Post #306791 by PremEx on Wed, May 16, 2007 2:39 PM

I just finished watching the latest TikiBarTV episode..."Blue Hawaiian"...which got me recollecting my younger days at many Waikiki bars and nightclubs, as well as many others throughout the islands.

Back in the 1970's at least, almost every bartender in Hawaii would cringe if anyone ordered a "Blue Hawaiian." Their standard humorous bartender response all over Hawaii was...

"The only Blue Hawaiian is a dead Hawaiian! It's called the Blue Hawaii!!!" :)

So, I saw the TikiBarTV episode using "Hawaiian" and came here to see what the conventional wisdom was these days. Which seems to be a little more gray than blue. :wink:

But my memory is very clear on this...at that time at least...there was no such thing as a "Blue Hawaiian" cocktail, except in mis-prints or uninformed bar patrons. Bartenders back then used to joke about it regularly and say things like, "If one more haole calls it a Blue 'Hawaiian' tonight...I'm gonna..." :)

Anyway...can't tell you how many times I heard bartenders correct the tourists on this, while I was lounging away an afternoon on some beachfront barstool. One of those bartenders very well might have been Harry Yee himself...as I was a regular at the Hilton Hawaiian Village back then. And I very much remember a friendly and funny bartender named "Harry" that was there all the time. If it was him (and I suspect it was)...I had no idea back then that I was being served by such a cocktail legend!