TIKI CULTURE

Celebrate National Rum Day!

Today, August 16th is National Rum Day. Now, I’m not exactly sure why it’s National Rum Day. As a matter of fact, after extensive research I can’t find anyone claiming this holiday, how it got started or why it exists. But who cares? It’s a great excuse to imbibe our favorite Tiki Cocktails made with the spirits of the Caribbean!

Here’s the link to Tiki Lounge Talk’s Exotic Cocktails page, most of which are made with rum.

And here’s a link to International Exotic Cocktail Day, which is coming up fast!

Aloha & Mahalos from the Tiki Bar!
-Tiki Chris P.

BTW: There’s a lot of rum getting slurped down in Murder on Tiki Island!

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.

A day off, and your weekend Tiki Cocktail: The Tropical Sunrise

Tropical Sunrise

It’s been a rough week, kids…no doubt you saw there was no Mod Movie Monday this week. Been crazy-bizy with work (good), writing (better), and of course, drinking exotic cocktails (best). I’m racing to get Murder on Tiki Island finished for the April 30th debut, and it’s taking a lot out of me. So I took the day off from work, have been doing some writing, and will begin drinking those exotic cocktails any minute!

Here’s a fun and easy on that tastes great at any Tiki bar or poolside cabana. The Islanders’ answer to the Tequila Sunrise, here’s…

The Tropical Sunrise

In a shaker, combine:
crushed ice
2 shots spiced rum
1 shot triple sec
2 shots orange juice
2 shots pineapple juice
Grenadine

And shake, baby, shake! Strain into a tall glass filled with ice, drizzle with grenadine and garnish with orange slices, a pineapple wedge and a cherry. Preferably on one of those little plastic swords. You ever see the drink swords at the Mai Kai? They’re HUGE! I think they must have them special-made, cuz I ain’t seem em anyplace else that big. Anyway, there’s you drink…cheers!

-Tiki Chris P reporting from behind the bar at Tiki Lounge Talk, the Blounge for Tiki and Retro Lovers around the world. Come and visit me and my lovely wife Colleen at The Hukilau 2011, here in fabulous Fort Lauderdale, June 9-12!

Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: Walk The Plank

This weekend we’ve got TWO (yes, TWO!) Tiki Bar Cocktails for you!

I recently had a request for something easy, to take the sting off a bad hockey game. Well, this is easy, strong, velvety and is potent enough to take the sting offa anything. So here is a pirate favorite,

Walk The Plank

Pour 1/2 shot each of:

Dark Rum
Spiced Rum
Frangelico
Kahlua

straight from the bottle into a shot glass, and slam it down. Yikes! Or, you can sip it…it’s nice and smooth. A variation is to pour it over the rocks and stir with some half and half…a sort of a souped-up Kahlua and cream. Nice.

The second drink comes from the headlines. Not that I give a damn about what’s going on in Hollywood, but you have to admit this whole Charlie Sheen thing is funny as hell (Have you seen his “cooking show” on Funny or Die?). My first thought was there needs to be a Tiger Blood cocktail. But, unfortunately, a sushi joint in NYC beat me to the punch with their own “Tiger’s Blood” cocktail. Thing is, this saki and wasabi abomination has no place on a Tiki bar. So, I asked the Tikitastic people that hang out at Facebook’s Retro Tiki Lounge to come up with a better recipe. Didn’t get many; Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid suggested that it should contain Indian whiskey, you know, because of Indian Tigers. My lovely wife Colleen suggested citrus vodka, blood orange juice, club soda and lime…a great combination, but hey, she’s my wife, so she couldn’t win the little contest.

So, the winner is Robert Millar, who came up with:

The Tiger’s Blood Cocktail

1 shot Benedictine
1 shot Brandy
1 shot Chambord

Sounds good to me! I didn’t have the Benedictine so I couldn’t try it out, but it’s better than a cocktail that includes soy sauce so, Congrats, Robert! You get your Tiger’s Blood Cocktail recipe here on TLT!

-Tiki Chris P. reporting from behind the bar at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Lounge, the Blounge of South Florida.

Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: The Scorpion Bowl

Tiki Farm Volcano Bowl, on my personal Tiki Bar. No booze in it...yet...

When people ask me, and they do ask me, when they say, “Hey, Tiki Chris, what drinks are the ‘most Tiki’?”, I say, “Well, Tiki friend, three drinks come to mind. The Mai Tai, The Zombie, and The Scorpion Bowl, ya dig?”

Ok, people don’t refer to me as “Tiki Chris” all that much, and I don’t actually say “ya dig” as much as I sling it around on here, but you get the point. To me, and many others, those are the Big Three of the Tiki Bar menu, The Scorpion being the stingy-est, biggest of them all. Not the easiest concoction to concoct, it sure is a lot of fun when you’ve got three chicks sipping it out of a Volcano bowl with you.

The Scorpion Bowl: The Exotic Cocktail To Die For

Typical Scorpion Bowl

8 ounces of silver Rum (personally I prefer dark rum, and it gives this concoction a richer taste)
4 ounces Brandy (used something decent, not that $11 a bottle junk!)
8 ounces of orange juice (fresh squeezed is best)
4 ounces of lemon juice (you can add a little more if you want it more tart)
3 ounces orgeat syrup
2 cups of crushed ice (plus extra cubes)

Mix up everything except the ice in a big bowl, bucket, tub, whirlpool, whatever you’ve got. Toss the crushed ice in a blender for a few seconds, and add about half to your Scorpion or Volcano Bowl. Fill with the booze, add in a few cubes. Garnish with floating flowers and use those long-assed straws to drink it up. This big bowl-o-rama is best enjoyed with a couple of hip friends, some Martin Denny playing on the hi-fi, and candlelight or Tiki torches.

You’ll have to keep tasting this stuff before you pour it in for you guests, as the balance can be tricky. Too much orgeat syrup and it will be overly sweet. Too much lemon and you’ll pucker up like a duck. Fresh juices make a much better, more authentic-tasting drink (always) and will impress your friends. If you have a Volcano Bowl, add an ounce of 151 Rum to the volcano and light it up!

I got the idea for this week’s post from perusing the blog of Let’s Tiki, run by my pal Damon. He’s got a great Tiki site, with tons of info on drinks, Tiki bars, Tiki news, art, you name it, if it’s Tiki, he’s got it. Check out his in-depth post on The Scorpion here.

-Tiki Chris reporting from behind the Tiki Bar at Pirate’s Cove, the official Tiki Lounge of Tiki Lounge Talk.