Passion Fruit Syrup

[Rob Simmon]

I've been pouring over a series of cocktail books--especially Intoxica and the Grog Log--and many drinks call for passion fruit syrup, specifically Trader Vics. The only places I can find it are online, and shipping rates seem a bit out of hand--twice the cost of the syrup itself! Considering the cost of the alcohol that goes into the average cocktail, it's not really a problem, but it's the principle of the thing. Searching online, I've also found passion fruit syrups by Torani, Monin, and Rose's. Are these acceptable substitutes? Or better yet, likely to use real passionfruit? I've tried mixing passion fruit concentrate with simple syrup but haven't liked the results.

thanks for any help.

[WoBuJiDao]

I don't know where you live, but if it's on the West Coast you probably can find a Hawaiian foods store, which would sell passion fruit (also called lilikoi) syrup for shave ice, or at least passion fruit jelly which you could boil in water. It's not ideal (the equivalent of those syrups used in fancy-shamncy coffees) but perhaps it's better than outrageous shipping fees.

[spiritchild]

I often find the connection between cocktails and dessert to be helpful. As a bartender, if I ever need ingredients that I can't find in my local farmer's market or gourmet, I will ask the pastry department for suggestions. They usually can help. I have created a few wonderful drinks using passion fruit puree. It comes frozen and will keep for about a week after being defrosted. If you can't find the puree yourself (ask around in your local gourmet) I'm sure the pastry department of a restaurant near you could help.

[eje]

I've been pouring over a series of cocktail books--especially Intoxica and the Grog Log--and many drinks call for passion fruit syrup...Searching online, I've also found passion fruit syrups by Torani, Monin, and Rose's. Are these acceptable substitutes?

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I'm not quite sure what you mean by "acceptable substitute". I guess you mean the difference between Passion Fruit syrup and Passion Fruit flavored syrup? Torani claims to use "all natural flavorings" in their syrups, if that makes you feel any better about using it.

In any case, I've found Looza Passion Fruit Nectar in some stores here, and use that in drinks that call for Passion Fruit whatever. I sometimes increase the amount of simple syrup the recipe calls for.

The website below has a recipe for Passion Fruit Syrup from scratch, if you want to go all out. Basically, in case the link goes dead, buy 8 passion fruit, scoop pulp into sieve, force pulp through sieve, discard seeds, make simple syrup, add passion fruit juice to syrup.

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/syrup/syrup13.html

Oh, the disadvantage of using natural Passion Fruit Nectar or Pulp, is it's not particularly attractive. Kind of an off yellow green brown. If you want your hurricane (or whatever) to be clear, you're better off using the Passion Fruit Flavored Syrup.

added comment about color

Edited March 11, 2005 by eje (log)

[Heikki]

For home use, I have made passion fruit syrup by rubbing passion fruit pulp through sieve to get nectar and then adding one part of simple syrup (sugar:water two:one) to two parts of nectar. In other words, for each ounce there are 2/3 of passion fruit nectar and 1/3 of simple sugar. This works very well e.g. for Intoxica's Don The Beachcomber Zombie, in my opinion one of the best recipes in Intoxica or Grog Log, or any other drinks where passion fruit syrup is called for. The recipe gives strong passion fruit taste with enough sweetness.

One wrinkled passion fruit seems to yield 0.5 cl of nectar, so for one ounce about six passion fruits are needed. If the fruits are very wrinkled, more fruit are needed. I recently juiced seven very wrinkled fruits and got only 2.5 cl of nectar. The amount of wrinkles seems to have inverse correspondence to nectar yielded, since even the most wrinkled fruit still tasted good but gave only a little nectar.

The color has been always bright yellow, so I have not run into fruit that gives nectar of green or brown tones. I guess the color depends on the fruit variety, http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/passionfruit.html

shows that there is plenty of choose from. If I remember correctly, at least some of the passion fruits I have bought have come from southern parts of Africa.

--

Heikki Vatiainen

[Rob Simmon]

After searching around on the web I ordered two different types of passionfruit syrup, but still haven't bitten the bullet for the Trader Vic's. Tasting notes:

<strong>Monin Passion Fruit Syrup</strong>

Ingredients: pure cane sugar, water, concentrated passion fruit juice, natural flavoring, citric acid

very sweet, very passion-fruity, nice acidic bite: concentrated and straightforward

<strong>Rose's Passion Fruit Cordial Blend</strong>

Ingredients: water, sugar, passion fruit and orange juice (6%), acidifier, flavor, colourant (South African spelling!), stabilizers,sulphur dioxide and benzoic acid

mild, as much fruit juice as syrup

possible substitues:

Alize (after tasting a spoonful, I'd say it wouldn't work)

Dafruta passionfruit liquid concentrate-- focused and tart, maybe 50/50 with simple syrup?

Monin is the tastiest, at least when comparing spoonfuls of the stuff straight! I'll report back if/when I finally acquire a bottle of Trader Vic's.

[vice]

I picked up some frozen passion fruit pulp. Anyone making their own syrup with this stuff? What would be a good ratio of pulp to syrup for standard tiki applications?

[John Rosevear]

Monin isn't bad -- I like it better than the current iteration of the Trader Vic product -- but it is indeed very sweet... plan to adjust accordingly.

[kathryn]

Trader Tiki now has passionfruit syrup available. Just picked up a bottle a few days ago but haven't tried it yet.

My notes from the Beachbum Berry books say:

Passion Fruit Syrup

* 1/4 cup sugar

* 1/4 cup water

* 1/2 cup thawed frozen passion fruit pulp

Place sugar in boiling water, then stir in thawed frozen passion fruit pulp.

Keeps 2-3 days.

[Chris Amirault]

We discussed this over in the tiki ingredients topic quite a bit. Here's a post featuring the syrup that's a staple at my house.