Post #562554 by Fritiof Andersson on Sat, Oct 30, 2010 12:31 PM

The Swedish American Line travelled Gothenburg-NY and off-season made cruises to Caribbean Islands, South America and even the Pacific Ocean. This was luxury ships, specially before WW2, and of course they had a well equipped cocktail bar on board. These cruises when't on into the 70's. The earliest cruisers were Art Deco floating temples, while the later more modernist styles is bound to excite most tikiphiles. Wood-carvings with tropical themes (including the moneky with fez icon), a deck with rattan furniture etc. But is it tiki? Probably not, but so close and with so much related goodies that it is well worth researching. There are books, websites etc about these boats, mostly run by people interested in luxury cruise ships. One of the barmen, Knut W Sundin has written several books with drink recipes, one published as early as 1920s. I just bought his bok from 1934 "Two hundred selected drinks". It is not a tropical drink fiesta but a solid work with some personal touches and original recipes. It ends with a list of comments on good years for vintage wine, vintage meaning from 1870 to late twenties. This list definately enhance the feeling of peeping into first class passenger drinking secrets. But is it tiki? Not yet no. But it's a spot to look for swedish bar-related exotica, a rare beast I'm afraid.