Blue Hawaii Cocktail Recipe

Blue drinks get a bad rap these days. That’s a shame, because the original Blue Hawaii — a mix of vodka, light rum, pineapple juice, blue curaçao, lime juice, and sugar — is a delicious cocktail. Even though retro drinks from the Midori Sour to the Cosmopolitan have made modern comebacks, bright‑blue cocktails remain rare on serious bar menus, still perceived as just a bit too tacky for modern tastes.

Invented in 1957 by Harry Yee, the legendary bartender at the Kaiser Hawaiian Village in Honolulu (now called the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort), the Blue Hawaii was created after a sales representative from Dutch distiller Bols challenged Yee to create a drink featuring blue curaçao, an orange liqueur that had become central to the company’s portfolio.

Yee remains one of the most important figures of the 20th century in drinks and is closely associated with the tiki cocktail movement. From his post in Honolulu, where he began bartending prior to Hawaii becoming a U.S. state, he became a conduit for many outsiders’ perception of drinks from the Polynesian Triangle.

Ironically, most of Yee’s creations came from his efforts trying to fabricate an image or artificial feeling of a “Hawaiian cocktail.” Resort guests often asked for a local drink, though Yee later said its native distilled spirit, okolehao, tended to be too strong for tourists, and cocktails weren’t particularly popular among locals. So, Yee invented drinks to give the public what they wanted — a tourist dream of Hawaii in a glass — which later shaped mainland Americans’ perception of drinks culture on the Islands, based on fact or not.

Beyond the Blue Hawaii, Yee contributed several other significant cocktails to the tropical drinks canon, including the Tropical Itch, Hawaiian Eye, and reportedly (though disputed by some) the Banana Daiquiri. However, one of his most enduring legacies was as the bartender who popularized the miniature umbrella as cocktail garnish.

Why the Blue Hawaii still works

Ignore the color for a moment, and focus on the ingredients. The classic Blue Hawaii follows a standard sour template: blue curaçao supplies sweetness while lime juice and pineapple juice bring the acidic tartness that balances the drink. Vodka and rum are split, such that the neutral grain spirit tamps down rum’s earthy funk and allows the orange notes of the curaçao to come through more cleanly.

Later riffs and imitations included ingredients like cream of coconut (often called a “Blue Hawaiian” vs. a Blue Hawaii) or other tropical juices. But the original Blue Hawaii is fairly simple despite its extravagant appearance — basically a rather light spirit base, punched up with pineapple juice and notes of orange and lime.

Yee did call for a few specifics, to make a proper Blue Hawaii. He insisted on Bols Blue Curaçao and favored a light Puerto Rican rum. Though Yee’s original recipe called for an ounce of “sweet and sour mix,” we’ve broken this ingredient into its fresh component parts, using equal-parts lime juice and simple syrup instead.