Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient is a new book from Gregorio Pantoja and Martin S. Lindsay. This passion project is finally reaching Kickstarter backers and is also for sale. The book covers the history of Fassionola syrup, a cocktail ingredient that started as the brand-name Passionola and evolving into a generic ingredient that was issued in Gold, Red, and Green varieties. The syrup was passion fruit-based, but with additional fruit ingredients.

As with Lindsay’s book about San Diego Tiki, there are hundreds of gorgeous photos and historical details about the products, people, cocktails, and bars where they were served. Daniel ‘Doc’ Parks provided additional insight and several of his cocktail recipes are included along with other modern bartenders.

There’s a lot to like here, though the organization does not cohesively track the syrups evolution or plainly state the current state of Fassionola products. There isn’t a clear-cut definition of how Fassionola specifically differs from Passion Fruit Syrup, nor tasting notes about the colored varietals, and important details are buried in the descriptions of cocktails or venues. There’s a recipe for a Red Fassionola on page 252, but that’s not in the recipe index, and disappointingly there are no other Passionola or Fassionola recipes.

The following cheat sheet may help:

• The book’s name is technically Fassionola but social media refers to it as P.Fassionola
• Passionola was a brand name and is essentially similar to Fassionola
• Gold Fassionola is closest to Passion Fruit Syrup
• Red Fassionola has cherry or strawberry notes, Green has lime
• Jonathan English is the recommended modern Fassionola, but you can only purchase via eBay
• The authors have discovered a historical recipe for Passionola and are working to turn it into a retail product, coming soon

This last part potentially explains the lack of syrup recipes and I’ve heard from many folks that this seems like a ploy to generate interest in the retail product. Still, I am still looking forward to it. The book’s narrative structure is challenging but there’s a lot to learn if you are willing to dig a little.

Additional Notes:

Book review from Jim “Hurricane” Hayward, who wrote the the foreword for the book

What is Green Fassionola? And how to make the green Passionola Cooler from Make & Drink on YouTube