Cheapest/Easiest Tiki Drink for a Large Party - Tiki Drinks and Food

A AceExplorer Grand Member (8 years) Deep in the Jacksonville Flori-duh jungle. Joined: Apr 03, 2008 Posts: 2566	A AceExplorer Posted posted on Thu, Oct 24, 2013 9:01 AM I'm tossing in a suggestion based on some testing done last night at my home bar with a friend. He is also looking for something inexpensive and tasty to serve for a large group coming to his home in the next few weeks. The "Fink Bomb" from Frankie's Tiki Room is relatively simple and flavorful. It is made with pineapple juice, Midori melon liqueur, coconut rum, and a gold rum float over ice. We took a road trip and found three versions of melon liqueur at Total Wine -- Midori $20, DeKuyper $12, and another low-end brand for $7. We decided to test with my Midori and also bought a bottle of the $7 liqueur. We made two cocktails and for both we used Cruzan coconut rum (very reasonable at around $13/bottle) along with Diplomatico gold rum for the float and swapped out only the melon liqueur. Our conclusions were: The low-end melon rum was sweeter and not as rich and thick as Midori, but we thought it would work well for non-experienced drinkers. The Cruzan coconut offered a good combination of flavor and low price and worked very well. The Diplomatico could be replaced by another less-expensive gold rum, but we didn't have the guts to go too cheap all the way around. The pineapple juice came from a Dole can and held up well. There is NO SHAKING and NO GARNISH involved in making the drink. Add ice, then all the liquid ingredients. It tends to "layer" and looks attractive on its own. So this was very low-effort cocktail with a pleasant pineapple/coconut/melon blend. Better ingredients yield better taste and texture, but this is definitely EASY. And it's relatively INEXPENSIVE if you buy lower-end melon liqueur and low-end gold rum. The recipe is in the book "Liquid Vacation" from Frankie's Tiki Room.

I'm tossing in a suggestion based on some testing done last night at my home bar with a friend. He is also looking for something inexpensive and tasty to serve for a large group coming to his home in the next few weeks.

The "Fink Bomb" from Frankie's Tiki Room is relatively simple and flavorful. It is made with pineapple juice, Midori melon liqueur, coconut rum, and a gold rum float over ice. We took a road trip and found three versions of melon liqueur at Total Wine -- Midori $20, DeKuyper $12, and another low-end brand for $7. We decided to test with my Midori and also bought a bottle of the $7 liqueur. We made two cocktails and for both we used Cruzan coconut rum (very reasonable at around $13/bottle) along with Diplomatico gold rum for the float and swapped out only the melon liqueur.

Our conclusions were:

The low-end melon rum was sweeter and not as rich and thick as Midori, but we thought it would work well for non-experienced drinkers. The Cruzan coconut offered a good combination of flavor and low price and worked very well. The Diplomatico could be replaced by another less-expensive gold rum, but we didn't have the guts to go too cheap all the way around. The pineapple juice came from a Dole can and held up well.
There is NO SHAKING and NO GARNISH involved in making the drink. Add ice, then all the liquid ingredients. It tends to "layer" and looks attractive on its own. So this was very low-effort cocktail with a pleasant pineapple/coconut/melon blend.

Better ingredients yield better taste and texture, but this is definitely EASY. And it's relatively INEXPENSIVE if you buy lower-end melon liqueur and low-end gold rum.

The recipe is in the book "Liquid Vacation" from Frankie's Tiki Room.

Post #697359 by AceExplorer on Thu, Oct 24, 2013 9:01 AM