Low Carb Hurricane Drink (jello shots too)

Mardi Gras is just around the corner, so what better way to celebrate than with low carb hurricane drink or jello shots! Try this drink even without the rum for a delicious sugar free nonalcoholic drink. It’s a delicious low calorie and sugar free cocktail!

You might also like this keto butter burger recipe for Fat Tuesday!

My hubby and I went to New Orleans once before we were married. We were only there for a few days but boy did we have fun. It’s a beautiful city but what I remember the most was the food and drinks. One night we stopped to have a drink before dinner and I decided to try one their specialties …. the Hurricane.

I loved the flavor as it was fruity and strong (oh so strong) but you didn’t know it because it was so tasty. Well since Mardi Gras is upon us, I thought I’d update this old post and make these low carb hurricane drink and sugar free gelatin shots again. It uses simple ingredients and it’s delicious to me, plus you can just drink it as a mocktail!

What is a hurricane drink?

The hurricane drink was created by Pat O’Brien, a tavern owner in New Orleans. Supposedly it was created to use up rum that local distributors forced him to buy. You can learn more about that here.  The main flavors consist of orange, lime, passion fruit, rum and grenadine (pomegranate). These are the flavors that I used but found low carb substitutions for them.

Recipe ingredients and substitutions.

I used simple ingredients but specific ones to get that hurricane drink flavor and they were a mixture of teas and a sugar free punch drink mix. The teas of course have no carbs as does the sugar free punch. For the jello shots I make the drink and use Great Lakes unflavored gelatin but you can use any unflavored gelatin. ( You can find all the ingredients here.) 

The specific brands are not important but the ones I used were Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Orange tea, Tazo Passion tea, Twinnings Pomegranate Raspberry tea and Giant Eagle Sugar Free Fruit Punch.  You can use any kind of brand you want but these are common and can be found most grocery stores or places like Target or Walmart.

Just make sure you have the herbal tea flavors of orange, passionfruit, pomegranate and a sugar free fruit punch drink mix.

How to make a hurricane drink.

1. Start by making the drink with 2 bags each of tangerine orange tea, passion fruit tea and pomegranate tea. Add 6 cups of hot water and let steep and the cool completely.
2. Once cooled, add in 3 single servings of sugar free fruit punch mix and stir to combine. Refrigerate until ready to drink.
3. To make this an alcoholic drink add 1 oz of rum for every glass of punch. You can add more or less or make it a mocktail.

How to make the low carb jello shots.

Gelatin is such a healthy ingredient and I like to make my own sugar free gummy candy sometimes or just keto homemade jello treats. If you are interested in the benefits of gelatin check out this post about how good gelatin/collagen is for you.

1. For shots, take ½ cup of cold punch and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of unflavored gelatin. Whisk well to combine. Let sit to bloom.
2. Meanwhile heat up 1 cup of the punch in the microwave or stove and then pour over gelatin. Whisk well until gelatin has dissolved. 
3. Mix in ½ cup of rum and then pour into shot glasses. Note if you want these to be alcohol free just substitute with water.
4. Refrigerate for a few hours until set.

Well I how you love this low carb hurricane drink as much as we did. When I originally made this years ago, my son and I drank the mocktails all the time. So remember you can skip the rum for either the drink (or shots) for a super tasty sugar free punch.

The nutritional information for both the low carb hurricane punch and jello shots is as follows:

• 1 fl oz of 80 proof rum is about 64 calories and 0 carbs.
• Most brands of herbal tea are 0 cals and 0 carbs.
• Most sugar free punch mixes are about 5 cals and 0 carbs.
• For the Great Lakes gelatin, 1 tablespoon has 40 calories, 0 carbs and 11g of protein.

If you are just make the drinks you will get about 6 drinks from this batch and each one will have roughly less than 70 calories and no carbs.

If you use the whole batch for just shots you will use 4 tablespoons of gelatin and 2 cups of rum to make 80 shots and each one roughly 16 calories and no carbs.

If you are interested, here is a link to all ingredients for this low carb recipe.