Hurricane Cocktail

Does anything scream “New Orleans” more than a hurricane cocktail? They are a classic - invented in the 1940’s. There are several stories. My favorite is that the cocktail began at a speakeasy in New Orleans. The year was 1941. The code to get into the speakeasy was “Storm’s a brewin’” - which clearly led to the thematically appropriately named drink. Whether the glass that’s shaped like a hurricane lamp actually inspired the name of the drink OR was chosen to compliment the name, I prefer to think that someone with impeccable thematic skills made it all happen.

Mr Hedin and I had a classic hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s when we were in New Orleans last year. It was good. It wasn’t “the best thing ever” but it was good. Part of what turns me off is when a cocktail is preprepared and poured out of a jug. Not a fan. I like a drink made to order. I always think it tastes better.

I started researching how to make this drink. There are literally one zillion recipes. Every one of them had a different combination of ingredients, totally different rums, and none could agree on lemon vs. lime.

So I started mixing. And it was hard work. I landed on a recipe that feels like what we had at Pat O’Brien’s but made with real ingredients at home. I also simplified the rum situation. My favorite tiki bar, Smuggler’s Cove, did all the work on finding the perfect rum options for this cocktail - you can use one! Hooray! It’s annoying to have a pantry full of booze that only works for one recipe.