The Hurricane is a classic New Orleans tiki cocktail. The story goes that the drink originated in the 1940s at Pat O'Brien's because the bar had too much rum and needed to create a drink to use all of it. The old recipe calls for dark rum, lemon, and passion fruit syrup. Depending on the rum you use, this is a fairly sweet drink. The dark rum makes the drink have a brownish color.

For the 2014 Tales of the Cocktail cocktail competition, entries had to be a take on the classic Hurricane. Knowing that I wanted to retain the color and major flavors of the drink, I ended up creating the Bittered Hurricane.

I love using large amounts of Angostura in cocktails and this was a perfect fit. I'm really happy with how this drink turned out even if I didn't win.

It's great anytime of year, but especially good if you want to make the best Hurricane cocktail for Mardi Gras.

Bittered Hurricane

2oz light rum (86 co Cana Brava)

1oz Angostura bitters

3oz passion fruit syrup (B.G. Reynolds)

1oz lemon juice

1oz lime juice

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake hard. Pour unstrained into a Hurricane glass. Garnish with a paper umbrella.