TIKI CULTURE

The Jet Pilot - Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail!

Jet Pilot at The Mai-Kai

It may be hard to believe, but I had my first Jet Pilot cocktail at the Mai Kai last week. Lemme tell ya, that is one strong drink. Even the Matre ‘d thought I was crazy. But it’s a good one, no doubt about it kids.

There are a lot of screwed-up versions of this original Tiki Bar drink out there, using odd stuff like Bacardi Limon (yeah, that’s real authentic), but I found Beach Bum Berry’s recipe which is probably as close to (or exactly like) the original drink concocted by Don Beach 60+ years ago, during the heyday of jets and Tiki bars…

•    1/2 oz lime juice
•    1/2 oz grapefruit juice
•    1/2 oz cinnamon syrup
•    1/2 oz falernum (make your own falernum)
•    1 dash Angostura bitters
•    1 oz dark Jamaican rum
•    3/4 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
•    3/4 oz 151-Proof Lemon Hart Demerara Rum
•    6 drops Pernod
•    4 oz crushed ice
Throw everything into a blender, adding crushed ice last, and blend at high speed for five seconds. Pour into an old-fashioned glass. The Mai-Kai garnishes with a chunk of fresh pineapple speared on a sword. Works for me.

It’s stuff like”Pernod” and “Falernum” that makes a Tiki Lounge drink a Tiki Lounge drink. Most people don’t even know what that stuff is, and most bars won’t bother to carry it. But I guarantee you, making this drink yourself is well worth the effort. Mix it up, take a swing and TAKE OFF! (insert vintage jet-plane sound hear)

-Tiki Chris P. reporting from the garden terrace at The Mai-Kai, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

JUST ADDED:

One of my Twitter friends sent me this groovy recipe for Falernum. You can buy it, but it’s more fun and will taste a lot better if you make it yourself. Visit the Post Prohibition website for the recipe.

It’s time for The Hukilau 2011!

Me, our friend Molly and my wife Colleen at the Mai Kai during The Hukilau 2010. I think that was Mai Tai number six.

That’s right kids, the big event is happening THIS WEEK…and it’s the 10th anniversary of The Hukilau, too!

PROOF that SoCal doesn’t have the monopoly on the koolest of koolness. The Hukilau in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is the east coast answer to the Tiki revival!

This year promises to be a truly swingin’ event, with more music, art, drinks and fun than ever. Wahini Colleeni and I have booked a room at the Bahia Mar, where much of the action is taking place, so we can have ALL the fun! So if any of you reading this are making it down to Fort Lauderdale this weekend, look for us!

Some of the highlights of this year’s Hukilau include:

• A “Rumposium” by cocktail-slinger extraordinaire Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, held at the world famous Mai-Kai
• The Tiki Treasure Bazaar featuring 40 of the koolest Tiki and Vintage sellers around
• TONS of entertainment including performances by The Intoxicators!, The Tikiyaki Orchestra, Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid, Grinder Nova, The Exotics, The Fishermen, DJ’s Lounge Laura Taylor & Drew Farmer, DJ’s Jack Fetterman and Gina of the Jungle and more all emceed by our old pal King Kukulele.
• Appearances/symposiums by Ian Burrell, Martin Cate, Wayne Curtis, Stephen Remsberg, Kevin Kidney & Jody Daily, Dick Dale, Vintage Roadside’s “Beautiful Girls That Live Like Fish!”, Paul Roe’s “Hawaii - Sailors, Sex and the Birth of Old School Tattoos”, Harold Golen Gallery of Miami and more
• The Hukilau Master Mixologist Challenge
• PARTIES PARTIES PARTIES
• And maybe a few surprises…

Stolen Idols at The Hukilau 2010

The Mai-Kai dinner show and some of the symposiums are already sold out, but there’s still plenty of elbow room at the parties. For a complete line up of entertainment and the schedule, visit The Hukilau website.

Aloha kids, see you in Fort Lauderdale!

-Tiki Chris reporting from the beach in front of the Yankee Clipper, Fort Lauderdale

The Hurricane - Your Tiki Bar Exotic Cocktail for the Weekend

June 1st kicked off Hurricane Season here in Sunny South Florida. That can be very scary if you’ve lived through a hurricane. However, if you drink enough rum, you can get through anything.

Such was the case at Pat O’Brien’s in the late 1940s. Forced to buy extra cases of rum in order to get his whiskey orders filled, Pat (I guess) found himself surrounded by the stuff, and needed a way to dump it without losing his shirt. So he (or someone there) invented

The Hurricane Cocktail.

Now, as it is with most exotic cocktails, the original recipe has been twisted and bastardized until it’s something completely different. I even found a recipe using ‘almond syrup’. I think they got a half-assed Mai Tai recipe confused with a Hurricane. Anyway, I even checked out O’Brien’s site…lotta good that did…their recipe says to mix rum with O’Brien’s Hurricane mix. Yeah. Thanks.

So here’s the recipe that seemed like it would be close to something made during the golden age of drinking. It’s complex but not too complicated. It sounds like it would taste good. And it has two kinds of rum, thus perpetuating the “I came up with this concoction to get rid of all this damned rum” story.

• 2 oz light rum (try Meyers Silver)
• 2 oz dark rum (Try Meyers Dark or Appleton Estate)
• 2 oz passion fruit juice
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1 Tbsp simple syrup
• 1 Tbsp grenadine
• juice of one half lime
• orange slice and cherry for garnish

Throw everything into a shaker with ice, then squeeze in the lime. Shake it up real good and strain into a chilled hurricane glass. Garnish with the orange and cherry and a little paper umbrella.

You could make a frozen one by blending with ice until smooth, if you want to add that ’80s feel to your party.

Enjoy your Hurricane, and let’s hope there aren’t any real Hurricanes this year, ok? Kool.

-Tiki Chris P. reporting from the Hurricane shelter in the garage at Tiki Lounge Talk.

Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: Lots of Rum, and a fun video

Sometimes just throwing together some stuff can be a really good thing. This week we are featuring a rum drink that came about by literally throwing five rums together with coke and lime. There’s probably a drink out there with the same ingredients, but I’ve already had two of these so I’m making up a name myself, which alzo acounts for any typos, dammit…

Five Rums Named Moe

Get it? Like the old song? Ok, anyway, I came up with this because I have been building a nice collection of rums over the last year, and was too lazy to mix something difficult this afternooon. Soooo, here’s what I did…

1/2 oz each of:

Seven Tiki Rum
Eldorado Dememara Rum
Appleton Estate
Meyers Dark
Ten Cane

Throw all the rum together in a shaker with ice and shakkkke. strain ovEr rice in a large Tiki mug, and fill with Coke. Thenn add about 2-3 teasppons of fresh lime juice an stir. MMMm. Strong stufff.

I’m sure some of yoos guys will want to play around with the amounts of each rum to get the flavor just right. Me, I just want to go float in the pool. Somebody bring me some sunshine…

Bring Me Sunshine
by The Jive Aces with Ian Clarkson on vocals (and Ukulele)

If this video doesn’t make you smile, Jack you’re dead.

I would also like to thank Kelly Camille Patterson of The Velveteen Kitsch-en for the kookie cocktail stirrers. They’re tops! Look for a fun post on this crazy chick next week.

Have a Great Memorial Day Weekend! And to all the soldiers who are being remembered on this weekend, I tip my hat to you, where ever you are.

-Tiki Chris reporting from poolside at Tiki Island Resort

The Mai-Kai’s Barrel O’ Rum: Your Weekend Tiki Bar Drink!

We’re heading to the Mai-Kai tonight for The Hukilau kickoff party. It’s a hell of a kickoff when it happens three weeks before the actual event, huh? Anyhoo, since the Barrel O’ Rum is one of everyone’s favorites, and it’s pretty simple to make as far as Tiki/exotic cocktails go, I figured I’d feature it this week! Here’s the recipe that I found that seems to mimic the Mai-Kai’s recipe…

The Barrel O’ Rum

• 2 oz good Silver rum (I like Meyers Silver, or even 10-Cane, which is a little different)
• 2 oz Appleton Estate rum
• 2 oz fresh-squeezed Lime juice
• 2 oz fresh-squeezed Orange juice
• 2 oz fresh-squeezed Grapefruit juice
• 2 oz Passion fruit syrup
• About a teaspoon honey
• splash of soda
• A few dashes Angostura bitters
• Ice

Colleen & I at the Mai Kai

Throw everything together in a blender and blend for 5 seconds, then pour it into the barrel. Goooood stuff!

The Rum Barrel is also going to be the featured drink at this year’s Hukilau’s Master Mixologist Cocktail Challenge. Contestants get to devise a better barrel. I hear the competition is going to be pretty heavy, so if you’re going, make sure you check it out poolside at Bahia Cabana. See Hurricane Hayward’s post at Atomic Grog for more info!

-Tiki Chris P, reporting from the Molokai Bar at The Mai-Kai, Fort Lauderdale (well, OK, not yet, but I will be soon)