Post #442226 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 2:47 PM

Please let me assure you that I never aimed to tell anyone how they should enjoy their drink, I just like to theorize about forgotten traditions --and what this "forgetting" might entail --and to share MY personally favored way of indulging in these traditions.

And please, read the whole thread before responding, this is not a "Straw vs. Stirrer" thread. Or is it? The fact that the 5" short, thin cocktail straw is equaled with the stirrer by so many folks now points at the heart of the problem: Because they are called stirrers nowadays, folks take them as only that. Here is an interesting link to a professional bar supply company that offers them as bar straws --while they are labeled as stirrers!:
http://www.kegworks.com/product.php?productid=16774&cat=314&page=1

This is how the "forgetting" happens. And every little forgotten detail MIGHT have had an effect (like in this case on the quality of the drink experience, which then had an effect on Tiki culture) ...even if it is just a straw in a haystack :)

I took Cheekytiki's cue and looked up some cocktail history, which I had foolishly neglected so far...

On 2009-03-22 08:13, cheekytiki wrote:
Also do we know for sure that back in the Heyday of Polynesian Drinks that there was any other choice of straw to be had?

....and came up with some interesting findings:

Of course, we have to start with the forefather, Donn Beach himself:

These menu illustrations, probably from the 30s, sport yellow straws, which could mean they originally were the real thing: Made from straw! So their thickness probably varied. While they do not look AS thin as the short cocktail straw I favor for my Mai Tai, they DO look thinner than today's common party straws.

And how about this old postcard:

The Zombie didn't have a straw? And the Pi Yi and the above Coconut had TWO! the reason for this might have been that if one straw got clogged with fruit meat matter, one still would work. But then, the Tahitian Rum Punch: TWO straws, very thin, and colored...

This is all conjecture, of course, and drawings are not very precise study material, so I searched for photos. This late 40s picture of some happy Hollywood types at Don's is of such bad print quality, it is hard to tell the diameter of the straws:

So back to illustrations, now during Tiki's heyday. Here is half a menu page from the Hawaiian Village Florida:

What a shock! The double straw set up dominates, albeit with somewhat-thinner-than-today's straws. So the sucker's "payload" might have equaled the party straw's. But Halt! This actually seems like the perfect way to satisfy the wants of the two different type of imbibers:
The lushes and "more is better" crowd could suck them down with TWO straws, while the cautious connoisseurs (moi) could use only ONE for their hummingbird-like sipping and savoring. Cocktail democracy! (The stripes on the straws could mean that these were the now discontinued PAPER straws)

Last not least, a photo page from Stephen Crane's Kon-Tiki menu (both of the above from "Tiki Modern"):

Clearly plastic straws, the double straw being the favored set up for bowl-type drinks. The pineapple has an extra thick one, for that chunky fruit meat. I still maintain that the straws here are slightly thinner than today's, and would have chosen only one for me --and one for my company to taste test. :)

(And now if anybody comes along again and says " I cannot believe that someone spends so much time and goes into this much detail about..." they are missing the whole point of Tiki archeology, and the humor inherent in it! :D )

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-03-24 17:42 ]