The East 8 Hold Up is a delicious, vodka-based cocktail with passion fruit syrup and fresh pineapple. It is fruity, refreshing, tangy, and bitter-sweet. The key to making it extra-tasty is to use pieces of fresh pineapple rather than juice.

An East 8 hold up cocktail garnished with flowers and pineapple.

This cocktail is perfect for summer sipping or tiki parties, though personally I could drink it any time of the year. You should check out Caribbean rum punch for another tasty and tropically-flavoured cocktail, and prepare to be instantly transported to a beach with sand between your toes.

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Origin
Ingredients
Instructions
Equipment
📖 Recipe

Cocktail beside a tray of pineapple wedges.

I was recently introduced to this cocktail at the lobby bar in The London Edition. I recalled from previous visits that the bartenders there are fantastic, and I asked for something off of the menu. After a large fanfare of measuring, shaking, and pouring, the bartender presented me with an East 8 Hold Up - a delicious cocktail with a rather amusing story.

East 8 hold up cocktails garnished with flowers and pineapple.

Origin

Kevin Armstrong of Milk & Honey, London, created this cocktail in 2010. He lived in an area of London called 'E8' that had its share of unsavoury characters, and muggings were common. After a night out, Kevin parted ways with friend Sam Jeveons, who stopped to relieve his bladder on the way home, pants down around his ankles.

A mugger approached from behind, stepped on Sam's pants and demanded that he hand over his wallet. However, things didn't go to plan as this hold up ended with Sam chasing the mugger down the street, his pants still around his ankles and his belt wrapped around his fist. Kevin decided to name his cocktail creation after that memorable evening.

Ingredients

Fresh pineapple, diced
Vodka
Aperol
Freshly squeezed lime juice
Simple syrup
Passion fruit syrup

See the recipe card below for quantities.

Instructions

Using a cocktail muddler, press the fresh pineapple into a purée.

Add all of the cocktail ingredients (fresh pineapple purée, vodka, Aperol, freshly squeezed lime juice, simple syrup, and passion fruit syrup) into your cocktail shaker, along with the pineapple purée and some ice cubes.

Shake very well, then strain into an ice-filled cocktail glass.

The cocktail poured into glasses of ice.

I garnished my cocktails with wedges of juicy pineapple and bright flowers to go with the cocktail's sunny, tropical flavours. However, the original garnishing for this drink is a pineapple and lime wedge.

Cheers! And make sure that you don't get caught with your pants around your ankles.

A hand holding up an East 8 hold up cocktail.

Equipment

To make this cocktail you will need a cocktail shaker, a muddler, and a cocktail strainer. You can find all of these pieces and more inside of this cocktail bar set.

cocktail bar set

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📖 Recipe

East 8 Hold Up

5 from 10 reviews

Author: Asha
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 3 minutes
Yield: 1 cocktail 1x
Category: Cocktails
Cuisine: British

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Description

The East 8 Hold Up is a delicious, vodka-based cocktail with passion fruit syrup and fresh pineapple. It is fruity, refreshing, tangy, and bitter-sweet.