Post #409491 by Austin_Tiki on Tue, Sep 23, 2008 7:29 AM

I only own a few tiki drink books, but Sippin' Safari is BY FAR my favorite. It has great drink recipes and wonderful text and graphics. The book is a true tiki masterpiece. I absolutely need to get copies of "Grog Log" and "Intoxica."

The Trader Vic's Revised BG is pretty good, but a large portion of the recipes are redundant and some of the most important recipes (Navy Grog, Tiki Puka-Puka) call for commercial syrup. No bueno. That said, it's my second favorite book and it's also good for just regular vintage cocktail recipes.

I own the Don the Beachcomber book written by his widow's new husband. Frankly, it's confusing and poorly edited. Also, many of the recipes call for ingredients that aren't readily available. I haven't even gotten around to making more than one or two of the drinks in the book.

Atomic Cocktails is a good, non-tiki-specific vintage cocktail book. But it's better for the aesthetic than the recipes.

I have two of the Shag-themed party books, including "Tiki Drinks." But those are, again, better for the aesthetic than the recipes.

The others I have are cheapo generic "Tropical Drinks" recipe books. They look good on the shelf, but I never use them for drink recipes.