Post #223056 by thejab on Sat, Mar 25, 2006 2:15 PM

They've made some welcome changes at the Kona Club. Some special tropical drinks are available. There are about a dozen or so, plus 2 bowl drinks. There is no printed drink menu yet but the bartenders will show you their recipe sheet. Included are the Knockout Punch by yours truly and Kick_the_reverb's Reverb Crash.

Now, here are my criticisms. Unfortunately, they altered some of the original recipes. I'm not sure if they did this to make them easier to make, or because they did tastings and liked them better. I was particalarly disappointed that they changed the recipes for the Blackbeard's Ghost (which didn't taste nearly as good as the real thing) and Don the Beachcomber's Zombie (which cannot be called a zombie at all because it's too weak). I plan on bringing the real recipes for these in next time so I can have them make them properly. I think if you want to offer a zombie then it better be strong and you should charge accordingly ($10 or more). My Knockout Punch recipe calls for passion fruit syrup but they have passion fruit juice so they should have increased the amount quite a bit. Also, I wish they were a little more careful with drink consistency: they should measure more carefully instead of eyeballing it, especially when adding small quantities of ingredients.

Enough of my drink complaints. All in all, the drink menu has some great drinks on it. Some of their own inventions look very tasty. They have far more rums now including Myers's Platinum in the well, Velvet Falernum, Trader Vic's and Fee Brothers orgeats, passion fruit and guava juices. I showed them how to make as close to a proper Mai Tai as possible, and they did a great tasting one with Appleton Estate, Orinoco rum (Rhum St. James has been ordered), Cointreau (no curacao still!), fresh lime, and orgeat. The house "Mai Tai" is still made with pineapple but with guava added so it's probably a tasty drink even if it's not a Mai Tai.

In addition, there is far more stuff on the walls now, mostly artworks, and all very appropriate for a classic tiki bar (in other words, sticking to Polynesia and not verging into caribbean or other themes). I think they added some hanging lamps - it seems like there were more this time.

And they put the new Martin Denny compilation on the jukebox.

WWJD? Go to the Kona again!