Purple haze all in my brain…’Scuse me while I kiss this guy (mondegreen version)
The Hard Rock Café pays homage to Jimi Hendrix with a cocktail named Purple Haze. (Back in the day I remember another one called Ginny Hendrix, made with Hendrick’s gin, that I haven’t seen on their menu in a while.) Wanting to make a home version, I looked up the recipe online only to discover there are drastically different drink recipes going by the name Purple Haze.
A recipe titled Hard Rock Purple Haze on Food.com that is widely copied elsewhere online has none of the ingredients as listed on the Hard Rock Café menu. We gave it a try and there’s nothing wrong with it except that I find its name misleading.
Not The Hard Rock Purple Haze #1
Ingredients
- 1.5 Malibu rum
- ½ Peach Schnapps
- 1 pineapple juice
- 1 cranberry juice
- Splash of Sprite or ginger ale
Mix the first four ingredients over ice and add a splash of ginger ale or sprite.
Not The Hard Rock Purple Haze #2 recipe from the Spruce Eats is easy and straightforward (how I like it) but also has little similarity to the Hard Rock’s version.
Ingredients
- 1.5 vodka
- ½ Chambord
- 2 cranberry juice
- Splash of Sprite or ginger ale
Mix the first three ingredients over ice and add a splash of ginger ale or sprite.
The Real Deal
Hard Rock Purple Haze as listed on the Hard Rock Café menu has vodka, gin, rum, sour mix, Chambord, and sprite. In a YouTube video from the Hard Rock Café Innsbruck, the bartender explains that it should be made like a Long Island Iced Tea but adding Chambord at the end instead of Coke. Although the ingredient amounts weren’t given, my guestimates are based on the reference to LI Iced Tea and trial and error.
Ingredients
- ½ vodka
- ½ gin
- ½ rum
- 1.5 sour mix
- 1 Chambord
- Splash of sprite or soda water
Pour the first four ingredients over ice and stir. Slowly pour the Chambord over the top. Splash with soda.
Our home version tasted close to the Hard Rock version, though some difference in taste is to be expected by using different brands of spirits. The Hard Rock menu indicates Smirnoff vodka, Beefeater gin, and Bacardi Superior rum whereas we’ve used substitutions of equal or better quality with Tito’s vodka, Hendricks’s gin, and Captain Morgan Caribbean White rum. And, after all, isn’t it more apropos to use Hendrick’s gin for a drink named Purple Haze? Just saying.
Cheers!
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