Pat O'Brien's Hurricane mix - Yay or nay?

I still have respect for the drink's birthplace but their mix is rather meh. The product is pretty much rum-spiked Kool Aid, based on the package's instructions. Does anybody have better recipes for O'Brien's dry mix?

I take it you don't have a copy of the Grog Log?

The Grog Log Hurricane recipe may not be the actual O'Briens one, but it sure beats their pre-packaged mix.

I'm still awaiting my copy in the snail mail, but I am curious if anybody has performed miracles with the mix.

On 2008-08-25 21:14, Shaun of theTiki wrote:
if anybody has performed miracles with the mix.

That would be a miracle!

I find the dry mix to be overly sweet. Try adding some lime (or lemon, or grapefruit, be creative) and/or a couple of dashes of Peychauds bitters. And, use the finest crush ice you can, bordering on a shaved sno-cone texture.

But, I am working from older memory because I haven't used the pre-mix in a long while.

Play with it and let us know what you come up with.

I use Pat O'Brien's Hurricane mix in my tiki bar.
I agree on the previous posters opinion of the flavor, but it makes a Hurricane exactly like the ones at Pat's.

In real old recipes which call for "Fasionola" I found that Hurricane mix is a great substitute.

I use Chuck Taggart's recipe, and I trust him on New Orleans cocktails. I've never been to Pat O'Brien's or tried their mix, though, so I have no idea how close this is to the "official" hurricane.

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/hurricane.html

On 2008-08-27 09:04, oysterschnapps wrote:
so I have no idea how close this is to the "official" hurricane.

You can't get much farther away from each other.

The Dry-Mix makes a good cocktail. Like I said earlier, the result is too sweet for my taste, but it is still a good cocktail.

Is it a 'real' Hurricane? Probably not, and it depends on who you ask.

How is it compared to a 'real' Hurricane? Apples to Oranges comparison.

Which is better? Another Apples to Oranges comparison. The better one is the one you have in your glass right now.

I have had Hurricanes at several PO locations and many other establishments. If you do not want a strong, sweet, fruity drink that tastes like Koolaid maybe you should try something else.

I guess I should add, then, that I highly recommend Chuck Taggart's recipe, regardless of its authenticity. At the first party where I served it punch-style, everyone loved it, and that's the first party of mine where we had to take somebody to the hospital for drinking-related injuries. So I consider it a great success.

For the passion fruit nectar, I use Looza with the sugar water siphoned off per Scottes's suggestion on an old thread here; I increase the rums to 2 oz each; and for the grenadine I use 1 oz of Trader Vic's Grenadine. (If all you have is Rose's Grenadine, it'll work fine, but only use 1/2 oz.)

If you're after Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Mix, I spotted it last night at Cost Plus World Market for $3 a package.

I've made the Hurricane from the Grog Log on many occasions using home-made passion fruit syrup with great success.
According to the Grog Log, the Hurricane recipe on page 43 IS from Pat O'Brien's, circa 1960s.
With only three ingredients, a mix seems hardly necessary.

On 2008-08-27 14:39, oysterschnapps wrote:
I guess I should add, then, that I highly recommend Chuck Taggart's recipe, regardless of its authenticity. At the first party where I served it punch-style, everyone loved it, and that's the first party of mine where we had to take somebody to the hospital for drinking-related injuries. So I consider it a great success.

For the passion fruit nectar, I use Looza with the sugar water siphoned off per Scottes's suggestion on an old thread here; I increase the rums to 2 oz each; and for the grenadine I use 1 oz of Trader Vic's Grenadine. (If all you have is Rose's Grenadine, it'll work fine, but only use 1/2 oz.)

I posted that recipe not for its authenticity, whatever that still means with regards to the Hurricane these days, but 'cause I thought it tasted good -- I'm glad someone's enjoying it. It's my adaptation of a recipe I found in an old Times-Picayune clipping from ages ago, which was someone's take on the powdered/bottled version. I also remember a recipe from a New Orleans cookbook that we used to use for "Hurricane Parties" I threw after I left N.O. for college -- one large can of Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red, a 12-oz. can of frozen orange juice concentrate, and a 6 oz. can of frozen daiquiri mix. Pour 2 ounces each light and dark rum (starting with Bacardi, i.e. "the good stuff," and toward the end of the party with stuff from bottles with white labels and a blue stripe that said only "LIGHT RUM" and "DARK RUM") and fill with that mix. All my felllow students loved it at the time, and it was at least as good as the powdered mix, if not better!

If any Hurricane recipe could be called truly authentic, it's probably the one The Bum put in Grog Log, but I recall reading somewhere that the very earliest used actual fresh passion fruit puree. I don't think the published one has been served at Pat O's in my lifetime though, certainly not in my drinking lifetime. I really can't stand that red Kool-Aid they serve by the tanker-load these days ...

Oh, by the way, hi y'all. :)

On 2008-09-30 00:51, Chuq wrote:
Oh, by the way, hi y'all. :)

Aloha! Welcome to our little bar on the internet.

I guess I shouldn't call it a bar, TC is so much more..... what, exactly, no one has ever quite figured out.

The mix is a horrid bag of noxious chemicals! I could not believe how bad this stuff turned out to be.

On 2008-09-30 00:51, Chuq wrote:
I posted that recipe not for its authenticity, whatever that still means with regards to the Hurricane these days, but 'cause I thought it tasted good -- I'm glad someone's enjoying it. It's my adaptation of a recipe I found in an old Times-Picayune clipping from ages ago, which was someone's take on the powdered/bottled version.

Ahh, thanks for clearing up the provenance of that recipe. I'd been wondering. Yep, we've definitely been enjoying it!

On 2008-08-25 20:21, Shaun of theTiki wrote:
Does anybody have better recipes for O'Brien's dry mix?

I have tried a recipe using dry/powdered margarita mix mixed with flour/cornmeal and used for battering catfish with before frying--pretty damn good! (seriously)

I came up with a similar recipe using the Pat O' Hurricane powder mix for another fish recipe: take your favorite type of fish (catfish, mahi, grouper, carp--really doesn't matter in the long run), coat generously with Pat O' powder mix and salt and pepper. Place on a cedar plank and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the seasoned fish on the cedar plank in the preheated oven, cook until fish flakes easily with a fork (10-15 minutes--depending on thickness of fish). When done, take out of the oven, throw away the fish and eat the plank. :lol:

Can anyone clear up what the recipe for the Hurricane really was and what it would have tasted like?

Hurricane (according to Jeff Berry's books)

• 2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup
• 4 oz Dark Jamaican Rum

Shake well with plenty of crushed ice. Pour into a hurricane glass

On 2011-02-07 13:11, arriano wrote:
Hurricane (according to Jeff Berry's books)

• 2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup
• 4 oz Dark Jamaican Rum

Shake well with plenty of crushed ice. Pour into a hurricane glass

That's the one I make - however, as we know, it looks and tastes so different then the one you get in nola. So, why would POB change their essential taste and color of their signiture drink? It has to be more than just the conversion into a powder? Was the original red? Did it have lime or oranges in it? And where did Jeff Berry (god be praised) get his recipe anyway?

I love the one above. I even add a splash of grenadine to help redden the color.

I'm a skeptic and agnostic. Show me proof beyond that of the Beachbum (god be praised).

Here's how I've been making it for several years now (i think i derived this from the listing at cocktaildb.com):

1.5 oz light rum
1.5 oz dark rum
1/2 oz lime juice
2-4 oz passionfruit juice, depending on the source/strength. (fresh passion fruit has a marvelous perfume but is extremely tart; sometime I use one of the spanish brands or even welch's)
2 tsp grenadine (mainly for color)
1 oz simple syrup (adjust up or down to taste).

serve in a tall ice-filled glass with a straw, garnish with cherry, orange slice.

I have no idea why the Pat O's are so red. food coloring I guess.

On 2011-02-07 17:07, telescopes wrote:

So, why would POB change their essential taste and color of their signiture drink? It has to be more than just the conversion into a powder? Was the original red? Did it have lime or oranges in it? And where did Jeff Berry (god be praised) get his recipe anyway?

I love the one above. I even add a splash of grenadine to help redden the color.

I'm a skeptic and agnostic. Show me proof beyond that of the Beachbum (god be praised).

It may be as simple as a customer or two thought it was too tart and asked for it to be sweeter. The bartender obliged and added some grenadine. Then more people wanted the "pretty" version, and finally they just started making all the Hurricanes sweeter and redder.

On 2011-02-08 10:30, arriano wrote:

On 2011-02-07 17:07, telescopes wrote:

So, why would POB change their essential taste and color of their signiture drink? It has to be more than just the conversion into a powder? Was the original red? Did it have lime or oranges in it? And where did Jeff Berry (god be praised) get his recipe anyway?

I love the one above. I even add a splash of grenadine to help redden the color.

I'm a skeptic and agnostic. Show me proof beyond that of the Beachbum (god be praised).

You might be right. I put some grenadine in one last night and it did redden it up. It also gave it more of the POB taste I remember.

It may be as simple as a customer or two thought it was too tart and asked for it to be sweeter. The bartender obliged and added some grenadine. Then more people wanted the "pretty" version, and finally they just started making all the Hurricanes sweeter and redder.

I'm pretty sure all of the Pat O's hurricanes are now made from the powdered mix and have been for decades, even in the French Quarter. I wonder when they last made them from fresh ingredients??

Also, passion fruit is so yellowish, seems to me even grenadine can't redden it up as much as the Pat O's mix. If they served them that red in the days before powdered mix, they musta been adding food dye. My friends say the version i make tastes like Pat O's (even tho its the wrong color) when I add tons of sugar.

Mabuhay!

[ Edited by: thePorpoise 2011-02-08 14:09 ]

I wonder if they may have used (or are using) fassionola. I seem to recall this being used in place of passionfruit syrup in other drinks before, and the red version of fassionola would certainly account for the color.

More on this forum regarding fassionola:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5331&forum=10)&start=15&PHPSESSID=381bb9a2ccbc8c96b622da4eed1b9fa9

"I am Lono!" -- Hale Ka'a Tiki Lounge

[ Edited by: arriano 2011-02-08 15:20 ]

A friend of mine gave me a bottle of the Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Mix in a bottle. So I did a taste test. I made the Beachbum Berry Remixed version and the Pat O'Brien's Mix version. To me the difference was night and day. After tasting the Berry version the O'Brien version tasted mainly like corn syrup, and was kind of bitter. That is the last Hurricane I'm going to make with that mix. Especially, since the Berry recipe is so easy.