Blue Hawaii

I am a real sucker for tiki drinks, and the Blue Hawaii is one of my favorites. It’s relatively simple as far as tiki drinks go, really only requiring one things that you aren’t likely to already have in your regular rotation, blue curacao. This orange liqueur which is, of course, vibrantly blue in color, not only gives it that delightful hue, but is actually the entire reason that this paticular cocktail exists.

⁠The Blue Hawaii was originally developed in 1957 at  Honolulu’s Kaiser Hawaiian Village by the famous bartender Harry Yee. As it turns out, the Dutch distillery Bols, which you will likely recognize from the bottom shelf of the liqueur aisle, had recently launched their blue curacao, a luridly blue version of the orange-flavored liqueur, curacao, and it wasn’t selling particularly well.⁠ To solve this problem, a representative of the distillery encouraged Harry Yee to find a creative way to use the liqueur in his cocktails. He put together this recipe and named Blue Hawaii after the 1961 Elvis Presley film.⁠ In addition to creating many classic tiki drink recipes, Harry Yee is also credited with being the first bartender to use paper parasols and orchids as drink garnishes, both of which have become indispensable to the tiki bar scene.

As far as the Blue Hawaii goes, it’s a lovely light sipper which packs a solid punch, exactly what you want from a tiki drink. Rum, vodka, sour mix, pineapple juice, and, of course, blue curacao come together to create a drink that is light and fruity, with a color that you can’t help but dream of the ocean when sipping.

Blue Hawaii

A classic tiki cocktail that's as beautiful to look at as it is woonderful to sip, the Blue Hawaii is easy to mix in large quantities and perfect for a day by the water, or an evening dreaming of the ocean.

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Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• ¾ oz. vodka
• ¾ oz. white rum
• ½ oz. blue curacao
• 1 oz. sour mix
• 3 oz. pineapple juice

Instructions

 

• Shake all ingredients with ice, pour into hurricane glass with lots of crushed ice. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and cocktail umbrella.

The other recipes in the cocktail section of the book are:

-Coconuts
-Cranberry Ginger Syrup
-Gin Drinks
-Mom’s Cranberry Sauced
-Negroni D’Argento
-Negroni Sbagliato
-Painkiller
-Raspberry Shrub
-Shrub Syrups
-Strawberry Basil Shrub
-Vietnamese Coffee Martini

If these lovely libations give you a thirst, be sure to head over to the Buslife Kitchen Vol. 2: Recipes from the Road Kickstarter page and pre-order yourself a copy of the upcoming book.