Elements: Passion Fruit Cocktails

In the canon of tropical cocktails, passion fruit purée or syrup has long played a supporting role, from Donn Beach’s Tahitian Rum Punch, circa 1937, to J. “Popo” Galsini’s Saturn—a gin- based 1967 tiki original. While it may be surprising that such a notoriously low-yield, labor-intensive South American fruit was commercially available prior to the mid-20th century, cocktail historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, owner of New Orleans’ Latitude 29, has a theory. “As I recall, passion fruit vines grew all over Southern California in the 1920s and ’30s,” he says. “This might explain why it was a go-to ingredient in most famous tiki drinks by Don the Beachcomber.”

Expanding global cultivation—with advances in processing—made the fruit more widely available to consumers in the form of juice, flavored beverages, purées, and frozen concentrate, and the modern cocktail movement became likewise infatuated with the fruit. In the early aughts, Douglas Ankrah of London’s Townhouse bar made passion fruit the star of his wildly popular, and evocatively named, Pornstar Martini, while Berry is credited with rediscovering the Saturn, which led to its revival on bar menus. Products like high-quality syrups and purées, and liqueurs like those from Passoã, Giffard, and Chinola, have made the flavor of passion fruit even more accessible.

Coveted for its intoxicating floral fragrance and sweet-tart, jelly-like pulp coating edible seeds, the fresh fruit is excellent eaten out of hand but costly and impractical behind the bar. “Passion fruit is a bit of a nightmare to work with,” says Mike Capoferri, owner of Thunderbolt in Los Angeles. “Low yields, seedy, inconsistent brix and acid levels, snotty texture. That’s why we use premade purée at the bar.” With its logistical challenges removed, it’s “definitely one of our team favorites,” he says. “It’s so punchy and perfume-y, and it brings its own acid to the party.” In Capoferri’s mezcal-based Barcelonnette, the fruit balances “the otherwise polarizing bitterness of the Suze.”

Sharon Yeung, co-founder of Austin’s Daijoubu, an Asian cocktail pop-up, typically uses syrups from Liber & Co. or Tea Zone for their consistency but prefers the fruit fresh when available, which she utilized for her Kari Fizz. The combo of passion fruit pulp with Cocchi Americano and complementary citrus flavors yields a vibrant, low-ABV aperitif with a hint of herbaceousness and a slightly “chewy” texture. Working with fresh passion fruit can be costly and challenging when it comes to determining yield and a consistent sugar-acid balance, says Yeung, but the payoff is worth it. “Buy a few more than you think you need; the reward is the bright, intense kiss of flavor and texture you get from using fresh fruit.”