TIKI CULTURE

Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: Don the Beachcomber’s Navy Grog

Imagine yourself sitting on a beautiful, white-sand beach, the Pacific Ocean in front of you, majestic black mountains behind you, a pretty native girl laying in the sand next to you wearing a grass skirt and flower leis, and assorted cases of exotic rums strewn across the beach, washed up from a pirate wreck, there for the taking. What’s a person to do? How about mixing up a big pitcher of

Don the Beachcomber’s Navy Grog

As far as I can find through my limited (and alcohol enhanced) research, Don concocted this cocktail around 1941. A little simpler than drinks like the Zombie, it’s easy to make, tastes good and will knock you on your ass. (Supposedly he limited his customers to two of these strong-arse drinks).

Here’s the scoop:

1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum (Bacardi Silver, Meyers White)
1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum (Myers Dark, Coruba Dark, Appleton Estate)
1 oz Demerara Rum
3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
3/4 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
3/4 oz Honey, warmed
Club Soda

Shake everything but the soda up in a shaker and strain over rocks in a tall Tiki mug. Top it off with the soda and give it a quick stir with an appropriate swizzle stick (a flamingo, Tiki head, or something vintage. Don’t be lazy and use one of those plain plastic ones with the little ball on the end and nothing else). Garnish this masterpiece with a combination of lime, pineapple and cherry on a sword, and if you can, add an orchid. Fantabulous, man! Make sure you set up one for your half-naked Hula goddess laying next to you. (Hey, we can dream, can’t we?)

-Aloha from Tiki Chris, reporting from a little island somewhere in the Pacific surrounded by rum and pretty Hula girls. Tiki Lounge Talk, where your Tiki fantasies come true. Or at least sound like they do. You know what I mean.