Post #787771 by Swanky on Mon, Jun 18, 2018 8:20 AM

The "DIY Tiki Era" is dead.

I have struggled with the changes just as many others have. My current thought is that the change happened when we on TC stopped being the experts. In some ways, many of us still are, but as the number and quality of people who are employed as full time Tiki mixologists and suppliers has risen, the days when us DIY Tiki people were the experts have come to an end.

There are idiots out there making falernum with lime juice in it because some other guy posted it to his blog a long time ago and since it's online from a long time ago, they think it's gold. It ain't!

There was a time when, if you wanted to make falernum or allspice dram, the TC forums were THE source. If you want any sort of Tiki mixology question answered, you started here and maybe read a few links. But the people here had been in the trenches for a decode or two and knew more than anyone about the subject.

Now there are many many people not doing this in their spare time, but daily for a living.

And that has sucked the life out of it for a lot of us.

It has also allowed it to start veering way off course. Newbies are crossing the globe carrying the Tiki flag and they are not even making Tiki cocktails. They make shit wrong. Or they simply are falling into the typical ego driven bartender world which is style over substance.

The drinks were mixed in the back of the house for a reason. It was about the drinks, not the bartender.

We have summoned this demon of new Tiki and it is out of our control. Idiots are now the reigning "experts" and they'll undo 20 years of our work in short order.

Beware of any Tiki bartender who can't make a classic Mai Tai, Navy Grog, Zombie, and Jet Pilot that rocks. Once they only make "their versions" you are in bartender ego-world. Cult of personality.