Blue Hawaii
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 10.5% ABV ∙
The Blue Hawaii is a tropical rum-and-vodka sour turned bright blue with Blue Curaçao, shaken with pineapple, lime, and lemon juice. Sweet pineapple leads over a citrus tang, with a faint orange-curaçao bitterness and a clean, cool finish suited to a poolside afternoon.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: White rum 25 mlVodka 25 mlBlue Curaçao 15 mlPineapple juice 90 mlLime juice 10 mlLemon juice 10 mlSugar syrup 10 ml
- Fine strain into the chilled glass filled with crushed ice
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry
- Serve with a straw
Tips
- Shake with cube ice but strain over fresh, tightly packed crushed ice in the hurricane glass, which keeps the blue bright rather than washed out.
- Measure the sugar syrup against the two citrus juices — at 10 ml each they balance closely, and a heavy syrup pour flattens the pineapple.
- Combine the two citrus juices and sugar syrup first before adding the spirits and curaçao, so the sweetener dissolves fully instead of settling at the bottom.
- Skewer the pineapple wedge and cherry together and perch on the rim just before serving so the garnish doesn't bleed color into the blue liquid.
History
The Blue Hawaii was invented in 1957 by Harry Yee, head bartender at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (then the Kaiser Hawaiian Village) in Waikiki, Honolulu. Yee created the drink at the request of a sales representative for the Dutch distiller Bols, who asked him to design a cocktail that would showcase the brand's blue Curaçao liqueur. After trying several variations, Yee arrived at a rum-based, pineapple-forward mix tinted with the blue liqueur, giving the drink its signature ocean-blue color and its name tied to the Hawaiian Islands. The cocktail's fame grew alongside Hawaii's 1959 statehood and was further boosted by the 1961 Elvis Presley film of the same name, though the movie came after the drink had already been created.
