A much-anticipated book dedicated to unraveling the enigmatic history of “the taste thrill of the century” has been welcomed with open arms by the Tiki community and beyond, quenching our insatiable thirst for esoteric topics. Not to mention tasty tropical cocktails.
So what is this taste thrill that caused so much intrigue? Rum? Bitters? Pineapple or some other exotic tropical fruit? Not quite, but close. Of course, we’re talking about Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient, researched and written by Gregorio Pantoja and Martin S. Lindsay.
More below: Read Hurricane Hayward’s foreword to the book
• New Passionola syrup follows historic recipe
The authors not only dug up the complete story of a unique product that was in danger of becoming a footnote in 20th century mixology, they also uncovered the original “P/Fassionola” formula from the 1930s and have begun releasing it to the public with the help of noted mixologist Daniel “Doc” Parks.
The 288-page book, self-published by the authors, is loaded with historic photos and images plus more than 100 recipes. Among these are many unpublished classics as well as new drinks by some of today’s top cocktail creators. This includes an exclusive new tribute to a Mai-Kai cocktail that had previously not been posted on The Atomic Grog blog.
After a late 2023 digital release, hard copies became available in late spring and can be purchased at Shop.ClassicSanDiego.com in both softcover and limited-edition hardback signed by the authors and Parks.
Bonus cocktail recipes below
• Mona Punch (Don the Beachcomber)
• 151 Tribute Swizzle No. 5 (Vatos Who Tiki)
• Mission Valley Daiquiri (The Atomic Grog) NEW
See also: Sidewinder’s Fang (Mai-Kai tribute) | Once A Villager (Doc Parks)
We’ll get into more details below, but first let’s set the stage with the foreword I contributed to the book.
Foreword
In the annals of tropical drink history, there’s perhaps no other ingredient more shrouded in mystery than what we knew as “Fassionola.”
Until now.
Thanks to the determined and thorough research by Gregorio Pantoja and Martin S. Lindsay, we are privy to the fascinating, colorful and sometimes racy account of the sweet elixir originally called Passionola.
How and why did the name change? That’s one of those racy bits you’ll have to read for yourself on the following pages.
Each chapter offers new surprises and rabbit holes, taking us into some of the most salacious corners of the 20th century entertainment industry. From the Mob, to seedy nightclubs, to federal investigations, to disputed cocktail histories, you’re unlikely to find any of it boring.
The stories are too outlandish to be fiction, featuring a parade of unabashed characters. Their trials and tribulations, their failures and triumphs, are not unlike 20th century America itself.
The tale of P/Fassionola, as told by Pantoja and Lindsay, is more than just a collection of spicy yarns. Our understanding of this humble potion is enhanced by the hundreds of vintage images: newspaper and magazine ads, long-lost pamphlets, rare cocktail menus, and much more.
This perfect pairing transports you back in time, when a clever pitchman could convince you that a mere cocktail could “give you the power to change the world.” One could argue that many of the cocktails included within these pages changed the world all by themselves.
To expand upon your newfound appreciation for P/Fassionola, you’ll find dozens of classic recipes from bartending legends including Ray Buhen, Mariano Licudine, and Joseph Valencia “Popo” Galsini. Many are revealed here for the first time.
The story comes full circle with some of today’s top craft bartenders weighing in with their own contributions to the P/Fassionola canon. You can enjoy contemporary recipes from Daniel “Doc” Parks, Kevin Beary, Shannon Mustipher, and many more.
Today’s fascination with P/Fassionola is a direct result of the craft and Tiki cocktail revivals, which have a particular affinity for mysterious lost ingredients.
Now, with the publication of Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient, we finally know the whole story.
Jim “Hurricane” Hayward
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 2023
When Pantoja first contacted me and told me of his plans for a book on fassionola, I was both excited and a little skeptical. After all, this was an ingredient that was so enveloped by mystery and confusion that even legendary Tiki cocktail sleuth Jeff “Beachbum” Berry avoided going down that rabbit hole in his six seminal books published between 1998 and 2014, partly due to its rarity and relative unavailability on the retail market. (With interest in the mysterious ingredient reaching new heights, Berry recently added “fassionola (red)” to his Total Tiki app and website.)
I should not have doubted the tenacity and resourcefulness of Pantoja and Lindsay. Some three years later, I caught Pantoja at the first Tiki-a-Go-Go event in Orlando, basking in the glow of the book’s pre-release and signing copies as a line stretched down the hall. He just finished his latest in a series of presentations to a full house of hardcore Tikiphiles.
“We really unraveled the mystery, misdirection and misinformation of what fassionola and Passionola is,” Pantoja told the audience. “I’m very proud of the book.”
I first became aware of fassionola’s connection to historic Tiki cocktails via Hawai’i – Tropical Rum Drinks & Cuisine (2001), the book co-written by Don the Beachcomber’s widow, Phoebe Beach. While the recipes in the book can be a bit uneven and not totally reliable, the use of the red fruit syrup struck a chord with me as I sought to re-create cocktails from the historic Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, est. 1956.
It came to the forefront in the Cobra’s Kiss, one of many drinks that Mai-Kai mixologist Mariano Licudine developed based on his decades of experience working for Don the Beachcomber starting in 1939. While syups and rums changed over the decades since Licudine’s passing in 1979, the recipes remain remarkably the same. Those cocktails are a unique time capsule, transporting you to another era.
I started sharing my fassionola explorations in the Cobra Kiss review starting around 2012 and continue to do so. I passed all my research along to Pantoja when he interviewed me for the book, then referred him to longtime Mai-Kai manager Kern Mattei for further digging. This also led to a new Sidewinder’s Fang tribute recipe. You can find all of this in the book, plus also a whole lot more.
The authors continued digging, finding a mother lode of fassionola (and Passionola) lore in the vast historic records. What they uncovered truly removes the veil of mystery around what we should really call P/Fassionola, as the two names are inextricably linked.
Note that fassionola has become a generic term used by multiple brands for their red fruit syrup, while Passionola is now trademarked by Pantoja and Lindsay. For the purposes of this story (and the recipes below), we’ll refer to the traditional red syurp, with its Hawaiian Punch flavor profile, as fassionola. Meanwhile, the first product from Passionola LLC is more comparable to what we more commonly know as passion fruit syrup. You may also see it referred to as fassionola (gold) or Pasionola (gold). Historically, there’s also a lime-forward green fassionola syrup that has much more limited applications.
Confused? There’s no need to be. Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient answers many questions while also presenting dozens of delicious recipes. It starts with the creation of the first passion fruit products in Australia in the early 20th century. But the true story of P/Fassionola begins around 1914, when the exotic fruit made its way to San Diego (illegally) and later became a flourishing crop.
The syrup was developed by Victor Kremer, a German immigrant druggist, and his wife. Originally known as Passi-flora, it became Passionola in 1930. Intended for soda fountains, it was later adopted by bartenders after the end of Prohibition. Several scandals later, it was rebranded as Fassionola, a commercial cocktail mixer offered in multiple flavors.
The book ends with the resurgence of Tiki culture in the 21st century creating renewed interest in the obscure syrup that kept popping up in vintage cocktails recipes. Enter Doc Parks and other modern mixologists who made their own variations and elevated the ingredient that had suffered the same de-evolution as Polynesian Pop during the dark days of the late 20th century.
What happened during the intervening years? You’ll need to pick up Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient to find out.
The story behind the book
Research and interviews began in August 2019, with the writing kicking off in September 2021. The first three years were rough, Pantoja said during his presentation at Tiki-a-Go-Go in April. He and Lindsay were turning over stones with nothing underneath, he said.
But then “things just started falling in our lap,” Pantoja said. The size and scope of the project grew, and they added another year of research to the project, which was completed without a traditional publisher and released via Linsday’s Classic San Diego Books. “I strongly believe we came out with a definitive history of fassionola,” he told the Tiki-a-Go-Go audience.
With no publisher support, it took a lot of self-motivation, and a lot of help from their friends. A Kickstarter campaign, established in September 2022 with a goal of $20,000, has raised nearly $22,000 for the book to date. The investment helped cover much of the overheads costs, including publication rights to archival photos, printing, shipping, customs and duty costs. The book was published in China to keep costs reasonable.
Writing wrapped up in early summer 2023, paving the way for the layout and design. Editing and proofing were completed in late fall, followed by the December release at Lindsay’s Shop.ClassicSanDiego.com of the digital edition ($19.95) in fixed-layout ePUB and PDF formats. It was also made available on Amazon for Kindle ($19.95).
Books were printed in March, then placed on an actual a slow boat from China in April, arriving in early June. In order to fulfill contractual obligations at Tiki-a-Go-Go in early April, Pantoja said on Kickstarter, he personally paid for the preview copies and the air shipping to Orlando.
The authors are asking for patience as they fill all the back-orders. As of the end of July, they had finally caught up with all the backers, according to a post on Kickstarter. “It has been a long road and a lot of very hard work, but we are happy to be nearing the end of what has felt like endless shipping,” they wrote. “We are appreciative of your patience and support as this has all been done by both Gregorio and Martin from the first page of research to each book being sent out.” You can find more updates on the Kickstarter page.
Gregorio Pantoja is an author, historian, philanthropist, and lover of Tiki’s lost and forgotten stories. Pantoja is a history professor at San Diego colleges. You can find him on Instagram and Facebook.
Martin S. Lindsay is an art director, food historian, writer, speaker, and board chairman of the Culinary Historians of San Diego. He wrote Ninety Years of Classic San Diego Tiki, 1928-2018 (2019) and blogs about history and food at ClassicSanDiego.com. Connect on Instagram and Facebook.
Where to find the book
Go to Classic San Diego Books online to order the softcover ($39.95) and limited-edition hardback ($100) signed by the authors and Parks. The latter features silver foil stamped, warm red cloth boards. The first 50 copies are reserved for backers with the remaining 200 available exclusively online while supplies last.
In addition to the United States, books can be shipped to Australia, Canada, Mexico, the UK and EU, plus more. The softcover edition is also available in San Diego at Collins & Coupe: Bar & Cocktail Supplies.
Official sites and social media
• Buy the book at Shop.ClassicSanDiego.com
Book: Fassionola.com | Syrup: Passionola.com
• Instagram | Facbook
New Passionola syrup follows historic recipe
An unexpected bonus that came with the publication of Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient is the resurrection of the long-lost Passionola syrup, a proprietary blend of passion fruit and other exotic fruit juices. This isn’t just any recipe. We’re talking about a true homage to the original 1930s formulation by Eugenie and Victor Kremer in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.
Buy Passionola: Check the official website for availability
After uncovering the original formula during their research, authors Gregorio Pantoja and Martin Lindsay joined forces with mixologist Doc Parks to replicate the historic “Passionola Gold” syrup featured in the historical records. It was originally formulated as a syrup for sodas and ice cream sundaes, then later applied to cocktails after Prohibition.
This discovery was not lost on Pantoja. “Now we know what Donn Beach was using in the 1930s,” he said during his presentation at Tiki-a-Go-Go in April. So he pitched the idea to Lindsay to “produce it the way it was meant to be done, but with higher quality ingredients.”
Pantoja said they knew that to compete in today’s marketplace, they had to “match the level that people are at today with the sophistication in creating cocktails.” When they started looking for a specialist in creating syrups to bring in as a consultant, their first choice was Parks, who at the time was managing Wilfred’s Lounge in Napa, Calif.
Parks had built the bar program from the ground up, just as he had previously at Pagan Idol and Zombie Village in San Francisco. One constant on all of the menus were signature cocktails featuring his own house-made fassionola. “I knew that he was truly intrigued” by the book and the syrup, Pantoja said.
Parks was already aware of the book, so when Pantoja told him that he and Lindsay uncovered the original formula and had secured the legal rights to Passionola, he quickly joined the team as a consultant. Parks dove in head first, becoming “more and more invested” in the project, Pantoja said.
It didn’t take long before the authors brought Parks in as a partner. Now being prepped for wider distribution, the syrup is handcrafted in California for Passionola LLC, San Diego.
Since finishing up test batches last summer, Parks and the authors have been featuring the syrup extensively at special events, starting with two of the longest-running Tiki weekenders, Tiki-Kon and Tiki Oasis. (More on the event schedule below.) In early July, I was asked to write the foreword to the book (see above) and was privileged to receive one of the initial bottles of Passionola from Parks.
In the interest of research, I enjoyed the bottle over the next several weeks while testing it in an array of classic cocktails. I also created a new drink (see Mission-Valley-Daiquiri below) to be served at Tiki Oasis.
It passed all the tests with flying colors. Among the cocktails I tried were the Beachbum Berry versions of the Big Bamboo, Chief Lapu Lapu, Don’s Special Daiquiri, Hurricane, Puka Punch, Trader Vic’s Grog, and Zombie (1950); plus my tributes to The Mai-Kai’s Demerara Float and Demerara Cocktail.
Here are a few excerpts from my notes. In the Hurricane: “Tastes fantastic, lots of fresh passion fruit notes, complex and sweet but not overly tart.” Zombie: “Another perfect application, lending more of a fresh fruit flavor to the drink than other, more cloying syrups.” Demerara Float: “The perfect amount of underlying flavor and sweetness to balance the rums and bitters.”
Next, I did a blind tasting of Passionola on its own, pitting it against a variety of passion fruit syrups I had on hand. I’ve done this periodically over the years, so I know where my tastes lie. I try to keep a half dozen or so passion fruit syrups around for different uses. I can’t say I’ve tried every one on the market, but I have decent handle on most of the high-profile brands.
I compared my three favorite commercial brands I had behind the bar, plus my homemade syrup and the new Passionola. Tasting them blind, I could not pick a clear winner, so I settled on a three way tie. I then sought to find a winner among the top three by trying them in some simple passion fruit cocktails. I did blind tastings, so I didn’t know which was in which drink. It took three cocktails to find a winner.
All three were tested in cocktails with a heavy passion fruit component: Pieces of Eight from Grog Log, plus the Mara-Amu and Saturn from Remixed. The results were pretty clear. Passionola was ranked first in two cocktails and second in the third. It beat out my homemade passion fruit syrup by a clear margin. A commercial brand that won’t be named finished a distant third.
An initial commercial batch, announced in April on Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour on YouTube, quickly sold out and shipped in May. Remember to check Passionola.com for updates on availability.
Like the original, Passionola can be used not only in cocktails, but also as a flavoring for a zero-proof soda, or as a dessert topping. It’s also touted as gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, and non-GMO.
I missed out on the first bottling, but since I polished off that test bottle last summer I’ve had the pleasure of tasting Doc Parks cocktails featuring Passionola at multiple events and can attest to its deliciousness in real world applicatioons.
P/FASSIONOLA AT SPECIAL EVENTS
Pantoja, Lindsay and Parks have been making the rounds since promotion for the book began. They hit many of the large Tiki events (Inuhele, Tiki-a-Go-Go, The Hukilau, Tiki-Kon, Tiki Oasis, Tiki in Waikiki) as well as smaller dedicated meet-ups. Here are some photos of our encounters with the P/Fassionola crew, along with some of their social media posts.
January 2023: Inuhele in Atlanta
August 2023: Tiki Oasis in San Diego
April 2024: Tiki-a-Go-Go in Orlando
June 2024: The Hukilau in Pompano Beach
More recent events
UPCOMING EVENTS
You can meet Pantoja, Lindsay and Parks at this year’s Tiki Oasis on Saturday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m. to noon during a book signing in the vendor marketplace at the Town and Country Hotel in San Diego. The marketplace is free and open to the public on Saturday.
Parks continues to make appearances at bars and special events during his “2024 Encore Tour,” mixing cocktails featuring sponsor ingredients including Passionola. Catch him on Aug. 11 in New York City at the Spirited Award nominated bar Paradise Lost.
Bonus cocktail recipes
It was great to see this first recipe revealed in Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient, thanks to the little black book belonging to Lou Cruz, a bartender who opened the Outrigger restaurant in Long Beach, Calif., in 1958. The book was shared with the authors by Greg Bansuelo, a bartender at the Tiki-Ti in Los Angeles and a nephew of Cruz. Bansuelo’s father, John, was a bartender at Don the Beachcomber and many other Polynesian restaurants during the mid-century.
Bartenders in the close-knit community of mostly Filipino immigrants would share recipes as they made the rounds at the top establishments of the day. The book – given to Greg Bansuelo by Cruz’ widow – contains many recipes that appear to date back to the early days of Don the Beachcomber. Among these is Mona Daiquiri, which called for the 30-year-old Myers’s Mona rum.
We first read about this historic cocktail in Beachbum Berry Remixed (2010) as a footnote to the Don’s Special Daiquiri recipe. While not a whole lot different, the recipe published in the book as Mona Punch reveals one of the oldest recipes from Donn Beach.
MONA PUNCH
Donn Beach, Don the Beachcomber, Hollywood, Calif., 1934
• ½ ounce fresh lime juice
• ½ ounce simple syrup
• ½ ounce Passionola (or passion fruit syrup)
• ½ ounce silver Puerto Rican rum
• 1 ounce Myers’s 30-year aged Mona rum
Shake all ingredients with ice in a shaker tin. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Rich and surprisingly not too sweet. An elevated passion fruit Daiquiri that, with the right rums, can really shine.
It’s easy to see how this early cocktail evolved into the 1970s version that Beachbum Berry published. The only differences are honey mix instead of simple syrup, plus a standard gold Jamaican rum instead of the rare aged rum.
It’s unclear what Myers’s Mona tasted like, but we can only assume that it was a 100 percent pot-still rum that likely was just as delicious, if not more so, than the famous 17-year-old Jamaican rum from Wray & Nephew that Trader Vic famously used to create the first Mai Tai. Last year, Appleton released the 17-Year-Old Legend rum purported to be based on that original rum. This is a bit out of our reach (and price range), but luckily a dusty bottle in The Atomic Grog collection came to the rescue.
Myers’s Legend is a 100 percent pot-still rum (80 proof) from the same brand that produced Mona, aged for at least 10 years. This limited-edition bottling has been off the market for a while, though you may still be able find old stock on back shelves or a few online retailers. It’s a huge step up from the standard Myers’s “original dark,” which should be avoided in this cocktail.
Inspired by the Jamaican rums of yore, Myers’s Legend was the perfect fit due to its pedigree and flavor profile (molasses, dark caramel, tobacco). But feel free to use one of many other aged Jamaican rums on the market, including those from Appleton and Hampden. You’re just not going to get the overwhelming dark molasses and caramel of Myers’s. Avoid high ABV flavor bombs since that was not the intent of the 82 proof original.
We were honored to see one of the modern recipes featured in the New Wave Cocktails chapter pay homage to The Atomic Grog. Mahalo to Vatos Who Tiki, the Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand and Tiki cocktail enthusiasts.
151 Tribute Swizzle No. 5
El Nova of Vatos Who Tiki, Los Angeles, Calif., 2015
El Nova explains: “This recipe is based on the Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s 151 Swizzle, version 4, by The Atomic Grog, my favorite Tiki blog on this planet! But the grenadine is switched out for homemade fassionola, and the ratios are upped as well, while the sugar syrup is omitted. Then ½ ounce of Batavia arrack is added for a subtle layer of extra funk.”
• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1 ounce fassionola ***
• ¼ ounce cinnamon syrup
• 1 ounce 151 Demerara rum
• 1 ounce Doctor Bird Jamaican rum
• ½ ounce Batavia Arrack van Oosten liqueur
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 2 drops absinthe
Pulse blend with 1 cup of crushed ice for 5 seconds and pour into a chilled metal swizzle cup, other swizzle glass or pilsner glass, adding more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
An impressive, reverential (and powerful) twist on a classic. Take your time and sip this deadly and decadent swizzle, it gets better as it dilutes.
**• Note: Use Jonathan English, BG Reynolds, homemade or another quality fassionola.
Ingredient tips: Homemade cinnamon syrup is usually best and not hard to make. The recipe calls for Lemon Hart 151 rum, but Hamilton 151 works just as well. Lacking the 100-proof Doctor Bird, you could sub another high-ester, high-proof pot still rum from Jamaica such as Hamilton or Smith & Cross. Batavia arrack is made from molasses on the Indonesian island of Java. It’s distinguished from rum by the special red Javanese rice that is malted, made into cakes and put into the molasses. Distilled in pot stills, the 100-proof spirit has a unique flavor profile somewhere between whiskey and rum. It adds another subtle kick of high-proof flavor to this 151 Swizzle tribute. Batavia Arrack van Oosten is the most widely distributed brand, though there’s at least one other on the market.
The third and final bonus cocktail is not in the book, but rather an original creation we presented at Tiki Oasis 2023 to honor the sneak preview of Passionola syrup as well as the hometown of both the syrup and the event. It was served during my presentation with The Mai-Kai’s Kern Mattei: The Derby Daiquiri and Beyond: How to Create Your Own Classic.
MISSION VALLEY DAIQUIRI
By Hurricane Hayward / The Atomic Grog
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1/4 ounce fresh orange juice
• 1/2 ounce Passionola Gold (or passion fruit syrup)
• 1/4 ounce fig syrup (Liber & Co.)
• 1 ounce lightly aged and filtered (aka white) Spanish-style rum
• 1 ounce lightly aged (aka gold) Spanish-style rum
• 1/4 ounce 151 Demerara rum
• 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 2 drops of Pernod (or absinthe)
Shake aggressively with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
A big, bold and spicy Daiquiri with notes of fig and passion fruit adding a distinctive sweetness. The rums, bitters and Pernod are up front, yet tempered by the juices to yield a complex and potent small sipper.
The back story
The Tiki Oasis symposium started with the history of the classic Daiquiri, followed by a deep dive into the iconic cocktail created by Mariano Licudine at The Mai-Kai. It featured samples of both the Cuban Daiquiri and Derby Daiquiri, batched by the event’s bar team. But Mattei and I wanted to end on a much grander scale, showing how the simple rum-lime-sugar template could be expanded in many different directions.
As we outlined for the class, you can expand the Daiquiri to include four elements: Sour (juices), sweet (sugars, honey, syrups), strong (rums and other cane spirits), and dashes (typically spices such as bitters, and bold liqueurs). Shaken and served in a coupe like the iconic version, this canvas allows for a wide range of options.
We recommend narrowing your focus to a particular theme or two. Mine was to make a Mai-Kai inspired cocktail, yet also incorporate as many references to San Diego and Tiki Oasis as possible. These two ideas are not as disparate as you might think. As we shared in a slide for the audience, owners Bob and Jack Thornton considered opening new locations in various cities, including San Diego, after the initial success of The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale.
Looking at the most popular fruit trees grown in San Diego, lime and orange were on the list so that was an easy choice considering that these were also key elements of the Derby Daiquiri. Instead of simple syrup, we sought a flavor unique to the area. Fig jumped out at us considering its under utilization, not just in Tiki but in cocktails in general.
Luckily, there’s a great option available at our fingertips. The Caramelized Fig Syrup from Liber & Co. fit the bill perfectly. Made from a unique blend of California Black Mission and Calimyrna varieties, the syrup is “redolent of sugared dark fruit and subtle spice,” according to the website. “Expect a deep, concentrated fig flavor that naturally complements barrel aged spirits like whiskey and rum.”
Just to make sure we were on the right track, we went to Google and sought out flavors that pair well with fig. Not only was orange on the list, but so was anise and spices such as cinnamon. This cemented our decision to include the Mai-Kai staple dashes and drops of Angostura bitters and Pernod.
But fig alone was too intense to be the only sweet element. Our hope from the outset was to incorporate Passionola, considering its roots in San Diego (as well as it’s timely appearance at Tiki Oasis). The original Passionola can be traced back to San Diego’s Kremer family in the early 1900s, when passion fruit was a popular local delicacy. We still had an ample supply of the prototype from Doc Parks (see above), and it worked perfectly in a 2:1 proportion with the fig.
Our online research turned up more facts that made this pairing seem natural. Passion fruit and figs are actually both part of the same plant family (Moraceae). Both are good sources of fiber and antioxidants, making us feel slightly better about constructing what some would consider an unhealthy elixir.
We were encouraged to use sponsor rums, but this was not a difficult decision. When you look at San Diego and its history, one of the central districts is Mission Valley, site of the first Spanish settlement in California in 1769. Not only did this lead us to using Spanish-style rums, it also gave us the inspiration for the name of the cocktail.
Puerto Rico’s Don Q, which also played a role in our Derby Daiquiri discussion, was gracious enough to provide Tiki Oasis with both its Cristal and Anejo products. This blend of “white” and “gold/aged” Spanish-style rums is something The Mai-Kai and other classic Tiki cocktails employ. Also a tradition is amping up this combo with a small dose of 151 Demerara rum, which we also added as a final touch.
Ingredient and mixing notes
Sour and sweet: While they don’t necessarily need to be sourced from Southern California, fresh lime and orange juices are essential. As discussed in the story above, homemade or high-grade passion fruit syrup will get you in the ballpark of the revived Passionola if you’re unable to find a bottle. There are likely other fig syrups available in different regions, but I highly recommend the Liber & Co. product (also available via Amazon) since it was designed specifically for cocktails and works great in this application.
Strong and spice: I wouldn’t hesistate to substitute any rums similar to Don Q from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands or elsewhere. You just don’t need anything too aggressive since these flavors need to blend in with the rest of the ingredents. We added a healthy splash of 151 Demerara rum because, as I explained to the audience, every cocktail tastes better with this flavorful dark rum from Guyana. Used minimally here, it adds the perfect amount of high-proof heft to make itself known and not overwhelm the drink. Hamilton, Lemon Hart and Diamond Reserve (used at Tiki Oasis) all work well. Go easy on the anise, whether it’s Pernod, Herbsaint or absinthe. I wouldn’t discourage you from experimenting with different bitters that have spice notes that pair with the fig, such as Peychaud’s or Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters.
More P/Fassionola recipes
Here are several more cocktails that were featured in the book and can be found elsewhere on The Atomic Grog:
One of our favorite sips from The Hukilau 2024 was also featured in Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient. This mainstay cocktail from Doc Parks has several different iterations, which we cover in this full review and recipe included in our event recap. It features the new Passionola syrup.
A tribute to the Sidewinder’s Fang at The Mai-Kai
Revealed for the first time in Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient, this collaboration between Hurricane Hayward and the authors yields a monster cocktail not unlike what you’ll taste in the legendary restaurant. It features both red and gold fassionola. Check out the updated back story, review and recipe.
More recipes to try: Among the other drinks in the book that stood out after we put them to the test are the Coco Pine, Don’s Special Daiquiri, Hurricane Punch, Roof Raiser, Saturn, Side Winder’s Fang (Lanai), and Sidewinder’s Fang 22. We still have many more to sample. According to our research, only seven of the 104 recipes had been previously published with the exact same specs. As often happens, some vintage recipes feature slightly adjusted proportions and/or ingredients, but for the most part we treat these as unique recipes that need to be tasted. Removing those seven and the eight non-alcoholic recipes, that leaves 89 new cocktails to help you achieve the “the taste thrill of the century.”
Check out the Hurricane Punch from 1940, as featured on Derek Cole’s Make and Drink vlog with special guest Gregorio Pantoja …
Okole maluna!
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPDATES: The Tiki Times: Exclusive events guide
Check the calendar for all of the major happenings around the world, from Tiki weekenders to rum festivals to marketplaces and music fests.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The Mai-Kai Restoration Guide
Check out all the latest news, photos, video and deep details on the refurbishment and reopening of South Florida’s Polynesian Palace.
Okole Maluna Society: The Mai-Kai Cocktail Guide
Reviews and ratings of the historic restaurant’s current and past tropical drinks, plus ancestor and exclusive tribute recipes.
Atomic Grog Cocktail Recipes, A through Z
A comprehensive list of every recipe we’ve posted on the site, from the 151 Swizzle to the Zombie, also sorted by style and creator.