TIKI CULTURE

Dark ’n’ Stormy: Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail, and A Flash of Noir

The Dark 'n' Stormy

This weekend I’m officially announcing the latest tome to my collection of books, A Flash of Noir. To go with it, I needed a noir-style cocktail…and what could be more noir than a classic

Dark and Stormy

Trademarked by Gosling’s in Bermuda, the Dark & Stormy uses Gosling’s Black Seal dark rum and ginger beer. It was invented just after WWI, and was a favorite among American sailors who picked it up in the Caribbean. A strong and simple to make tropical drink, it is certainly at home on any Tiki bar.

•    2 oz Gosling’s Black Seal rum
•    3 oz ginger beer
•    lime wedge

Pour the dark rum over ice in a highball glass or Tiki mug, then add the ginger beer. Stir lightly with a glass rod and add the lime wedge for garnish. Don’t squeeze the whole lime wedge in…taste it first, and add a little at a time until it’s the way you dig it.

Annnd…fade to black, bring up sepia lights to

A Flash of Noir

Just before you mix your Dark and Stormy, get out your Kindle (or iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC) and go to A Flash of Noir at the Kindle store. There you can download my latest book, A Flash of Noir for only 99¢! By the time you finish mixing the drink, the download will be complete and you can begin to read while you sip.

A Flash of Noir - Kindle version

Yes, only 99¢

…for 30+ short, short stories, flash fiction, beatnik poetry and kool photos, all authored by yours truly, Tiki Chris Pinto (or as I’m known on my author page, Christopher Pinto). It’s jam-packed with kool 60-second reads full of gumshoe detectives, sultry dames, ghosts, murderers, and monsters. There’s even a story made entirely of song titles…see if you can find them all!

From the book’s description: “From smokey bars in New York City to the tropical islands of the Florida keys, A Flash of Noir takes you for a spin through the seediest gin joints and darkest alleys. One minute you’re speeding down I-95 in a hot rod, the next you’re tasting cheap whiskey in a basement tap room where the women are heartless and the men are unforgiving. Gangsters, cops, private eyes, strippers, murderers, phantoms…plus a few comedy pieces to keep you from wanting to slit your wrists.”

A Flash of Noir - Print version coming soon. Cover model is Colleen Pinto.

Why only 99¢? Well, I can tell you it’s worth a lot more, entertainment-wise. But I’m hoping that a lot of you will give it a shot for a buck. If you dig it, I hope you’ll download one of my other books, Murder Behind the Closet Door: The Wildwood Paranormal Mystery or Murder on Tiki Island: A Noir Paranormal Mystery in the Florida Keys…and if you dig those, I hope you’ll tell your friends so they get em too. The idea is to become rich and famous. Ain’t that what most of us want?

I just realized…it’s beginning to thunder and lightning here at the Tiki Bar. Perfect for a Dark & Stormy!

– Tiki Chris reporting from the library at Tiki Lounge Talk, the Blounge for swingin’ retro kats and hip chicks.

Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven

Here’s a easy one to mix up quick at the Tiki bar. It looks pretty and the chicks really dig it.

My Blue Heaven

1 oz Silver Rum
1 oz Blue Curacao
1 oz Coconut Creme
2 oz Pineapple Juice

Easy method:
Put everything in a shaker and shake it up real nice with ice, until the shaker gets frosty. Pour it over the rocks in a Tiki mug and garnish with a piece of pineapple, and if you have it, a blueberry.

Difficult method:
Go to the music shop and buy a book on how to play saxophone. Learn to play the saxophone. Buy sheet music to My Blue Heaven, and record it with a couple of jazzing’ cats to a swing beat. Set up a record deal with a major jazz label and have the recording distributed. When it reaches the top of the charts, have it pressed in vinyl as a collector’s piece.

Buy a high end hi-fi turntable. Set it up at your Tiki Bar and put the record on. Follow directions above.

MMM, good stuff.

-Tiki Chris reporting from the bar at Tiki Lounge Talk

Spicy Piña Colada: Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail, and Cocktail Nation

How about something frozen on this hot, South Florida day?

As the Mai Tai is without question the quintessential Tiki Cocktail, the Piña Colada is without doubt the most famous and best-loved Tropical drink. Welcome anyplace on the globe where palm trees and thatch are present, the Piña Colada is at equally at home at the Tiki bar or on a Mexican playa.

From Shag’s Tiki Drink Deck, here is the

Spicy Piña Colada

1 1/2 oz. spiced rum (I prefer Sailor Jerry’s)
1 1/2 oz. creme de coconut
2 oz. pineapple juice
2 oz. pineapple chunks
splash of cream
151 rum

Blend everything except the 151 in a blender with ice until smooth. Pour into a hurricane glass, top with about a tablespoon of 151 and garnish with a cherry, pineapple wedge, orange slice and a little umbrella. It’s nothing without the umbrella. Sit in your favorite deck chair pointed at the ocean and enjoy!

Shag's Tiki Drinks Deck

Cocktail Nation

So, as I riffed about in my last post, Koop Kooper of Cocktail Nation kindly interviewed me for my newest retro-tastic novel, Murder on Tiki Island. The vintage music podcast is now available at CocktailNation.net (click the link to listen now!) The show is, as always, great, kicking off with a Diana Krall tune and filled with great music and retro koolness. You can catch Koop’s podcast every week, with new-old tunes a’plenty.

For info on Murder on Tiki Island by Tiki Chris Pinto, visit the Star Dust Mysteries Publishing website at StardustMysteries.com.

-Tiki Chris reporting from the lanai at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, Florida

Queen’s Park Swizzle - Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail!

Queen's Park Swizzle

Came across this over the weekend and thought it sounded pretty good. This drink is basically a Mojito made with dark rum in place of silver. But what really makes it cool is the whole thing about the “swizzle”.

Queen’s Park Swizzle

That strange-looking stick with the star pattern end sitting next to the cocktail…that’s what makes this cocktail so much fun. It is, in fact, a Swizzle Stick. Not the plastic goodies we’re used with Tiki heads and the name of the bar imprinted along the side, but an actual branch of a (get this) Swizzlestick Tree (Quararibea turbinata) which grows on islands in the Caribbean. I kid you not. The branches branch out in a sort of star pattern, and the pirates and islanders found it a great tool for stirring up rum and mixers in a whole new way. You basically add the ingredients into the glass, then “swizzle” them by placing the swizzle stick into the glass and spinning it left to right as fast as possible, kind of the same way boy scouts use a stick to start a fire. Pretty neat. Here’s the recipe…

3 oz. 80-proof Demerara rum
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
8 to 10 mint leaves
Crushed ice
Garnish: mint sprig, squeezed-out lime shell

Ok, now start out by putting the mint leaves in a highball glass, and use a muddler or spoon crush slightly, then o guide mint leaves up the sides of the glass. The idea is to coat the sides of the glass with the mint oil. Add remaining ingredients and fill with crushed ice. If you don’t have a real swizzlestick branch, use barspoon to swizzle—gently twirl the spoon between the palms of your hands, moving up and down the glass—until frost forms on the outside of the glass. Top off with ice, and if you want the pretty color float a tiny amount of grenadine off the back of a spoon. Garnish with the mint spring and enjoy life.

I’m sure you carvers and engineering types out there could easily make your own swizzlestick. I’ve heard it’s damned near impossible to find them outside of the Caribbean, so maybe this could be a biz op for you. Maybe carve them out of Monkey Pod.

Cheers, kids! Catch you on the flipside!

-Tiki Chris reporting from Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, just off the Caribbean Sea in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Happy 4th of July and your Weekend Cocktail from Tiki Lounge Talk!

Let freedom ring-a-ding-ding, baby!

Hope you kool kats & kittens are getting your kicks on this bangin’ 3-day weekend. Here’s a little something to help you get in the mood…

Fourth of July Cocktail

Invented by Thomas Jefferson and enjoyed by the founding fathers at the post-signing of the declaration party, this kookie concoction will have you singing I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy by the third sip.

• 1 ounce watermelon schnapps (Good luck finding that)
• 1 big splash cranberry juice
• 1 very thin slice jalapeno or serrano pepper
• 1 slice lemon
• 1 slice lime
• 1 1/2 ounces tequila
• 1/4 ounce blue curacao
• 1/2 ounce simple syrup
• Watermelon wedge, for garnish (optional)

Shake up the schnapps and cranberry juice in a shaker; pour into an ice-filled glass.

Muddle the jalapeno pepper, lemon and lime slices, tequila, blue curacao and simple syrup in the shaker. Slowly strain into the glass over the red layer. Garnish with watermelon and a little American Flag and let’er rip!

A NOTE ON FIREWORKS

Here in south Florida, unlike that crumby state I used to live in, it’s perfectly legal to set off fireworks in your driveway. Now, I don’t mean just sparklers and cherry bombs, I mean honest-to-God, Chinese high-flying fireworks. As long as you have a Florida ID you can buy them at specialty stores down here, and set them off skyrocketing over your neighbors’ houses. Each year several people on our block do this, so by 10pm the streets are so full of smoke you can’t see. It’s great. The smell of sulfur and cordite lingers for days. But the best part is looking up at the sky from your front yard and seeing real fireworks bust over your head. Just wanted you kids in the states with stupid, unbearably infringing laws to see what you were missing

-Happy Independence Day from Tiki Chris, reporting from the launch deck at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, Florida