TIKI CULTURE

The Tropical Swing - Your Weekend Tiki Bar Cocktail

There was an interesting show on the tube last night about the history of Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. It prompted me to take a gander at Jack’s website, where I found a few decent drink recipes incorporating the sweet booze bottled at America’s oldest registered distillery. Of course the one that had both the words “Tropical” and “Swing” in it caught my attention!

The Tropical Swing

The Tropical Swing

1 oz of Gentleman Jack Rare Tennessee Whiskey
1 oz simple syrup
½ oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz of pineapple juice
Shake ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a large rocks glass over the rocks. Garnish with a cherry.

-Tiki Chris P reporting from behind the bar at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

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.

It’s International Exotic Cocktail Day! (Plus your weekend drink, the Mai Tai)

(Aloha! This is the post from 2010. 2011’s International Exotic Cocktail Day is set for October 7. Check out the Facebook Page for more info and updates, and cheers!)

It’s here - the day we’ve all been waiting for - International Exotic Cocktail Day! So come on in swingers, pull up a drink and get fabulous!*

We’ll be celebrating at the Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale tonight. They don’t know it yet, but they are about to become the world’s starting gate for the event. Who knows, maybe in 20 years it will be something else they are known for!.

So wherever you are kids, grab a drink, mix a drink, make a virgin drink if you’re too young or on the wagon, and toast to the wonderful life full of Tiki and retro fun stuff that we’re all so luck to be hip to.

Cent’Anni! Cheers, and Mahalos to you all!

-Tiki Chris

*I stole that line from Futurama.

Your Weekend Cocktail: The Mai Tai

In honor of the day, I thought it appropriate to feature the drink that started it all, the Mai Tai. Depending on who you talk to it was created by either Don the Beachcomber or Trader Vic in the 1930s or 1940s. I’ve done extensive research on the subject (translation: I looked at a couple of websites) and have found that the Beachbum Berry is probably the most reliable source, and he says it was Don the Beachcomber, so I’m going with that. Check out BB’s page on the subject at BeachBumBerry.com.

Here’s the classic DTB recipe, updated for modern availability:

•    1 oz Rhum Clément VSOP Martinique rum
•    1 oz Appleton Estate Extra dark Jamaican rum
•    1 oz fresh lime juice
•    1/2 oz Orange Curacao.
•    1/4 oz Simple Syrup.
•    1/2 oz Orgeat Syrup

Add to a shaker with crushed ice and shake it up, baby. Pour over rocks in a Tiki mug or Old Fashioned glass and garnish with mint sprig, so that you sense the mint as you take in the drink. An umbrella is mandatory, unless you have a fresh tropical flower to replace.

Make no mistake, this is the REAL Mai Tai. Anything with pineapple juice, anything red, anything that tastes sweet and sticky is not a Mai Tai, although lesser bars will try to pass off these concoctions to you. Insist on the best, or make it yourself!

Aloha!

Banana Sling - New Tiki Drink Recipe at The Tiki Bar!

Aloha Tiki friends, I concocted a kookie new drink recipe tonight that I think you swingers will enjoy. Behold,

THE BANANA SLING

You probably think this is going to be sweet and gooey. It is not. We’re talking about some complexity that I didn’t expect when I started throwing stuff together. What you’ve got is a rum and fruit juice drink with a hint of banana. Read on…

2 oz Sailor Jerry spiced rum
1 oz Amaretto
1/3 oz Banana liquor
3 oz Orange Juice
1 oz Pineapple Juice

I built it all in a shaker, in the order you see here, then shook it up real good with ice, poured in a TALL Tiki mug over ice cubes and served it up. I didn’t have anything to garnish with, but I think a nice wedge of pineapple and a slice of orange would have been perfect. (Make sure you don’t over do it with the banana. You might want to add it in a little at a time, too much will make this drink taste like a pie).

The taste was unexpectedly strong, not sweet. The high-proof rum had a lot to do with that, and balanced out the amaretto very nicely. The fruit juices finished it off, and you get just a hint of banana as an aftertaste. Definitely sweeter than a zombie or mai tai, but not syrupy or sugary. Plus two of these will knock you on your ass. Good stuff for sitting at the Tiki Bar…just don’t try to walk afterwards…