Post #787788 by AceExplorer on Mon, Jun 18, 2018 2:03 PM

On 2018-06-18 13:28, Cammo wrote:
What really ticks me off is when people think Tiki is ALL about the drinks, what's in the drinks and nothing but the drinks.

Screw the drinks; anybody - ANYBODY - can copy a classic recipe. Big deal.

I see your points - tiki is definitely more than just drinks. But from the standpoint of people today making progress, and giving the concept of "tiki" more exposure, I'll begrudgingly take tiki drinks in non-tiki establishments. Let me explain that a bit. In the past three years I have personally seen one of the top 100 bars in the US do a "Tiki Tuesdays" program in their industrial and definitely non-tiki bar. Afterwards, from that bar came more than just rock star bartenders, but also several new rum brand ambassadors. And several of those were significant contributors to the past 3 or 4 Hukilaus in Fort Lauderdale. My point is that we all love tiki, but there comes a point where we can honestly point to today's incarnations and say it is dynamic, living, breathing, organic, and growing around the edges. Is it bad? To some it is. Is it good? It's better than where tiki was 40 years ago. I think we will always see a "core" of traditional tiki along with the "edges" of innovation and experimentation. I try not to be a harsh stuck-in-a-rut critic because I know some of these folks and the things they struggle with to keep their doors open.