Post #376694 by TorchGuy on Mon, Apr 28, 2008 6:22 AM

I gotta say, I love cocktail parasols. And tacky or not, tiki or not, they look festive and tropical. I understand why they're seen as cheesy, but I can see, at the same time, both the reason why others see them this way, and my own view of them as undeniably fun.

Now, me personally, I think there are two things that top a paper parasol or umbrella. One is a "lantern" - these are built just like umbrellas and are nearly identical, save that they have have two paper cones end-to-end. Push up and, instead of forming an open-bottomed parasol, it opens into a closed lantern form. These are available in the same bright colors as regular parasolss.

Even better is a hanging lantern variant. They have the same lantern as above, but hanging on a short thread from the end of a long wood skewer, its end curved slightly. And believe it or not, this cooler of the two styles (mainly because I've seen it in vintage menus, but only rarely) is the one I can still buy - from Oriental Trading Co. A gross (144, I believe) is but a few bucks - that'll last anyone a while.

Me being a tiki torch nut, I can see modifying the simpler on-a-stick lantern into a torch by spot-gluing a scrap of orange tissue paper to the little white knob on top, and maybe blackening the knob slightly first.

Incidentally, I wonder if there's a drink called a Chinese Lantern? (This isn't the thread for it, but I'll bet there's one called a Tiki Torch...)