This strange little thing, the common passionfruit. If you look at the above cross section you see a small spoonful of what it’s known for, the yellow, fragrant and tangy seed rich jewels surrounded by a bit of bitter, white pith and a protective purple shell. It’s more alien egg than fruit, right? An odd duck of that world which grows on vines and is mostly inedible raw unlike something more mainstream like a peach or apple. Plucking one of these and trying to eat it without a knife would be an effort in futility. The husk is very tough to crack. If I could be so bold I’d have to call it the most high maintenance of all the fruits but also the most delicious and magical in cocktails. It’s part of the “tiki holy trinity” including pineapple and guava, which coincidentally are also a bit of a pain to work with compared to something easy like a strawberry.

Despite the prep drawbacks, it’s “trimmings” are more diverse than I originally thought when I first started working with it. In my early days with passionfruit, I threw out all the husks and seed dregs and only used the “good” part, the golden, weird, snotty, ethereal nectar inside. Then, after seeing Tiff work her magic a couple of years ago we started saving the seed dregs leftover from making the syrup and threw them all into vats of 151 rum. The result was pretty unusable and terrifying. Then of course we continued to follow her (Tiff’s) lead and we started making syrup with the husks themselves and then adding this in equal parts to the infused 151. Voila, damn good passionfruit liqueur made with scrap items.

We made sweet vermouth with the husks last year and this year we’re going further with the whole shebang of what we’ve learned. Just like that three passionfruit cocktails appeared on the menu late last night after service. I labelled the area “passionfruit!” then punched out and came home. Here’s all three of them and how they incorporate the passion of the fruit.

Cholo Shogun (2.0)

This one was so popular last night I blew through all the larder items I had stashed away and so had to come up with a new version on the fly. The key here is fresh passionfruit combined with dragon fruit. So, nice and tasty, as well as colorful. the dragon fruit doesn’t do a whole lot flavor wise but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t add a lot of texture and pizazz in the form of that bright red color. A great little trash cocktail that outsold all its competitors.

Morning Bell

Not so popular but to me the best one on there which is usually how it goes. I think putting habanero under the ingredients list may have been a mistake. At any rate, maybe it’ll jet up in popularity at some point. It’s a good one. With this, the dregs from making the regular passionfruit syrup go to work. If only I could remember who or what inspired me to put habanero and passionfruit together…

The Third Martinez

An easy stirred guy made with passionfruit vermouth and Barr Hill gin. You could put Barr Hill with nearly anything and it’ll taste good. The vermouth was no bueno with Nikka. Too sharp. The sweetness of the BH rounded it all out. Hey, there is such a thing as certain spirits being better than others in certain situations. It’s like how NFL players go to a different team, experience another system, and then excel overnight.