Ingredients

fassionola (gold)

Also known as “Passionola (gold)”. Passionola was one of several brands of concentrated passion fruit syrup that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s out of a passion fruit cultivation boom in the San Diego area. Fresh passion fruit is problematic to distribute over long distances, so capturing the flavor in a shelf-stable, processed form was a compelling commercial solution. These syrups initially targeted the wholesale soda fountain market but, not long after, the bar market, too. One of the main figures in this local boom was Victor Kremer, the industrious German immigrant who would start the Passionola brand. Like many processed food products, Passionola and its competitors went through changes over time, bending to market forces, manufacturing efficiencies, and the profitability expectations of shifting ownership. By the 1940s, the field of commercial passion fruit syrups was diverse, but also commoditized in a larger sea of different flavored syrups from numerous producers. Somewhere in this time frame, the Passionola brand was diversified to cover three distinctly-flavored and -colored products: gold, red and green (see separate entries for the red and green). The gold product was ostenstibly the original straight passion fruit syrup. In the 1950s, the Passionola brand was renamed or replaced by Fassionola, likely with further manufacturing and quality changes, but the gold/red/green pattern continued. Fassionola-branded products have remained wholesale-oriented, with sporadic appearances in the retail market. Today, the word fassionola is in generic use and the word Passionola is under (novel) trademark. Products today using these names should be evaluated on their own terms, and any claims of historical accuracy should probably be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. Passionola (gold) and fassionola (gold) have been employed here and there in the soda fountain and bar like any other passionfruit syrup. It’s clear that Don the Beachcomber, Trader Vic, and their competitors were all well aware of the Passionola/fassionola product lines. For example, it was the brand call for periods at the Aku Aku in Las Vegas, Bali Hai at the Beach in New Orleans, and others. Fassionola was even in use at Don the Beachcomber’s, Waikiki, in the 1970s and 1980s.