I said it last year around this time, and I’ll say it again: Laissez les bon temps rouler! Mardi Gras season is in full force this weekend in New Orleans, and that means beads, parades, casserole bowls full of red beans and rice, festively frosted king cakes and now for the first time ever here on Edible Times: Hurricanes.
This classic Crescent City cocktail goes way back to the drinking days immediately following the repeal of Prohibition. A little speakeasy on Bourbon Street began doing legitimate business, and needed a drink to serve as a vehicle for a surplus of rum. As told by Pat O’Brien himself, whiskey and bourbon were in short supply, but the rum was flowing like the Mississippi River. So as a bar owner what do you do with cases and cases of the island specialty? Pour it into a huge hurricane (lamp) glass, add some gin, triple sec and amaretto for fun, and call it a night.
These days Pat O’Brien’s is legendary yet somewhat uninspired to the locals. But as you sit on the picturesque patio listening to the jazz and sipping from the long straws, it’s easy to imagine a montage of eight decades worth of revelry at the piano lounge turned tourist magnet. And while the clothing and atmosphere may blur as the generations come, drink and fade into their future counterparts, the notorious Hurricane remains solely in focus…
That is until you order a second round. As I said, it’s got a lot of rum.
- 1 oz vodka
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grenadine
- 1 oz gin
- 1 oz light rum
- 1/2 oz Bacardi® 151 rum
- 1 oz amaretto almond liqueur
- 1 oz triple sec
- Grapefruit juice
- Pineapple juice
- Long straws
- 1 orange, for garnish
- Maraschino cherries
- Fill as large a glass as you have three-fourths full of ice.
- Pour in liquors first, then add equal parts of each fruit juice until the glass is full.
- Garnish with an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.
- And don’t forget, sip through TWO straws!
Sources
Recipe: “Welcome to Pat O’Briens.” Hurricane Party. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.
History: “Welcome to Pat O’Briens.” Pat O’Briens : The Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.
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