continue to ripen off the vine or if they just go bad after a few days.

On 2016-06-18 10:01, mikehooker wrote:
Are yours the purple or the yellow kind? And do both varieties taste the same?

My plant is Passiflora Edulas “Frederick”-Purple fruit, Supposedly the best cultivar for eating and making beverages and syrups. We’ll see.
It’s important that they ripen on the vine for full flavor.They’ll let you know when they are ready cuz they fall to the ground. Pick em up once or twice a day and store them in a cool dry spot til they start to shrivel and look like big raisins. I know nuttin bout the yellow kine. Be warned-PF vines are very aggressive/invasive. I’m constantly pruning em back from my tomato plants. On the plus side they quickly covered a block wall and have a tropical air to them. Negatively, unless you have a lot of black Bee’s, you’ll have to hand pollinate the flowers after three in the afternoon if you want fruit.
Good luck

My fiance and I took her best friend from Kentucky to TV's in Emeryville a week or so ago. Her friend ordered the new drink that comes in the Sea Horse mug ... within a few minutes she started to have an allergic reaction ... blotchy, face getting puffy, etc. I went down to the little grocery store and brought back benadryl, which worked like a charm.

We think it was the passion fruit (took me awhile to tie this in, but I got there).

Apparently, it's a known allergy ... anyways always keep benadryl handy!

Pruning my PF vine and found these. Enough to make a small batch of syrup.

Editted to add another pic and some narrative.

I cut the fruit in half and ended up with about a dzn. useable fruit. Most were too ripe-completely hallow or moldy. The best ones were just barely starting to wrinkle and felt heavy with pulp. The raisin looking ones were useless. I scooped the pulp from the good ones into a saucepan with equal parts of bottled water and gran. sugar. I did force the pulp through a sieve to remove the billions of seeds before I put the pulp in the saucepan.Easy-peasey. Brought it all to a low boil and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring now and then. I only got about a cup and a half of product but it is sublime. The hardest part was getting enough fruit together at one time to make the effort worthwhile. I have been making my syrup using frozen pulp which is mo betta than any commercially bottled product that I have tried.
Cheers

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2017-03-24 00:03 ]

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2017-03-24 23:59 ]

On 2017-01-26 23:22, nui 'umi 'umi wrote:
Pruning my PF vine and found these. Enough to make a small batch of syrup.

Editted to add another pic and some narrative.

I cut the fruit in half and ended up with about a dzn. useable fruit. Most were too ripe-completely hallow or moldy. The best ones were just barely starting to wrinkle and felt heavy with pulp. The raisin looking ones were useless. I scooped the pulp from the good ones into a saucepan with equal parts of bottled water and gran. sugar. I did force the pulp through a sieve to remove the billions of seeds before I put the pulp in the saucepan.Easy-peasey. Brought it all to a low boil and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring now and then. I only got about a cup and a half of product but it is sublime. The hardest part was getting enough fruit together at one time to make the effort worthwhile. I have been making my syrup using frozen pulp which is mo betta than any commercially bottled product that I have tried.
Cheers

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2017-03-24 00:03 ]

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2017-03-24 23:59 ]

Here’s a pic of the finished product along a pkg. of the frozen pulp I usually use.

Great post. The trouble I had when trying to make syrup from the actual fruit rather than frozen pulp was finding ones that were properly ripe. My neighbor has a prosperous tree and is willing to share so I look forward to experimenting again.