065 – Blue Hawaii

A 2021 re-discovery of the 1950’s ‘Blue Hawaii’ cocktail.

What started as a Covid lock-down activity, in the 105-day Sydney second-wave of the Delta-strain, is now a continuing journey through the cocktail’s of the past. This time, the ‘Blue Hawaii’.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail the ‘Blue Hawaii’.

METHOD – Add 45ml light Rum (Bacardí Carta Blanca), 45ml Vodka, 30ml Blue Curaçao (suggest Bols), 90ml freshly squeezed pineapple juice, 15ml fresh lime juice, 15ml fresh lemon juice, and 15ml simple syrup (two parts sugar to one part water) into a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice. Shake until cold (10-15 seconds) and pour into a 450ml glass containing crushed ice. Garnish with a slice of fresh pineapple and optional orange and maraschino cherry.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The ‘Blue Hawaii’ was created on 3 January 1957 by bartending legend Harry K. Yee (1918– ), who just celebrated his 103rd Birthday.

Yee started bartending in 1952, and was the Head Bartender at the Hawaiian Village Hotel for more than 30-years. When he started, Hawaii had around 100,000 visitors per year. When they asked for Hawaiian Drinks, he had nothing to offer, so invented cocktails often naming them on the spot. Along with other contemporaries like Donn Beach (the Zombie) and Trader Vic (the Mai Tai), Yee was instrumental in creating a new (fake) image of tropical cocktails. By the time Yee retired, annual Hawaiian tourism had increased more than 50-fold, to over 5-million tourists per year.

The Bols Liqueur representative, trying to move their new ‘Blue Curaçao’, asked Harry to create a new cocktail using the liqueur. He named it ‘Blue Hawaii’ after the title song from the 1937 film ‘Waikiki Wedding’ staring Bing Crosby.

Yee created many other cocktails, around fifteen of them, including the Banana Daiquiri, the Tropical Itch, and many others, but the most famous was probably this azure coloured ‘Blue Hawaii’.

If you want to strictly follow Yee’s original recipe, it is 90ml fresh Pineapple juice, 22.5ml each of Puerto Rican light rum and Vodka, 15ml of Blue Curaçao and 30ml of sweet and sour, either over crushed ice or blended, Harry Yee made both versions.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – Strangely the ‘Blue Hawaii’ does not appear in any of the International Bartender Association (IBA) official drinks lists. The official recipe is really Harry Yee’s original (above).

TASTING NOTES – There has been a recent period of looking down on tropical, tiki and other similar cocktails, often with good reason. Harry Yee’s ‘Blue Hawaii’ doesn’t deserve this, despite being built around Bol’s Blue Curaçao, it has great balance. Sweet, sour, citrus, alcohol and great refreshing volume for tropical or warm weather. Damaged somewhat by the confusion with the coconut ‘Blue Hawaiian’, and of course the move against blue-coloured cocktails, this is still a very good mix.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – The only locktail changes are upping the rum (45ml) and vodka (45ml) to match the pineapple juice (90ml), that meant an initial loss of the azure blue colour. To get that signature colour back, I’ve also increased the Blue Curaçao to 30ml (from 15ml) without damaging the flavour, in fact in this mix, I didn’t mind the stronger Curaçao (sweet orange) flavour at all.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is fifth cocktail from the 1951-1960 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.