Passionfruit is one of my favorite fruits, and luckily we now have two varietes of passionfruits here not just one which we had for many years. Its that small wrinkled little dark brownish-purple-green variety. But lately there`s another type – a golden bigger, twice the size and also much sweeter. Watching one of videos from Leblon i marvelled when i saw the size of the Brazilian passionfruits..they were just WOW! big like a large grapefruit.
I have for a long time been a fan of the Port Light cocktail which uses passionfruit syrup and bourbon, a combination i find incredibly tasty. Playing with drink recipes born from that drink has made me discover how well rye also goes with passionfruit and also cognac.
These are all warm flavors that pairs well with the sweet-tart passionfruits and adding a sprinkle of lime or lemon here and a dash of syrup, honey or grenadine, along with warm spices such as cinnamon, vanilla and clove, it gets very tasty. Passionfruit also goes very well together with rum, cachaca, tequila, mezcal..
There are many varietes of edible passionfruits, they are flowering wines growing in the tropics and temperate areas and the flowers are very beautiful. There seems to be very different tasting commercial passionfruit juices and syrups and so the amount of other sweeteners needs to be adjusted to what you got.I decided to use both types of passionfruits for my syrup figuring that one sweet and one tart type would mix well - and here´s what to do:
In a pan add 2:1 or 1:1 sugar and water and make a simple syrup by heating it up. When the sugar is dissolved add the passionfruit seeds from all the fruits but two and bring to a slight boil for a couple minutes, then take off from the heat, add the seeds from the other fruits and leave to cool.
The addition of fruit seeds that are not boiled i imagine adds some extra freshness to the syrup while the boiled fruit imparts a deeper flavor. When its cooled, let stand for about 2 hours more so the flavors get a chance to really come out and settle, then strain and bottle.
Here´s a cocktail to try the syrup with unless you wanna make a PortLight;-)
BLOOD AND GOLD
2 oz tequila reposado ( i used Los Tres Tonos which has a little smoke)
0.5 oz passionfruit syrup
1 oz passionfruit juice
1 oz fresh blood orange juice
Mint and blood orange slice for garnish
Add to shaker, shake, strain into a glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish blood orange slice and mint. Sprinkle a few of the passionfruit seeds on top of the crushed ice.
A drink to be reminded that there will actually be a summer this year too.
Thanks for your comment Richard, so you use both pith and shell?do you have recipe for this? it sounds interesting!
here in costa rica most maracuya (passion fruit) drinks are made with the complete fruit, seeds, pith and shell. some par boil the fruit cut in half before blending with ice or ice and milk in a blender. i’ve made a passion fruit shrub also, but i suggest using a food mill and not cheesecloth to separate the pulp (way too much pectin) after the initial boil w vinegar.
Hi Fabrizio, I think 5-6 should be good.
Hi, how many passion fruit I’ve to add if I use 33 oz of Simple Syrup? My simple syruo is 2:1
Jim, I keep it in the fridge, it lasts for about 1-2 weeks.
Sharon, i scoop up everything there is in the skins or “shells”! i use a teaspoon! i just cut the fruit in half and scoop it all up! then i discard the skins, or is that what you call flesh maybe?
Tiare, Do you use the flesh of the Passion Fruit to make the syrup, or just the seeds?
Visit https://delifreshusa.wordpress.com for some good passion fruit recipes
Would you use the white pulp of the passionfruit to boil with the syrup too?
Tiare, Since you said not to freeze then what shelf life would you day is OK for the passion fruit syrup? Would you suggest refrigeration? Very curious since I have tried an upper brand of this syrup and now hooked on the taste, yet very pricy. Please advise.
Passion fruit juice is a very nourishing drink. The so called wild ones are more nutritious than the huge hybrid beautiful ones. Give it a thought. Most of our fruits in the past and present century has been seedless variety made from grafts. They are beautiful but has less when it comes to vitamins, trace elements etc.that our body needs. The natural that has been created by God is better than what science has made. Most fruits are without seeds be it grapes, oranges, pomegranates etc. There may come a time when we won’t have any seeds to plant in our own garden to grow when we want to have the original.
We have hybrid chickens, hybrid cows, hybrid corn and
hybrid fruits. What happens to our health in general?
As I looked for a recipe, I stumbled onto your site…I cannot wait to make the passion fruit syrup. And the Blood and Gold drink…Mahalo for sharing your knowledge! Cheers!
@PagoPago – i can´t give exact amounts since i didn´t measure, but if you take 2 passionfruits (or 4 halves) to one cup simple syrup you should be good to go. Why not just try with that to start with and taste your way? get a few extra, you can always add them later if you feel it needs more flavor.
Just add the extra passionfruits to the syrup you made and leave to sit a couple hours.
I’m curious about an exact recipe for this syrup. How many passionfruits per cup of simple did you use? Thanks Tiare, I love this site!
I like the Tonga room Zombie, but my fav is the 1934 Zombie though.Sounds like passion fruit syrup could be good in that drink!
How did it taste for you? It turned out to become one of my favorite drinks almost immediately. It adds to my list of what I’ve said before in response to another of your posts – the Mai Tai, Navy Grog, Dark ‘n Stormy. There are two others that are not rum drinks, two I do not claim to have invented (of course, since finer people have been at work for a long time) – a refreshing tequila drink called La Sandia (means “watermelon” in spanish), and a gin cocktail called Rohirrim Mead. The Rohirrim Mead is made with pear nectar, which made me wonder after enjoying the passion fruit syrup so much – how would passion fruit do in replacing the pear flavor? I’m going to try it next.
Rohirrim Mead
2 oz dry gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1 oz honey water (1/2 honey 1/2 hot water)
1 oz pear nectar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Muddle spent lemon peal (only a wedge) with honey water, lemon juice and bitters. Shake with rest of ingredients, and strain into chilled cocktail glass (garnish if you wish, I didn’t think more lemon was needed to the nose).
What I am going to do is replace 1/2 oz passion fruit syrup for the pear nectar to see how that keeps a balance. If I will guess, I think I will stick to pear (even though apple works…but I prefer that with bourbon…and since it’s bourbon, I use orange instead of lemon. I like to experiment).
Jack, i think i`m gonna make the Tonga Room Zombie..should be a good nightcap. I`m happy you got some good use of the pf syrup, it really does taste good in cocktails.
Wow@ Seriously wow…The first taste of passion fruit syrup was to get a more straightforward flavor idea by simply mixing a little lime juice, passion fruit syrup and rum (I chose Appleton Estate). Delicious. Next I went for a twist on a standard, using one of Beachbum Barry’s book to make a variation on the Zombie, choosing the “Zombie (Tongo Room)” recipe:
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz passion fruit syrup
1/2 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1 oz light Puerto Rico rum
1/2 oz 151-proof amber rum (such as Cruzan, El Dorado or Bacardi…which sounds a broad variance)
1/2 oz dark Jamaican rum
The result was surprisingly well balanced, just from what I thought the lime would shine through more, but did not (don’t get me wrong…I like lime). I enjoy using all 3 colors of rum, as ore rums triumphantly declare bolder and wider rangess of flavor. Another surprise was pineapple’s background flavor, rather than upfrontness. This drink tasted like passion fruit, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is only the first of many passion fruit syrup drinks I will be making this fair-weather season, and feel I have stepped off on the correct footing.
Looking forward to trying a Brazilian passion fruit. Thanks again for your article Tiare. Skol…
I agree with you, and in a way relieved in your explanation. I don’t have that much space in my freezer anyway. I prefer small batches of anything. And since I plan on drinking many drinks with passion friut syrup this summer (and some with juice), I like the idea of whipping of a qucik batch than relying on the stash. Thanks Tiare for your insight.
Jack, no i have never frozen syrups..and i wouldn`t recommend it, because a) its so easy and quick to make and you can make small batches b) i don´t know what would happen with the ice/ water/separation…also ice takes up bad flavors from the freezer. Plus fruit tastes best when fresh.
You can make small batches and they will last long enough i believe. I have noticed, at least for me – that the syrup i use the most is the simple syrup (with various sugars), then comes vanilla, and if i need a very exotic syrup for a specific cocktail then i make just enough for a few cocktails.
So my advice is – make fresh syrups in small batches, your cocktails will taste better.
I’m going to make several syrups this spring, including this lovely recipe. I had a question – since syrups sometimes do not last long, have you ever frozen syrups? I am sure they will freeze, just wonder if the water will separate as ice and somehow ruin the syrup. My guess is it wouldn’t matter since the water isn’t going anywhere and would reintroduce itself back into the mixture at melting point (maybe needing to stir). I was just wondering what you have done about surplus syrups. Obviously I prefer the idea about drinking syrups freshly made, but know I may not be able to drink it all in time before they turn bad.
Hi Neil, honey cream mix is easy to make, its just equal parts runny honey, sugar and butter to be warmed up and mixed and then cooled to room temp. You´ll get butter solids in the drink so a hard shake without ice first and then with ice is something you can try or run in blender. I usually use the honey cream mix drinks served in a tiki mug or pineapple shell, that way you don`t see the butter solids if you get them..
If you check at the top of my blog there are “pages” and one is called “all about syrups” maybe you can find some ideas for syrups there, otherwise there´s as many syrups as there are fruits, nuts and spices..
I was looking around for some Tikki Drink ingrediants and came across this blog – which i will now be frequenting. After a little trip to Hawaii in 2004 again in 2007 i became a devout follower of Mai Tai, and other Tikki drinks – but i am stumped on a couple of mixer syrups – i am after Hawaiian Punch – Fassionola & Honey Cream Mix. Any ideas ??
Mahalo Neil
It must be wonderful to be able to grow your own passionfruit wine that can bear fruits also. You`re lucky to live in a warm climate. That drink sounds very tasty!
Thanks for the recipe! I live in San Francisco and make cocktails using passionfruit syrup from the vine growing in our backyard. We planted it 6 years ago and we get so much fruit I can barely use it all. They’re pear-shaped, yellow, and small. If you live in the right climate and can obtain a cutting (we got ours from the arboretum here) I recommend planting a vine to grow your own!
My favorite drink recipe: Hendrick’s gin, Reed’s ginger brew, and passionfruit syrup. So simple but soooooooo gooooooooood.
I have tons of both yellow and purple passion fruit in my yard in Hawaii, growing all the way up to the phone lines, across the driveway, and threatening to head down the street. Figured I had best use the fruit before the phone company comes and cuts down the vines. Our yellows and purples are about the size of a good sized lemon.I made up the syrup as per your instructions and added a sprinkle of veggiesalt when done. Sounds wierd, but is muy bueno, especially with tequila resposado. Cuts the sweet and adds a salty, earthy quality.
I`m glad you got a nice syrup and that you did find some passionfruits;-)if you keep it in the fridge it`ll last longer.
Thank you for the recipe! It was so simple and really elevated my demerara cocktail recipe. The biggest issue was finding passion fruit where I live…it’s definitely not common.
Enjoy Randy! i hope you`ll get a tasty syrup.
Tony, that was a new of doing it! who would have thought about a blender? if you wanna get some of the “cooked” flavor why not make a small batch syrup the hot way and mix it with cold syrup? 1:2 or something like that?
You are so lucky to have those large passionfruits! imagine the small ones are called “wild” over there?
The passion fruits that we have here in Brazil are much larger indeed. Matter of fact the first time I saw the small brown one was in France and I had no idea they where passion fruits. Just now I have been able to find the small brown fruits here by the name of wild passion fruit for 10x the price of the big fruits.
We also have another kind here called sweet passion fruit. For cocktails I prefer the big ones, here called sour passion fruits.
Inspire by your post I got to making passion fruit syrup last night using the big fruits and happened to discover a new method for doing it.
A while back I bought a 10 liter slow speed blender. I mostly use it to make large batches of juices for our events. This blender was first designed to mix light dough and was said not to be suitable for juice. Well, they were wrong.
The great hit on this blender is that we can make juices from fruits with a lot of seeds like passion fruits and water melons by stripping out the flush without breaking the seeds. Works almost like a centrifuge.
I added the flush of 6 large passion fruits and 300 ml of water and blended to strip out the flush (15 seconds). Strained the whole thing. Took it back to the blender w/ the same amount of liquid and sugar. Blended again to incorporate sugar and voilá! Cold processed passion fruit syrup.
There are many ways to go about this process. If you like the seeds just add a bit more of passion fruit in the end of the process and flash blend it for a sec.
I´m sure the warm process will bring out some amazing flavors so I have to try to give both a side to side comparison in the future.
I´m sure not everybody will have a slow blender at hand, but wanted to add this method just as a reference!
Now let me give the Blood and Gold a try!
Tiare,
This is perfect timing. You must be a mind reader. I was just digging around for a good recipe for passionfruit syrup, so THANK YOU!