Post #790775 by Jürka on Sun, Oct 28, 2018 3:10 PM

I've been through the Spain visiting: Hula Hula and Maui Bar in Lloret de Mar; Kahiki, Aloha and Kahala bars in Barcelona; Hawaika in Valencia; Aloha in Alicante; Mauna Loa, Hawai Waipahu Paradise and Tiki Chateau in Madrid; also Bora-Bora in Lisbon, Portugal.

Both bars in Lloret de Mar I cannot classify as tiki bars. Hula Hula was old time place with good tiki decor (common in Spain), Maui Bar was modern one, but none of them had anything more than decor. Cocktails were all awful, very simple, propably didn't content more than two ingredients, disrespectfully they used names of classic tiki cocktails (Maui Bar had Zombie as tequila-cocktail for example). Music was awful in both of them. Both places were only meant for party kids of rich german parents. For me these are not tiki bars.

Kahiki, Aloha, Kahala, Hawaika, Mauna Loa and Bora-Bora... ain't much tiki bars also. Cocktails (disrespectfully occasionally using names of classic tiki drinks) are total crap, the worst one I got from Bora-Bora, pure blackberry syrup was given me as Dr. Funk poured directly from plastic container. Barmen do not know nor do not want to know nothing of real tiki cocktails nor real tiki culture. Music is crap, in every one of them! All they have is good tiki decor and porcelain spanish-style tiki mugs (mostly Pavon and Arte 4, in Bora-Bora there was also Vicente Munoz mugs, mostly without sign of manufacturer on the bottom, that were came from previous Bora-Bora located in Madrid) from the past.

Hawai Waipahu Paradise is latino bar located in latino area of the city, cocktails are same fruity crap as in most of Spanish tiki-kinda-bars, it's a place for beer. Hawai Waipahu Paradise strongly reminded me those local bars from Ecuador to Guatemala, where, you know, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am... They should just remove all that tiki-stuff and be only a pure latino-bar and in this case it would be even outstanding latino bar (being outside of Latin America), but now as a tiki bar - crap.

But real tiki culture in Spain still exists... thanks to following two places:
Aloha bar in the center of Alicante... The place is made and run by young tiki enthusiast who's mixing more-or-less authentic real tiki cocktails and having his own tiki drink named Mistery Drink which I'd say was really maybe the best tiki cocktail that I've ever had, perfectly balanced and rich of taste. The place is shy by decors and music ain't much tiki, easy carribean style instead, but has deep tiki soul.
Tiki Chateau in the dive bar area of Madrid... This is a "must go" tiki spot for all tiki-people. Place is done and run by true tiki enthusiast, who is experienced on tiki mixology and tiki culture as a whole, real nice guy, very interesting to talk with. Drinks are authentic, music is soft '60s rockabilly including lot of movie-era Elvis tracks. Music selection is due to local customers for whom the exotica melodies just doesn't work. Anyway... a real great place.

So... There ain't much tiki in Spain (if we are not talking about history, but present!), only few lonely rangers swimming upstream.