Blue Hawaii

Rum, vodka, blue curaçao, and pineapple — Harry Yee's 1957 Hilton Hawaiian Village creation, Hawaii's 1959 statehood and Elvis's 1961 Blue Hawaii the cultural coda.

The Blue Hawaii was created in 1957 by Harry Yee, the head bartender at the Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel in Waikiki, Honolulu, at the request of a sales representative from Bols, the Dutch spirits company, who wanted Yee to create a drink that would showcase their blue curaçao liqueur in the Hawaiian market. Yee combined rum, vodka, blue curaçao, pineapple juice, and sweet-and-sour mix in a tall glass, producing a vivid electric-blue tropical cocktail that was immediately identifiable and visually memorable. The Hilton Hawaiian Village, which opened in 1955 under Hilton management and expanded through the late 1950s as Hawaii prepared for statehood (granted in 1959), was the most prominent resort hotel on Waikiki Beach, and Yee's bar became a showcase for tropical cocktail culture at a moment when Hawaii was being established as America's premier tropical tourist destination. Elvis Presley's 1961 film Blue Hawaii — filmed on location in Hawaii and commercially released in November 1961, becoming the second-highest grossing film of that year — shared its name with Yee's cocktail, though the film and the drink had no direct connection. The film's extraordinary commercial success and its romantic portrayal of Hawaiian landscapes drove a significant increase in mainland American tourism to Hawaii.