Post #583752 by Michelle66 on Thu, Apr 7, 2011 5:22 AM

Ever since I had my first experience at Trader Vic's in Bangkok on Christmas Day, I've been really getting into the whole tiki thing...!

Trader Vic's in Tokyo has become a weekly Friday-night destination (the big earthquake put the kibosh on my planned visit for 3/11 though). Two weeks ago, I ventured into Tiki-Tiki in Shinjuku. (More of a "theme-park" flavor than Trader Vic's, but they have a nice-looking tiki mug available for purchase (picture below).)

Last weekend, I decided to see if I could make my own Mai Tai, which was kind of hard as I had none of the ingredients, nor proper glassware, nor any sort of bar tools at all.

So, I spent the better part of the weekend online, trying to locate the best recipe, ingredients, and hardware.

This week, the things I ordered started to arrive:

1 700ml bottle of Appleton Estate 12 year old rum
1 700ml bottle of Clement VSOP Rhum Agricole
1 700ml bottle of Marie Brizard Curacao Orange (Clement Creole Shrubb seems to be what people are using in the USA now, but it doesn't look to be available in Japan.)
1 700ml bottle of Monin orgeat (Pretty much only brand of orgeat available in this country.)

With all of the main ingredients on hand, I got a couple of limes amd set out to make a cocktail for first time! (Living in Japan made me a beer drinker. My very first cocktail ever was the "Trader Vic's Own Punch" last Christmas..!)

Unfortunately, the cocktail shaker I had bought online ended up being really small, and not much use. Instead, I used a scrubbed-out coffee can. (It worked amazingly well! It held all the crushed ice easliy, and really mixed things up effectively.)

The result was better than I had thought it would be! It was sans the mint sprig garnish, but the lime shell did look nice floating in the glass. My friend Hiromi said she thought it was as good (or better) than the ones we got at Trader Vic's.

Anyway, the drink menu at Trader Vic's is much more thorough than mine (only 1 item on it), so I'll still be making my weekly excursion there. (I just pop-in for one or two drinks on my way home from work.) (The manager was kind enough to give me a cocktail menu, so part of my fun during the week is to figure out which drink I want to sample next.)

So, if you're at Tokyo's TV's, and happen to see a rather tall white woman working on a Scorpion, Menehune Juice, Zombie, or Tiki Puka Puka, stop by and say hi!

(The picture below is the mug you can buy at Tiki-Tiki. (It comes in the box, and they even give you a snazzy-looking bag to carry it home in!)