Guarapita

Ingredients

The spirit

• 500 mlwhite rum
• or aguardiente
• or to taste
• adjust to your own strength

The juice

• 1 litrepassionfruit juice
• parchita, fresh or bottled
• or 1 litre orange juice
• or a mixture of both
• juice of 2 limes

The sweetening

• 150 gsugar
• or to taste
• or a sugar syrup
• made with equal sugar and water

To serve

• plenty of ice
• a large jug
• or a plastic bottle
• shaken
• orange or lime slices

Directions

1. Serve it over plenty of ice, which dilutes it. Anyone pregnant should not drink alcohol.
2. Halve the fruit and scoop out the pulp. Blend it briefly with a little water. Blend only a few seconds. Blending long enough to break the seeds makes it bitter.
3. Press the pulp to extract everything. Taste before adding any sugar. It needs a good deal of sugar.
4. Heat equal weights of sugar and water until dissolved. Cool it completely before using it. It keeps a month refrigerated.
5. Warm that portion gently. Combine the juice, sugar syrup and lime juice. Taste it before adding the rum. It should be a little sweeter than you want. Add it gradually and taste as you go.
6. Reduce the rum for something gentler. Refrigerate it for at least two hours. Serve it over plenty of ice. Pour it into glasses over ice. Add a slice of orange or lime.
7. Stir it before pouring, since it can separate. Venezuelan communities abroad keep these traditions. Shake or stir before pouring. The alcohol prevents that.

Technique

• This tastes far weaker than it is. The fruit and sugar hide the alcohol completely, which makes it easy to drink too quickly and is a genuine, well-known hazard. Measure the rum rather than pouring by eye, tell people the proportion, serve it over plenty of ice, and have water alongside.
• One part rum to two parts juice is a strong starting point. Decide the proportion deliberately rather than by accident, and reduce it freely.
• Do not drink alcohol if you are pregnant, driving, or taking medication that interacts with it, and do not press anyone who does not want to.
• Pulse fresh passionfruit only a few seconds, just enough to loosen the pulp from the seeds, then strain. Blending long enough to break the seeds makes the juice bitter.
• Dissolve the sugar first — either as a cold simple syrup of equal sugar and water, or dissolved into a warmed portion of the juice. Granulated sugar sinks and sits at the bottom of a cold drink.
• Taste the juice mixture before the rum goes in, and leave it slightly sweeter than you want. Both the rum and the melting ice dilute it.
• Taste bottled juice before adding any sugar — most are already sweetened, while fresh passionfruit is very sour indeed.
• Use a decent white rum, not an expensive aged one. The fruit and sugar cover its subtleties entirely.
• Frozen passionfruit pulp from a Latin grocer is excellent, convenient, and what many people actually use.
• Serve it over plenty of ice. The dilution as it melts is helpful rather than a fault — it slows the drinking and softens the strength.
• It is genuinely often mixed in a plastic bottle, shaken with the cap on and passed around. A jug does the same job, and the informality is the character of the drink.

Substitutions

• Orange juice replaces passionfruit and is at least as common; a mixture of both is very good.
• Guava, mango or tamarind juice all work in the same role.
• Aguardiente replaces rum and gives a harsher, stronger drink.
• Frozen passionfruit pulp replaces fresh and is far less work.
• Cold simple syrup replaces granulated sugar and mixes instantly.
• The rum can simply be left out for a non-alcoholic fruit punch.

Variations

• A version made with orange juice alone is the simplest and most common.
• Blended with ice into a slush, it is served frozen at beaches.
• Ponche crema, the Venezuelan Christmas egg liqueur, is the festive drink at the other end of the year.
• Chicha venezolana, a sweet rice drink, is the non-alcoholic street standard.
• Papelón con limón, cane sugar with lime, is the everyday cold drink.
• Some versions add a splash of grenadine or a second spirit.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guarapita?

Guarapita is a cocktail from Venezuela: rum mixed with passionfruit or orange juice and sugar, served by the jug.

How long does Guarapita take to make?

Guarapita takes 15 minutes of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 2 litres, serves 8. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Guarapita?

Yes, within limits. Orange juice replaces passionfruit and is at least as common; a mixture of both is very good. Guava, mango or tamarind juice all work in the same role. Aguardiente replaces rum and gives a harsher, stronger drink. Frozen passionfruit pulp replaces fresh and is far less work. Cold simple syrup replaces granulated sugar and mixes instantly. The rum can simply be left out for a non-alcoholic fruit punch.

What is the most important thing to get right in Guarapita?

This tastes far weaker than it is. The fruit and sugar hide the alcohol completely, which makes it easy to drink too quickly and is a genuine, well-known hazard. Measure the rum rather than pouring by eye, tell people the proportion, serve it over plenty of ice, and have water alongside.