On New Year’s Eve 1964, Joan Harris (the former Joan Holloway), Sterling Cooper’s formidable femme fatale, is dreading the impending deployment of her husband, the insecure, volatile, and sometimes cruel Dr. Greg Harris, to Vietnam. When he returns home from work late that evening, Joan greets him wearing a Hawaiian lei and places one around his neck, as well. “What are you doing up?” Greg asks. Joan replies that she figured they would spend New Year’s Eve in Hawaii, and on the table is traditional Hawaiian fare including a fresh fruit salad, a pineapple-glazed ham (see Pineapple-Glazed Ham), and a cocktail glass filled with a sky blue liquid.
The blue liquid appears to be a Blue Hawaii, a fruity cocktail popular in the 1960s. It derives its color from blue curaçao, a liqueur made from the oil of the dried peels of larahas oranges that grow on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The oranges aren’t blue, of course. Rather, colorants are added to make blue, orange, yellow, and green curaçao. Though the drink makes good use of many traditional Hawaiian flavors, it is not of Hawaiian origin.
As Hawaii statehood approached in August 1959, American fascination with all things Hawaiian, from the hula hoop to Polynesian cuisine, deepened. The hula hoop, like blue curaçao, is not actually Hawaiian. Though people have been using hoops as toys for millennia, the California-based Wham-O Company, makers of the Frisbee flying disk, developed the hula hoop in the late 1950s. Nevertheless, both the hula hoop and blue curaçao came to be associated with Hawaii, mainly through marketing that aimed to take advantage of the public’s infatuation with the islands. “Back-Yard Luaus Are Likely to Become as Popular in the U.S. as the Hula Hoop,” declared the New York Times on March 13, 1959.
America’s love affair with Hawaii was reflected in many other ways in the late 1950s and on into the 1960s. Elvis Presley’s 1961 film Blue Hawaii was followed by two more films that celebrated the fiftieth state, Girls!Girls!Girls! in 1962 and Paradise, Hawaiian Style in 1965. Hawaiian-born singer Do Ho rose to stardom singing Hawaiian-style songs; the ukulele, a musical instrument of Hawaiian origin, was popularized; and the original Hawaii Five-O television series debuted in 1968.
The Blue Hawaii didn’t evolve so much as simply burst onto the cocktail scene. According to Jeff Berry, author of Sippin’ Safari: In Search of the Great “Lost” Tropical Drink Recipes and the People Behind Them (2007), the Blue Hawaii was invented by Harry K. Yee of Waikiki’s Hawaiian Village Hotel “at the behest of the Bols liquor company, which was looking for ways to boost sales of its blue curaçao liqueur.”
For Joan’s Blue Hawaii (sometimes called a Blue Hawaiian), we adapted recipes from both Berry’s Sippin’ Safari and from a 1969 edition of Gourmet magazine, a perfect blend of blends you might say. Either way, a Blue Hawaii will transport you to the tropics, even on a New Year’s Eve in New York.
ADAPTED FROM SIPPIN’ SAFARI: IN SEARCH OF THE GREAT “LOST” TROPICAL DRINK RECIPES AND THE PEOPLE BEHIND THEM BY JEFF BERRY (SLG PUBLISHING, 2007) AND GOURMET MAGAZINE (JUNE, 1969)
3 ounces pineapple juice
11⁄2 ounces light rum
1 ounce sweet-and-sour mix (see Homemade Sweet-and-Sour Mix below)
1 ounce blue curaçao
1 ounce lemon juice
1 small cube fresh pineapple, plus a wedge for garnish
1 maraschino cherry, for garnish
YIELD: 1 DRINK
3⁄4 cup water
3⁄4 cup sugar
1⁄2 cup fresh lemon juice
1⁄2 cup fresh lime juice
